Puzzles and magic. I work in what most people think are two distinct fields, but I believe they are the same. I am both a magician and a New York Times crossword puzzle constructor, which basically means I've taken the world's two nerdiest hobbies and combined them into one career. And I believe that magic and puzzles are the same because they both key into one of the most important human drives: the urge to solve. Human beings are wired to solve, to make order out of chaos.
谜语, 和魔术, 我的工作就在这两个大部分人认为 明显不同的领域中, 但我相信它们是一样的。 我既是一个魔术师, 也是纽约时报的谜语创作人, 这基本上意味着我已经有了 世界上两个最书呆子的嗜好, 还把它们结合成一个职业。 我相信魔术和谜语是一样的, 因为这两者都是钥匙, 通往人类最重要的内驱力之一: 想要解决的渴望。 人类对于解决问题是很兴奋的, 喜欢从混乱中创造秩序。
It's certainly true for me. I've been solving my whole life. High school consisted of epic Scrabble matches in the cafeteria and not really talking to girls, and then at about that time I started learning magic tricks and definitely not talking to girls. There's nothing like starting a conversation with, "Hey, did you know that 'prestidigitation' is worth 20 points in Scrabble?" But back then, I noticed an intersection between puzzles and illusion. When you do the crossword puzzle or when you watch a magic show, you become a solver, and your goal is to try to find the order in the chaos, the chaos of, say, a black-and-white puzzle grid, a mixed-up bag of Scrabble tiles, or a shuffled pack of playing cards. And today, as a cruciverbalist — 23 points — and an illusion designer, I create that chaos. I test your ability to solve.
这对我是绝对成立的。 我的一生都在解谜。 高中时在自助餐厅玩庞杂的拼字游戏比赛, 没怎么和女孩们说话, 也就大约在那个时候, 我开始学习魔术招式, 完全没有和女孩们聊天。 没有什么对话会像这样开始的, “嘿,你知道‘变戏法’在拼字游戏里 值20分吗?“ 再说回来,我注意到谜语和错觉 之间有个交集。 当你解一个纵横字谜, 或者观看一场魔术表演, 你就成为解谜者了, 你的目标就是努力找到混乱中的秩序, 这些混乱,在黑白相间的谜语格子间, 在拼字游戏碎片的混合包中, 或者在一副洗好的扑克牌中。 今天,作为一个纵横字谜高手—— 23分—— 和一个错觉设计师,我创造了混乱。 我会测试你解谜的能力。
Now, it turns out research tells us that solving is as primal as eating and sleeping. From birth, we are wired to solve. In one UCLA study, newborns still in the hospital were shown patterns, patterns like this: circle, cross, circle, cross. And then the pattern was changed: triangle, square. And by tracking an infant's gaze, we know that newborns as young as a day old can notice and respond to disruptions in order. It's remarkable. So from infancy through old age, the urge to solve unites us all, and I even found this photo on Instagram of pop star Katy Perry solving a crossword puzzle with her morning coffee.
现在,研究结果告诉我们, 解决问题和吃饭睡觉一样重要。 从出生开始,我们就喜欢解决问题。 在加利福利亚大学的一个研究中,给还在医院的新生儿 看像这样的图案: 圆、叉、圆、叉。 然后图案变了:三角形、正方形。 在这过程中,通过追踪婴儿的目光, 我们发现才出生一天的新生儿 可以注意和回应秩序的破环。 这真是值得注意的。 所以从幼年到老年, 解决问题的渴望把我们大家团结在一起, 我甚至在Instagram上找到这张照片, 流行歌手凯蒂·派瑞正在解一道纵横字谜, 陪伴她的是早安咖啡。
Like. (Laughter)
赞。 (笑)
Now, solving exists across all cultures. The American invention is the crossword puzzle, and this year we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the crossword puzzle, first published in The New York World. But many other cultures have their signature puzzles as well. China gives us tangrams, which would test solvers' abilities to form shapes from the jumbled pieces. Chaos. Order. Order. And order. That one's my favorite, let's hear it again. Okay. And how about this puzzle invented in 18th-century England: the jigsaw puzzle. Is this not making order out of chaos?
解谜跨越了所有文化存在着。 美国人发明了纵横字谜, 今年正是我们庆祝 纵横字谜100周年的日子, 它最早发表于纽约世界报。 但许多其他的文明也有他们独特的谜语。 中国有七巧板, 它可以测试解题者 从打乱的碎片中拼出形状的能力。 混乱,秩序。 秩序, 秩序, 这是我特别喜欢的,让我们再听一次。 好的。 再来说说发明于 18世纪英国的谜语: 拼图。 这不也是从混乱中发现秩序吗?
So as you can see, we are always solving. We are always trying to decode our world. It's an eternal quest. It's just like the one Cervantes wrote about in "Don Quixote," which by the way is the root of the word "quixotry," the highest-scoring Scrabble word of all time, 365 points. But anyway, "Don Quixote" is an important book. You guys have read "Don Quixote," yes? I'm seeing some heads nod. Come on guys, really? Who's read "Don Quixote?" Let's do this. Raise your hands if you've read "Don Quixote." There we go. Smart audience. Who's read "Don Quixote?" Get them up.
如你所见, 我们总是在解谜。 我们总在试图破译我们的世界。 这是永恒的追求。 这就像塞万提斯写下 "堂吉诃德"这个词, 刚好是"不切实际的思想或性格"这个词的词根, 这个词也总是拼字游戏中分值最高的词, 365分。 但不管怎样,《堂吉诃德》是一本重要的书。 你们都读过《堂吉诃德》,对吧? 我看到有人点头了。 来吧,伙计们, 谁读过《堂吉诃德》的?如果读过,请举起手。 这就对了。聪明的观众。 谁读过《堂吉诃德》?请举手。
Okay, good, because I need somebody smart here because now I'm going to demonstrate with the help of one of you just how deeply rooted your urge to solve is, just how wired to solve all of you really are, so I'm going to come into the audience and find somebody to help me. Let's see. Everybody's looking away all of a sudden. Can I? Would you? What is your name? Gwen. I'm not a mind reader, I can see your name tag. Come with me, Gwen. Everyone give her a round of applause, make her feel welcome. Gwen, after you. (Applause)
好的,很好,因为我需要一些聪明人, 我需要你们其中一个 来帮助我演示,看看 对解谜的渴望在你心里扎根多深, 看看你们实际上对解谜都多么兴奋。 现在我要走到观众中, 找一个人来帮我。 让我们看看。 每个人都突然把脸转开了。 我可以吗?你愿意吗?你的名字是?格温。 我不是一个读心者,我只是能看见你的姓名牌。 跟我来,格温。每个人都为她鼓掌吧,让她觉得受欢迎。 格温,你先请。 (鼓掌)
Are you so excited? Did you know that your name is worth eight points in Scrabble? Okay, stand right here, Gwen, right here.
你激动吗? 你知道你的名字在拼字游戏里 值8分吗? 好的,站在这儿,格温,就是这里。
Now, Gwen, before we begin, I'd like to point out a piece of the puzzle, which is here in this envelope, and I will not go near it. Okay? And over here we have a drawing of some farm animals. You can see we have an owl, we have a horse, a donkey, a rooster, an ox, and a sheep, and then here, Gwen, we have some fancy art store markers, colors like, can you see that word right there? Gwen: Cobalt. David Kwong: Cobalt, yes. Cobalt. But we have a silver, a red, an emerald, and an amber marker, and Gwen, you are going to color this drawing just like you were five years old, one marker at a time. It's going to be a lot of fun. But I'm going to go over here. I don't want to see what you're doing. Okay, so don't start yet. Wait for me to get over here and close my eyes. Now Gwen, are you ready?
现在,格温,在我们开始之前, 我想先亮出其中一片谜语, 就在这个信封里。 而我不会靠近它。好吗? 在这里,有一些农场动物的画, 你可以看到有一只猫头鹰,一只马, 一只驴,一只公鸡,一只牛,和一只羊, 然后,格温,我们有 一些花俏的的艺术专用马克笔, 像这样的彩色,你可以看见这里的字吗? 格温:深蓝色。邝大卫:深蓝色,是的。深蓝色。 我们有一支银色的、一支红色的、一支翠绿色的、 和一支琥珀色的马克笔, 格温,你要给这些画上色, 就像你五岁时做的那样, 一次用一只马克笔。 这会很好玩。 但我会经过这里。 我不想看到你正在做的事。 好的,所以现在还不要开始, 等我走过这里,闭上我的眼睛。 格温,现在你准备好了吗?
Pick up just one marker, pick up just one marker, and why don't you color in the horse for me? Color in the horse — big, big, big scribbles, broad strokes, don't worry about staying in the lines. All right. Great. And why don't you take that marker and recap it and place it on the table for me. Okay, and pick up another marker out of the cup and take off the cap and color in the donkey for me, color in the donkey. Big scribbles. Okay, cool, and re-cap that marker and place it on the table. And pick up another marker for me and take off the cap. Isn't this fun? And color in the owl for me. Color in the owl. Okay, and recap that marker and pick up another marker out of the cup and color in the rooster for me, color in the rooster. Good, good, good, good, good. Big, big, big strokes. Good, good. Pick up another marker out of the cup and color in the ox for me. Color in the ox. Okay, good. A lot of color on that, and recap, and place it on the table, and pick up another marker out of the cup. Oh, I'm out? Okay, I'm going to turn around. Did I forget? Oh, I forgot my purple marker. This is still going to work, though. I think this is still going to work, mostly.
只能拿起一支马克笔,只能拿起一支马克笔, 你能不能帮我给那只马上色呢? 给这只马上色——大笔大笔地涂, 粗粗的笔画,不要担心是不是在框内。 好的,很棒。 你可以给这支笔盖上笔帽, 帮我把它放在桌子上。 好的,从杯子里拿另一支马克笔, 拔下笔帽, 帮我给这只驴上色,给这只驴上色。 大笔地涂, 好的,很酷,盖上这支笔, 然后把它放在桌子上。 请拿起另一只马克笔, 把笔帽拔下。这有趣吗? 再帮我给这只猫头鹰上色。 给这只猫头鹰上色。 好的,再用这支笔上色一次, 拿起杯子里的另一支马克笔, 给这只公鸡上色,给这只公鸡上色。 好, 好,好,很好,很好。 大笔大笔地画,很好,很好。 再从杯子里拿另一只笔, 帮我给这只牛上色,给牛上色。 好的,很好。 上面有各种颜色了,盖上笔帽,放到桌子上。 再从杯子里拿另一支马克笔。 哦,我可以出现了吗?好的,我要再转回来。 我忘了什么吗?哦,我忘了我的紫色马克笔。 但这还是一样可以玩下去, 我想它肯定还是可以玩下去的。
So Gwen, I'm going to hand you this envelope. Don't open it yet. Do not open it yet, but I am going to write down your choices so that everybody can see the choices that you made. Okay, great. So we have a cobalt horse, amber owl, a silver ox, yes, okay, a red donkey, and what was the emerald color? A rooster. An emerald rooster. Okay.
格温,我要把这个信封递给你。 先不要打开,还不能打开。 我要先写下你的选择, 这样每个人都能看见 你做的选择。 好的,很好。现在我们有一只深蓝色的马, 琥珀色的猫头鹰, 银色的牛, 是的,好,一只红色的驴, 翠绿色的是什么?一只公鸡。 一只翠绿色的公鸡,好的。
Now for the moment of truth, Gwen, we're going to take a look in that envelope. Why don't you open it up and remove the one piece of paper from inside and hand it to me, and we will see if it matches your choices. Yes, I think it does. We have a cobalt horse, we have a red donkey, we have an amber owl, we have an emerald rooster, a silver ox, I forgot my purple marker so we have a blank sheep, but that's a pretty amazing coincidence, don't you think? Gwen, well done. That's beautiful. (Applause) I'll take that back from you.
现在是真相大白的时刻,格温, 我们要看看信封里是什么。 你要不要打开它, 从里面拿出一张纸, 把它递给我, 我们会看到它是不是和你的选择一样。 是的,我想它是。 我们有一只深蓝色的马,一只红色的驴, 我们有一只琥珀色的猫头鹰,一只翠绿色的公鸡,一只银色的牛, 我忘了紫色马克笔,所以我们有一只空白的羊, 但这实在是让人惊奇的巧合,你不觉得吗? 格温,干得好,做得漂亮。(鼓掌) 我会从你这里拿回来。
So ladies and gentlemen, how is this possible? How is this possible? Well, could it be that Gwen's brain is so wired to solve that she decoded hidden messages? Well this is the puzzle I present to you. Could there be order in the chaos that I created? Let's take a closer look. Do you recall when I showed you these puzzle pieces? What image did it ultimately become? A cobalt horse. The plot thickens. And then we played a game of tangrams with an emerald rooster. That one's my favorite. And then we had an experiment with a silver ox. And Katy Perry drinks her morning coffee out of an amber owl. Thank you, Katy, for taking that photo for me. Oh, and there's one more, there's one more. I believe you colored a red donkey, Gwen. Ladies and gentlemen, could you raise your hands for me if you've read "Don Quixote?" Who's read "Don Quixote?" (Laughter) But wait, but wait, wait, wait, wait, there's more. There's more. Gwen, I was so confident that you were going to make these choices that I made another prediction, and I put it in an even more indelible place, and it's right here. Ladies and gentlemen, we have today's New York Times. The date is March 18th, 2014. Many of you in the first couple of rows have it underneath your seats as well. Really dig. We hid them under there. See if you can fish out the newspaper and open up to the arts section and you will find the crossword puzzle, and the crossword puzzle today was written by yours truly. You can see my name above the grid. I'm going to give this to you, Gwen, to take a look. And I will also put it up on the screen. Now let's take a look at another piece of the puzzle. If you look at the first clue for 1-across, it starts with the letter C, for corrupt, and just below that we have an O, for outfielder, and if you keep reading the first letters of the clues down, you get cobalt horse, amber owl, silver ox, red donkey, and emerald rooster. (Applause) That's pretty cool, right? It's The New York Times. But wait, wait, wait, wait. Wait. Oh, Gwen, do you recall how I forgot my purple marker, and you were unable to color the sheep? Well, if you keep reading starting with 25-down, it says, "Oh, by the way, the sheep can be left blank." (Laughter) (Applause) But wait, wait, wait, there's one more thing, there's one more thing, there's one final piece of the puzzle. Gwen, I am so grateful for your choices because if we take a look at the first letters of your combinations, we get "C-H-A-O-S" for chaos and "O-R-D-E-R" for order. That's chaos and order. We've all made order out of chaos.
现在,女士们先生们,这怎么可能呢? 这怎么可能?嗯,会不会是因为 格温的大脑太渴望去解谜, 所以她破译了隐藏的信息? 好吧,这是我送给大家的谜语。 在我创造的这些混乱里, 是不是存在一个秩序呢? 让我们靠近点看看。 你还记得当我向你们展示拼图碎片的时候吗? 它最后形成了什么图案?一只深蓝色的马。 这张图颜色加深了。 接着我们玩了一个七巧板游戏, 是一只翠绿色的公鸡。 这是我很喜欢的。 然后我们用银色的牛做了个实验, 接着凯蒂·派瑞在琥珀色的猫头鹰杯里 喝她的早安咖啡。 谢谢凯蒂,把这张照片发给我。 哦,还有一个,还有一个。 格温,我记得你画了一只红色的驴。 女士们先生们,如果你读过《堂吉诃德》, 能为我举起你的手吗? 谁读过《堂吉诃德》?(大笑) 但是,等一下,等一下,等一下,还有呢, 还有呢, 格温,我这么自信 你会做出这些选择, 所以我还做了一个预言, 我把它放在一个更不可消除的地方, 就在这里。 女士们先生们, 这是今天的纽约时报, 日期是2014年3月18日, 坐在前面几排的观众, 你们座位下面也有。 需要掏一下,我们把它藏在下面了。 如果你可以掏出报纸, 就打开艺术板块看看, 你会发现一个纵横字谜, 今天的纵横字谜 是由我写的, 你可以在格子上看到我的名字。 我要把这个给你看看,格温, 我也会在屏幕上投出来。 现在让我们看看 另一块谜语, 如果你看到第一横的线索, 它是由字母C开始的,对应“corrupt”, 就在这下面是一个O,对应“outfielder”, 如果你继续把这些线索的第一个字母读下来, 你会得到cobalt horse(深蓝色的马), amber owl(琥珀色的猫头鹰),silver ox(银色的牛), red donkey(红色的驴),和emerald rooster(翠绿色的公鸡)。 (鼓掌) 这实在很酷,对吧? 这是纽约时报。 但是等等等等, 哦,格温, 你还记得我忘了我的紫色马克笔吗? 所以你没办法给羊上色。 好的,如果你继续 从25行往下开始读, 它说, “哦,顺便说一下, 羊可以留白。” (大笑)(鼓掌) 但等等等等,还有一件事, 还有一件事, 还有最后一片谜语。 格温,我非常感谢你的选择, 如果我们把这些词的 首字母组合起来看看, 我们得到“C-H-A-O-S”,对应“混乱”, 和“O-R-D-E-R”,对应“秩序”。 就是混乱和秩序。 我们都在混乱中创造秩序。
So ladies and gentlemen, the next time you find yourself with a puzzle, whether it's in your life or in your work, or maybe it's at the Sunday morning breakfast table with The New York Times, remember, you are all wired to solve.
所以,女士们先生们,下次 当你发现自己陷入一个谜题, 不管是在你的生活中,还是在工作中, 或者可能是一个周日的早晨, 在早餐桌上看着纽约时报, 记住,你的内心非常渴望解谜。
Thank you.
谢谢。
(Applause)
(鼓掌)