Clouds. Have you ever noticed how much people moan about them? They get a bad rap. If you think about it, the English language has written into it negative associations towards the clouds. Someone who's down or depressed, they're under a cloud. And when there's bad news in store, there's a cloud on the horizon. I saw an article the other day. It was about problems with computer processing over the Internet. "A cloud over the cloud," was the headline. It seems like they're everyone's default doom-and-gloom metaphor. But I think they're beautiful, don't you? It's just that their beauty is missed because they're so omnipresent, so, I don't know, commonplace, that people don't notice them. They don't notice the beauty, but they don't even notice the clouds unless they get in the way of the sun. And so people think of clouds as things that get in the way. They think of them as the annoying, frustrating obstructions, and then they rush off and do some blue-sky thinking. (Laughter) But most people, when you stop to ask them, will admit to harboring a strange sort of fondness for clouds. It's like a nostalgic fondness, and they make them think of their youth. Who here can't remember thinking, well, looking and finding shapes in the clouds when they were kids? You know, when you were masters of daydreaming? Aristophanes, the ancient Greek playwright, he described the clouds as the patron godesses of idle fellows two and a half thousand years ago, and you can see what he means. It's just that these days, us adults seem reluctant to allow ourselves the indulgence of just allowing our imaginations to drift along in the breeze, and I think that's a pity. I think we should perhaps do a bit more of it. I think we should be a bit more willing, perhaps, to look at the beautiful sight of the sunlight bursting out from behind the clouds and go, "Wait a minute, that's two cats dancing the salsa!" (Laughter) (Applause) Or seeing the big, white, puffy one up there over the shopping center looks like the Abominable Snowman going to rob a bank. (Laughter) They're like nature's version of those inkblot images, you know, that shrinks used to show their patients in the '60s, and I think if you consider the shapes you see in the clouds, you'll save money on psychoanalysis bills. Let's say you're in love. All right? And you look up and what do you see? Right? Or maybe the opposite. You've just been dumped by your partner, and everywhere you look, it's kissing couples. (Laughter) Perhaps you're having a moment of existential angst. You know, you're thinking about your own mortality. And there, on the horizon, it's the Grim Reaper. (Laughter) Or maybe you see a topless sunbather. (Laughter) What would that mean? What would that mean? I have no idea. But one thing I do know is this: The bad press that clouds get is totally unfair. I think we should stand up for them, which is why, a few years ago, I started the Cloud Appreciation Society. Tens of thousands of members now in almost 100 countries around the world. And all these photographs that I'm showing, they were sent in by members. And the society exists to remind people of this: Clouds are not something to moan about. Far from it. They are, in fact, the most diverse, evocative, poetic aspect of nature. I think, if you live with your head in the clouds every now and then, it helps you keep your feet on the ground. And I want to show you why, with the help of some of my favorite types of clouds. Let's start with this one. It's the cirrus cloud, named after the Latin for a lock of hair. It's composed entirely of ice crystals cascading from the upper reaches of the troposphere, and as these ice crystals fall, they pass through different layers with different winds and they speed up and slow down, giving the cloud these brush-stroked appearances, these brush-stroke forms known as fall streaks. And these winds up there can be very, very fierce. They can be 200 miles an hour, 300 miles an hour. These clouds are bombing along, but from all the way down here, they appear to be moving gracefully, slowly, like most clouds. And so to tune into the clouds is to slow down, to calm down. It's like a bit of everyday meditation. Those are common clouds. What about rarer ones, like the lenticularis, the UFO-shaped lenticularis cloud? These clouds form in the region of mountains. When the wind passes, rises to pass over the mountain, it can take on a wave-like path in the lee of the peak, with these clouds hovering at the crest of these invisible standing waves of air, these flying saucer-like forms, and some of the early black-and-white UFO photos are in fact lenticularis clouds. It's true. A little rarer are the fallstreak holes. All right? This is when a layer is made up of very, very cold water droplets, and in one region they start to freeze, and this freezing sets off a chain reaction which spreads outwards with the ice crystals cascading and falling down below, giving the appearance of jellyfish tendrils down below. Rarer still, the Kelvin–Helmholtz cloud. Not a very snappy name. Needs a rebrand. This looks like a series of breaking waves, and it's caused by shearing winds -- the wind above the cloud layer and below the cloud layer differ significantly, and in the middle, in between, you get this undulating of the air, and if the difference in those speeds is just right, the tops of the undulations curl over in these beautiful breaking wave-like vortices. All right. Those are rarer clouds than the cirrus, but they're not that rare. If you look up, and you pay attention to the sky, you'll see them sooner or later, maybe not quite as dramatic as these, but you'll see them. And you'll see them around where you live. Clouds are the most egalitarian of nature's displays, because we all have a good, fantastic view of the sky. And these clouds, these rarer clouds, remind us that the exotic can be found in the everyday. Nothing is more nourishing, more stimulating to an active, inquiring mind than being surprised, being amazed. It's why we're all here at TED, right? But you don't need to rush off away from the familiar, across the world to be surprised. You just need to step outside, pay attention to what's so commonplace, so everyday, so mundane that everybody else misses it. One cloud that people rarely miss is this one: the cumulonimbus storm cloud. It's what's produces thunder and lightning and hail. These clouds spread out at the top in this enormous anvil fashion stretching 10 miles up into the atmosphere. They are an expression of the majestic architecture of our atmosphere. But from down below, they are the embodiment of the powerful, elemental force and power that drives our atmosphere. To be there is to be connected in the driving rain and the hail, to feel connected to our atmosphere. It's to be reminded that we are creatures that inhabit this ocean of air. We don't live beneath the sky. We live within it. And that connection, that visceral connection to our atmosphere feels to me like an antidote. It's an antidote to the growing tendency we have to feel that we can really ever experience life by watching it on a computer screen, you know, when we're in a wi-fi zone. But the one cloud that best expresses why cloudspotting is more valuable today than ever is this one, the cumulus cloud. Right? It forms on a sunny day. If you close your eyes and think of a cloud, it's probably one of these that comes to mind. All those cloud shapes at the beginning, those were cumulus clouds. The sharp, crisp outlines of this formation make it the best one for finding shapes in. And it reminds us of the aimless nature of cloudspotting, what an aimless activity it is. You're not going to change the world by lying on your back and gazing up at the sky, are you? It's pointless. It's a pointless activity, which is precisely why it's so important. The digital world conspires to make us feel eternally busy, perpetually busy. You know, when you're not dealing with the traditional pressures of earning a living and putting food on the table, raising a family, writing thank you letters, you have to now contend with answering a mountain of unanswered emails, updating a Facebook page, feeding your Twitter feed. And cloudspotting legitimizes doing nothing. (Laughter) And sometimes we need — (Applause) Sometimes we need excuses to do nothing. We need to be reminded by these patron goddesses of idle fellows that slowing down and being in the present, not thinking about what you've got to do and what you should have done, but just being here, letting your imagination lift from the everyday concerns down here and just being in the present, it's good for you, and it's good for the way you feel. It's good for your ideas. It's good for your creativity. It's good for your soul. So keep looking up, marvel at the ephemeral beauty, and always remember to live life with your head in the clouds. Thank you very much. (Applause)
雲朵 有沒有注意到, 人們對雲朵有多少的抱怨嗎? 它們聲名狼藉。 你想想看,英語總是把含有 負面概念的詞彙和雲朵連繫起來。 如果有人心情不好或憂鬱, 他們烏雲罩頂。 如果有不利某人的壞消息, 就是地平線上出現烏雲 (意譯:大難臨頭)。 不久前,我看了一篇文章, 那是關於網際網路的 電腦處理問題。 標題是:「烏雲下的雲端運算。」 似乎每個人也預設用雲朵來 比喻前景黯淡。 但我認為雲朵是很美麗的,你們呢? 因為雲朵無處不在, 它的美經常被忽略了。 我不知是否因為雲朵隨處可見, 就無法引起人們的注意。 人們沒發現它們的美, 甚至察覺不到它們的存在, 除非它們擋住了太陽。 因此人們把雲朵當作成 礙事的東西。 他們認為雲朵是討厭的、 令人沮喪的阻礙物, 忙得不可開交後,又再天馬行空了。 (笑聲) 然而,當你停下來問人們, 大多數人會承認對雲朵懷有 一種奇怪的情愫, 像一種懷舊之情, 讓他們想起自己年少時, 哎呀,在座的誰記不起 孩提時 看著雲朵並尋找其中不同的形狀? 你知道嗎,當你還是做白日夢的能手? 古希臘劇作家阿里斯托芬 (Aristophanes), 在二千五百年前,他形容雲朵為 遊手好閒者的守護女神, 遊手好閒者的守護女神, 大家能明白他的意思吧。 這些日子,我們成年人似乎無法 讓自己放任, 讓想像力 在微風中翩翩起舞, 我覺得真是可惜。 我認為我們或許應多做些這樣的事。 我認為我們或許應該願意多看看一點 從雲朵後面鑽出來的美麗陽光, 然後說,「等一下,這多像 兩隻跳騷莎舞的貓呀!」 (笑聲)(掌聲) 或將購物中心上面那片 白白胖胖的雲朵看作是 傳說中的喜馬拉雅山雪人 正要搶劫銀行。 (笑聲) 它們就像那些墨蹟圖片 的大自然版本, 你知道,就是 60 年代那些精神科醫師 用來展示給病人看的圖片, 我認為如果你在雲朵中看到 不同的圖案形狀, 你就能省下精神分析治療的錢。 比方說你正在熱戀中,好吧? 然後你抬頭向上看,看到的是什麼? 對嗎?或者剛好相反, 你剛被伴侶拋棄了, 你到處看到的,都是情侶們在接吻。 (笑聲) 或者你剛好有短暫的存在焦慮, 你知道,你正思考自己的死亡, 然後在地平線上,死神就在那裡。 (笑聲) 或者你看到一位袒胸的日光浴者。 (笑聲) 那是什麼意思呢? 這意味著什麼?我沒有頭緒。 但我篤定知道一件事,那就是 大家對雲朵的壞印象是完全不公平的。 我認為我們應該挺身為雲朵發聲, 那就是幾年前 我創辦「雲彩鑒賞協會」的原因。 現有成千上萬的會員了, 會員遍佈於全球約一百個國家。 所有我在這兒展示的圖片, 都是來自我們的會員。 協會的存在就是要提醒大眾, 雲朵不是用來抱怨的。 事實遠非如此,它們代表著 大自然最多樣化的、令人回味的 和詩意的那面。 我認為,如果你常常埋首於雲堆中, 它會使你腳踏實地。 我要借用一些我最喜歡的雲朵類型 去解釋箇中原因。 讓我們從這個開始。這是卷雲, 這是來自拉丁文的命名, 意思是一束頭髮, 全部由對流層的上方 傾瀉下來的冰晶所組成, 當這些冰晶下沉時, 穿過不同風速的各個氣流層, 加速或減速, 讓雲朵看起來像畫筆刷過似的景象, 這些景象稱為「雨幡」, 這風可是十分猛烈, 風速可達每小時 200 - 300 哩, 這些雲跟著風疾速移動, 但從下往上看, 它們似乎是優雅地、緩慢地移動, 像大多數雲朵一樣。 若要和雲朵協調一致的話, 就要慢下來、 平靜下來, 像每日作一些冥想。 這些都是常見的雲朵。 那麼比較少見的,例如莢狀雲, 狀似不明飛行物的莢狀雲呢? 這些雲朵常在山區形成, 當空氣流過時,被抬升至山丘之上, 氣流在山峰背風處以波浪狀推進, 這些雲隨著看不見的駐波氣流 的波峰上盤旋, 這些飛碟似的形狀, 和一些早期的不明飛行物黑白照片, 其實是莢狀雲。這是真的。 「雨幡洞」就很少見了,好吧? 這是由非常、非常冷的水滴所組成的雲層, 在某個區域裡開始凝結成冰, 並引起連鎖反應,朝外擴散, 導致冰晶如瀑布似地下沉, 使它們的外型看起來像水母卷鬚。 更少見的還有凱赫波狀雲 (Kelvin–Helmholtz cloud), 並不是很響亮的名字,需要重新命名罷, 看起來像一波碎浪, 這是由風切引起的 - 在雲層上方和下方的風 有顯著地不同,而在中間 有波浪狀的氣流, 如果那些風速的差距恰到好處, 波浪的頂端會捲起來, 形成碎浪般的美麗漩渦。 好了,這些雲朵較卷雲少見, 但是它們並不算罕見。 如果你抬頭看看並仰視天空, 你遲早看得見它們, 也許沒有這麼的戲劇化, 但你總會看見它們的, 而且你會在住處附近看見。 雲朵是大自然風景中 最能體現平均主義的,因為每個人 都可以看到天空的迷人景色。 而這些雲朵,這些較少見的雲朵 提醒了我們,在日常生活中 隨處可見的奇特風光。 沒有什麼讓一顆活躍好奇的腦袋 感到驚喜、感到讚歎,可使其 更滋養、更具啟發性了。 這是我們到來 TED 這裡的原因,不是嗎? 但是你們無需疲於奔命, 離開熟悉的環境周遊列國 來感受驚喜。 你只需走到外面去, 注意日常生活中司空見慣的事, 人人也錯過的平凡小事。 大眾最難錯過的雲朵就是這個: 積雨雲或雷暴雲, 它產生雷暴、閃電、冰雹。 這些雲朵在高空向外展延, 以巨大砧狀的方式, 向大氣層綿延 10 哩。 它們是我們大氣層裡宏偉建築的 一種表達方式。 但是從下面看,它們是 一股強有力的、猛烈力量的體現, 沖擊著大氣層。 在那裡就是與如注的大雨和 猛烈的冰雹連繫, 去感覺與大氣層連繫。 提醒我們只是一些寄宿在 這浩瀚穹蒼中的生物。 我們並不是活在天空下,我們活在其中。 而這種連繫、這種與大氣層的 非理性連繫, 對我來說像一服靈丹妙藥, 針對與日俱增的趨勢, 這是一服靈丹妙藥, 我們以為身處無限區域網路的地帶, 僅靠盯著電腦螢幕, 我們就可以真正地體驗人生。 但一朵雲道盡了 為何辨認雲彩較以為往更為可貴, 這朵雲 ─ 積雲。 對嗎?它在天朗氣清的日子形成。 如果你閉上眼睛,想起一朵雲, 它可能就是你會想起的其中一朵。 開始時所有雲朵的形狀 都是積雲。 那銳利、清晰的輪廓 使它成為最容易被認出的形狀。 而它也提醒我們 辨認雲彩的本質是漫無目標的, 真是多麼的漫無目標啊。 你不會憑著躺在地上 凝視天空而改變世界,對嗎? 這是毫無意義的,這是沒有意義的活動, 這恰是為什麼辨認雲彩真的很重要。 數位世界所有事情都使我們感到 永無休止地、沒有止境地忙碌著。 當你不須再應付 傳統壓力,如維持生計、 養家、糊口、 書寫答謝信, 而你現在必須處理 回答堆積如山的未回答電郵、 更新臉書頁和 發佈推特貼文。 辨認雲彩使無所事事合理化。 (笑聲) 有時我們需要 - (掌聲) 有時我們什麼也沒有做的話, 就需要一些藉口。 我們需要由 這些遊手好閒者的守護女神提醒 慢下來, 並活在當下,不要想 你還需做的事和你本應完成的事, 但此時此地,讓你的想像力 從日常事務中跳脫出來, 只關注當下, 對你也好, 對你的感覺也好, 對你的意念也好, 對你的創造力也好, 對你的心靈也好。 繼續仰視, 驚歎那短暫的美麗, 常常記得埋首於雲堆中的生活。 謝謝 (掌聲)