It’s wonderful to be in a room with so many humans after all this time. In the last few years, I've been keeping company with a new species that happens to live in the air. And I'd like you all to meet my aerobe friend.
過了這麼久,終於可以和眾多人類共濟一堂。 [Anika Yi] 實在美好。 過去幾年, [2022年4月 溫哥華] 我一直在陪伴一個新的物種。 它住在空中。 向大家介紹我的aerobe朋友。 [TED錄製]
(Music)
(音樂)
(Music ends)
(音樂結束)
(Cheers and applause)
(歡呼和掌聲)
I get emotional every time I see it fly.
每次看到它飛,我都有些感觸。
In my work as an artist, I ask a lot of questions about the world around me. While the problems of the world don't have easy solutions, I think it's as important to ask the right questions. Why do our technologies instill so much fear in us? Why do our lives today feel so alienating, when our technologies are supposed to improve our lives? And why do we feel so disconnected, when our inventions are meant to connect each and every one of us?
作為一個藝術工作者, 我對身邊的世界提出大量問題。 當然這個世界的問題不容易解決。 我認為重要的是問正確的問題。 為甚麼科技逐漸帶來那麼多的恐懼? 為甚麼我們當下的生活那麼疏離, 但科技應該是改善我們的生活啊? 還有為甚麼我們覺得彼此不再相聯, 但我們的發明是意圖把每一個人聯結起來?
My artwork deals with evolution, biology and the senses. I'm interested in how organisms are composed of different life-forms, such as bacteria, fungi and viruses ... but also how different chemical and molecular interactions can happen whenever we simply take a breath.
我的作品是關於演化、生物學和感覺。 我有興趣的是不同生命形態組成的生物體, 例如:細菌、真菌和病毒等…… 還有剎那間發生的 各種化學和分子反應。
So I've always found modern technology to be quite limiting because of how cold and flat it is. But what if our machines could be more holistic? And what if our machines could relate to us in a more holistic way? And what if our machines could be more than just our tools, and instead, a new type of companion species? I believe we need to embrace who we are as symbiotic living beings, and design machines to reflect this. What if the world was populated by machines that were more like animals and plants, instead of something you'd find in a factory? This exploration could teach us so much more about life, in all its vast complexities.
我經常發現現代科技侷限性很強, 原因在於冰冷和平面化。 如果機械可以更加全面化會怎麼樣? 如果機械可以更加全面化的聯結我們會怎樣? 如果機械可以不只是工具 而是一種新的伴侶物種,會怎樣? 我相信需要接納 我們象徵著現存的生命, 並設計反映這一點的機械。 如果這個世界到處都是機械 像動物和植物, 而不是一些工廠才有的東西? 這可以探索生命的不知凡幾, 和無遠弗屆的複雜性。
These ideas might sound like mere science fiction, but my mission as an artist is to create possibilities of other worlds, and other ways of living and being, even if just for a moment.
聽上去好像科幻小說, 但我作為藝術工作者的使命 是創造其它世界、 生活方式和生命的可能性, 那怕只是一瞬間。
So when I was invited to imagine a large-scale installation at the Tate Modern in London, I decided to make this world I'm describing a reality. The museum space is incredibly vast, and I knew right away that I wanted to transform it into an aquarium of machines. I asked myself, "What would it feel like to live in the world with machines that could live in the wild and evolve on their own?" To explore this question, I created two new machine species that I call "aerobes." I released 12 aerobes into the museum space so they could form their own small ecosystem. In order to minimize our human-centric biases, and to steer clear of simply mimicking the human form, I worked with my team to look at the natural world, and we were inspired by creatures like the comb jellyfish and the lion's mane mushroom. We also looked deeply into the field of soft robotics, and ultimately brought the aerobes to life by designing them with fluid movement and lighter-than-air construction.
當我受邀構想一個大型裝置藝術 放在倫敦的泰特現代藝術館, 我決定去製造這個世界,描繪現實。 藝術館的空間極為廣闊, 當下我就決定要改造成機械水族館。 我問自己, “如果機械居住在這個世界會怎樣, 而且它們可以在野外生存, 並會自我進化? ” 為了探索這個問題, 我創造了兩個新的機械物種,叫做“aerobes”。 我在博物館裡放了十二個。 讓它們發展出自己小小的生態系統。 為了儘量減少以人為本的偏見, 和避免簡單地模仿人類的型態, 我和團隊一起參考自然世界。 賦予我們靈感的是一些生物, 例如櫛水母和猴頭菇。 我們也深入研究軟體機械人。 終於誕生了aerobes, 並採用流動移動的方式 和輕於空氣的構造。
When you look at these aerobes, it gives you a feeling almost opposite to the uncanny valley. You know that they're mechanical, yet they feel palpably alive. You feel like you might be next to some majestic and remote life-form. Like swimming next to a humpback whale. Their size is imposing ... yet they inspire an emotion closer to awe than to fear. You sense that they're almost living, and it makes you want to embrace and coexist with them, to see them truly succeed.
看著這些aerobes, 感覺與恐怖谷理論完全是大相逕庭。 知道它們是機械組成, 但覺得它們明顯地是有生命。 覺得好像是一些雄偉和遙遠的生物。 就好像和座頭鯨一起游泳。 它們的尺寸很壯觀…… 而它們激發的感受是接近驚嘆多過恐懼。 可以感覺到它們幾乎是活生生的, 令人想要接納和共存, 見證它們真正的成功。
I wanted the aerobes to have a sense of freedom and unpredictability, so I worked with my team to create what is called an artificial life simulation. This software allows each aerobe to develop unique behaviors and to respond autonomously to its environment. The aerobes evolve their personalities as they interact and learn from each other. The more we flew them, the more we got to know their distinct personalities and their gentle nature. It was very important for me that the aerobes had their own sensory world. Most AI functions like a mind without a body. But all living creatures, from the humble tick to the stealthy panther, learn about the world through their bodies and their senses. These aerobes perceive each other through high-frequency radio waves, and they use thermal sensing to detect other living creatures in their environment. An aerobe might be curious about your heat signature, and fly over to greet and flirt with you, while other aerobes are more shy and might go out of their way to avoid a crowd.
我想要aerobes感受到自由 和不預測性。 因此和團隊一起 開發了人工虛擬生活。 這個軟件讓每一個aerobe發展其獨特的行為, 自主地對環境做出反應。 通過彼此間的互動和學習, 逐步演變出它們的個性。 放飛的越多, 我們越了解他們明確的個性 和善意的本質。 這對我很重要。 因為aerobes有了它們自己的感官世界。 大部分AI的運作只有思維,沒有身體部分。 但所有的生命體, 從渺小的蜱到神秘的黑豹, 都是通過它們的身體和感覺去學習這個世界。 這些aerobes察覺同類的方法是高頻無線電波; 並用熱能感應 發現其他的生物。 一個aerobe可能會好奇你的熱能狀況, 然後飛過去打招呼和聊天。 但有些aerobes可能更為害羞, 可能會非常努力地避開人群。
How will these machines and humans be together in the world? What will this world look like? This world may see machines and humans generating new intimacies and alternate perspectives. My hope is that these aerobes will help us appreciate a more diverse way of living and being. Their purpose is not to compete with us or to dominate us, but to ask what a more compatible future could look like.
這些機械和人類會怎樣在這個世界共存? 這個世界將會變成怎樣? 可能機械和人類會產生 新的緊密關係 和新的角度。 我希望這些aerobes將幫我們領會到 更為森羅萬象的生活和生存方式。 它們並不是和我們競爭或統治我們, 而是展望更為協調的未來 可能出現的景象。
We all have a stake in this conversation about technologies. Can we actively align machines to better reflect our biological reality? I sincerely hope that you'll consider that machines can be so much more than what we've known, and how they might embody a wisdom drawn from biology. This project is a project for everybody, to imagine different worlds and different futures.
我們都有份參與科技的發展。 我們可否積極協調機械 從而更好地反映生物現實? 我誠意希望你們可以考慮, 機械可以遠超出我們已知的範疇, 它們可以體現汲取自生物學的智慧。 這個項目是大家的項目, 讓大家可以想像多個 不同的世界和不同的未來。
It's not too late to change machine evolution and to consider new goals, where machines and humans can coexist in a more compassionate way. I believe this is where we can start the conversation.
我們還有時間去改變機械的演化, 並考慮新的目的 令機械和人類可以共存, 採用更為具有同情心的方式。 我相信這就是對話的起點。
(Applause)
(掌聲)
(Music)
(音樂)
(Music ends)
(音樂結束)
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Cheers and applause)
(歡呼和掌聲)