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閱讀《自私的基因》後，我對「迷因」概念的深刻體會
My Eye-Opening Realization About Memes After Reading The Selfish Gene
我最震撼的時刻之一，就是讀到 理查・道金斯（Richard Dawkins） 的著作《自私的基因（The Selfish Gene）》，並了解他所提出的「迷因（meme）」概念。
One of the most eye-opening moments for me was when I read Richard Dawkins' book The Selfish Gene and learned about his concept of memes.
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當道金斯首次提出「迷因（memes）」這個詞時，他的原意是相當廣泛的。這個詞後來流行起來，如今已收錄在詞典中，但大多數人對「迷因」的理解其實只是一小部分——他們以為迷因指的是那些經過精心設計、希望能在網路上**病毒式傳播（go viral）**的內容。
When Dawkins coined the term memes, he had in mind something very general. The term caught on and is in the dictionary now, but only a small subset of memes are what most people think of—those that people deliberately and intelligently design with the hope that they'll go viral.
而其中確實有一些成功了。
And some of them do.
但實際上，許多迷因能夠病毒式傳播（go viral），卻與網際網路完全無關。
But lots of memes go viral that don't involve the internet at all.
#ChatGPT
「語言本身就是迷因。」
Words are memes.
每一種語言中的每一個單詞都是迷因——它們不是**基因遺傳（genetically inherited）**的，而是透過文化來傳播的。這些詞彙會隨著時間演化。
Every word in every language is a meme—it's not genetically inherited; it's culturally transmitted. They evolve over time.
道金斯的理論是一個非常通用的理論，解釋了人類的文化演化如何大幅提升人類大腦的能力。
Dawkins' theory was a very general theory of how human cultural evolution hugely expands the powers of the human brain.
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事實上，我想強調這一點：黑猩猩（chimpanzee）的大腦與人類的大腦之間的關鍵差異在於，黑猩猩的大腦基本上是空白的（unfurnished），而我們的人腦則充滿了各種迷因。
In fact, I would put it very strongly: the difference between a chimpanzee and a human brain is that the brain of a chimpanzee is largely unfurnished, whereas we fill our brains with memes.
我們「下載」了成千上萬的迷因，這正是我們強大的根源。
We download hundreds of thousands of memes, and that's where we get our power from.
你的電腦（computer）或手機（phone），如果沒有下載應用程式（apps），本身並不是一個很強大的設備——這些應用程式就像是迷因。
Your computer or your phone isn't a very powerful device until you download some apps to it—those are like memes.
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但當今世界充斥著有害的迷因（toxic memes）。
We are awash in toxic memes right now.
其中，我認為最具破壞力的一個——因為它會催生許多其他有害迷因——就是「真相不重要（truth doesn't matter）」的觀念，也就是「真相只是相對的（truth is just relative）」，甚至「根本沒有任何可證實的真相（there's no such thing as establishing the truth of anything）」。
One of the most toxic, I think—because it enables so many others—is the idea that truth doesn't matter, that truth is just relative, that there's no such thing as establishing the truth of anything.
「你的真相、我的真相——每個人都可以擁有自己的真相。」
"Your truth, my truth—we're all entitled to our own truths."
這種想法極具危害性（pernicious），對許多人來說很有吸引力，卻常被用來**操控（exploit）人們，讓他們陷入各種邪惡（nefarious）**的利用手段。
That's pernicious. It's attractive to many people, and it is used to exploit people in all sorts of nefarious ways.
但真相確實很重要。
The truth really does matter.
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我認為自己最重要的概念之一是「意圖立場（intentional stance）」——也就是說，我們會自然而然地把任何**複雜（complicated）且有趣（interesting）的東西當作一個「智能體（agent）」**來對待。
I think one of my best ideas is the intentional stance—the idea that we automatically adopt the strategy of treating anything complicated and interesting, if we can, as an agent.
「它想要什麼？它知道什麼？它相信什麼？」
"What does it want? What does it know? What does it believe?"
我們一直在使用「意圖立場」，為那些會**移動（move）或行為複雜（behave in complicated ways）的事物賦予「信念（beliefs）」、「欲望（desires）」以及在這些信念與欲望之下採取理性行動（act rationally）**的能力。
We use the intentional stance all the time to endow things that move and behave in complicated ways with beliefs, desires, and the ability to act rationally given those beliefs and desires.
這在我們生活於實體世界（concrete world）時是可行的，但現在，人工智慧（AI）正在數位世界中創造大量的虛假意圖系統（fake intentional systems）——這些虛假心智（fake minds）、虛假人物（fake people），幾乎讓我們無法抗拒地把它們視為「真實存在」，彷彿它們真的擁有信念（beliefs）與欲望（desires）。
That’s fine when we're living in a world of concrete objects. But now, AI is filling the digital world with fake intentional systems—fake minds, fake people—that we are almost irresistibly drawn to treat as if they were real, as if they really had beliefs and desires.
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這些將會成為極其危險的迷因（dangerous memes），因為它們會複製（replicate）、進化（evolve），而我們將無法移開目光。
These will be very dangerous memes indeed because they will replicate, they will evolve, and we won’t be able to take our attention away from them.
它們會奪取我們的注意力（capture our attention）——並操縱我們（manipulate us）。
They will capture our attention—and manipulate us.
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