I was trying to think, how is sync connected to happiness, and it occurred to me that for some reason we take pleasure in synchronizing. We like to dance together, we like singing together. And so, if you'll put up with this, I would like to enlist your help with a first experiment today. The experiment is -- and I notice, by the way, that when you applauded, that you did it in a typical North American way, that is, you were raucous and incoherent. You were not organized. It didn't even occur to you to clap in unison. Do you think you could do it? I would like to see if this audience would -- no, you haven't practiced, as far as I know -- can you get it together to clap in sync?
当时我试着搞明白,“同步”和幸福的关系。 我想到,我们在“同步”中感到快乐是有原因的。 我们喜欢一起跳舞。我们喜欢一起歌唱。 如果你们愿意,我想请求你们的帮助 来做一个实验。这个实验是—— 其实我注意到,当你们鼓掌时, 你们是用北美人的方式, 那就是,以一种喧闹、不连贯的方式鼓掌。 没有人组织。你们甚至从没有想过要统一鼓掌。 但你们觉得你们可以做到么?我想看看我的听众们是否可以—— 是的,据我所知,你们没有经过训练—— 但你们可以同步鼓掌么?
(Clapping)
(鼓掌)
Whoa! Now, that's what we call emergent behavior.
哇!现在,这就是我们所说的应激行为。
(Laughter)
(笑)
So I didn't expect that, but -- I mean, I expected you could synchronize. It didn't occur to me you'd increase your frequency. It's interesting.
我并没有预料到,但是——我是说,我确实预见到你们可以同步。 但我并没有想到你们会提高频率。 那很有趣。
(Laughter)
(笑)
So what do we make of that? First of all, we know that you're all brilliant. This is a room full of intelligent people, highly sensitive. Some trained musicians out there. Is that what enabled you to synchronize? So to put the question a little more seriously, let's ask ourselves what are the minimum requirements for what you just did, for spontaneous synchronization. Do you need, for instance, to be as smart as you are? Do you even need a brain at all just to synchronize? Do you need to be alive? I mean, that's a spooky thought, right? Inanimate objects that might spontaneously synchronize themselves. It's real. In fact, I'll try to explain today that sync is maybe one of, if not one of the most, perhaps the most pervasive drive in all of nature. It extends from the subatomic scale to the farthest reaches of the cosmos. It's a deep tendency toward order in nature that opposes what we've all been taught about entropy. I mean, I'm not saying the law of entropy is wrong -- it's not. But there is a countervailing force in the universe -- the tendency towards spontaneous order. And so that's our theme.
可我们是怎么做到的?首先,你们都是了不起的人物。 这屋里满是智慧的人,非常敏感。 那里还坐着一些训练有素的音乐家。 可是,是这些使你们可以同步的吗? 或者更严谨的说, 让我们想一下,什么是你们同步所需的 最低要求。 举例来说,你们是不是需要如此聪明? 甚至,你们是不是要有大脑才可以? 是否必须活着?我是说,那可是个鬼怪的想法。 但实际上,确实如此,没有生命的物体 确实可以达到同步。我正要试着向你们解释,同步或许是一种 甚至可能是自然界中最普遍的力量之一。 它由亚原子尺度延伸至星系之间。 它是通往自然秩序的一种深刻的倾向。 正与熵增原理相反。 我并不是说熵增原理是错误的——它确定无疑。 但宇宙中还存在一种与之相消的力量—— 一种通向同步与秩序的倾向。那正是我们的主题。
Now, to get into that, let me begin with what might have occurred to you immediately when you hear that we're talking about synchrony in nature, which is the glorious example of birds that flock together, or fish swimming in organized schools. So these are not particularly intelligent creatures, and yet, as we'll see, they exhibit beautiful ballets. This is from a BBC show called "Predators," and what we're looking at here are examples of synchrony that have to do with defense. When you're small and vulnerable, like these starlings, or like the fish, it helps to swarm to avoid predators, to confuse predators. Let me be quiet for a second because this is so gorgeous. For a long time, biologists were puzzled by this behavior, wondering how it could be possible. We're so used to choreography giving rise to synchrony. These creatures are not choreographed. They're choreographing themselves.
进入正题。让我由你们听到自然界的同步现象时 都会立即想到的开始, 比如说群飞的鸟, 极有秩序游动的鱼群。 这些并不是高度智慧的生物, 但是从它们我们却看到美妙的舞步。 这是来自BBC的《猎食者》, 我们看到的是与防御相关的同步现象。 对于和这些椋鸟或者鱼一样,弱小而易受伤害的生物, 群居或者去迷惑捕食者确实是一种有用的策略。 让我沉默一会儿,这是如此精彩。 在很长一段时间内,生物学家对这种行为感到困惑, 觉得不可思议。 我们太过习惯于“同步”的来源——舞蹈。 这些生物并未学过舞蹈。 它们是自觉地“舞蹈”。
And only today is science starting to figure out how it works. I'll show you a computer model made by Iain Couzin, a researcher at Oxford, that shows how swarms work. There are just three simple rules. First, all the individuals are only aware of their nearest neighbors. Second, all the individuals have a tendency to line up. And third, they're all attracted to each other, but they try to keep a small distance apart. And when you build those three rules in, automatically you start to see swarms that look very much like fish schools or bird flocks. Now, fish like to stay close together, about a body length apart. Birds try to stay about three or four body lengths apart. But except for that difference, the rules are the same for both.
现在,只有科学能解释它们是如何做到的。 我将展示Ian Kuzan,一位牛津大学研究员,设计的计算机模型。 它告诉我们群飞现象的原理。 只有三条简单的规则。 第一,所有的个体只知道最靠近自己的近邻的行为。 第二,所有的个体都有排成行的趋势。 最后,它们之间互相吸引, 但它们同时想保留小段距离。 当你写下这三条规则, 群飞现象自然而然地产生了。 与现实中的鱼群和鸟群完全一致。 鱼比较倾向于靠近,间隔一个身长。 鸟会彼此间隔3、4个身长。 除了这些区别,两者都受那三条规则约束。
Now, all this changes when a predator enters the scene. There's a fourth rule: when a predator's coming, get out of the way. Here on the model you see the predator attacking. The prey move out in random directions, and then the rule of attraction brings them back together again, so there's this constant splitting and reforming. And you see that in nature. Keep in mind that, although it looks as if each individual is acting to cooperate, what's really going on is a kind of selfish Darwinian behavior. Each is scattering away at random to try to save its scales or feathers. That is, out of the desire to save itself, each creature is following these rules, and that leads to something that's safe for all of them. Even though it looks like they're thinking as a group, they're not. You might wonder what exactly is the advantage to being in a swarm, so you can think of several.
现在,捕食者进入画面,一切都改变了。 有了第四条规则:当捕食者出现,逃! 在这个模型里,可以看到捕食者正在进攻。 被捕食者四处逃窜。 之后“吸引法则”又把它们聚到一起, 所以产生了不断的分离与重组。 这在自然界也是常见的。 请记住,尽管个体之间看起来是在合作, 但实际只是自私的“达尔文”行为。 每一次的分散都只是为了自己保命。 是出自自我保护的欲望, 所有的个体都遵循这些规则, 结果却是集体都获得了安全。 它们并不是作为团队思考,但看起来却是如此。 你们可能会想:群聚对个体到底有何利处? 确实有一些。
As I say, if you're in a swarm, your odds of being the unlucky one are reduced as compared to a small group. There are many eyes to spot danger. And you'll see in the example with the starlings, with the birds, when this peregrine hawk is about to attack them, that actually waves of panic can propagate, sending messages over great distances. You'll see -- let's see, it's coming up possibly at the very end -- maybe not. Information can be sent over half a kilometer away in a very short time through this mechanism. Yes, it's happening here. See if you can see those waves propagating through the swarm. It's beautiful. The birds are, we sort of understand, we think, from that computer model, what's going on. As I say, it's just those three simple rules, plus the one about watch out for predators.
在群聚中,相比较处在一个较小的团体中, 你被捕食的机会将大大降低。 有许多双眼睛去发现危险。 以鸟为例, 当这只游隼准备攻击它们时, 那些不断增长的惊恐的浪潮 将危险的信号传递到极遥远处。 你们将会看到——让我们看看,它将传到尽头——或许没有。 通过这种机制,在极短的时间里, 信息可以跨越半公里以上。 是的,就是这样。 试着观察群中不断增长的浪潮。 很美。通过那个计算机模型, 我们在某种程度上了解了这些鸟的行为。 正如我之前所说,只是由三条简单的规则, 加上一条关于捕食者的。
There doesn't seem to be anything mystical about this. We don't, however, really understand at a mathematical level. I'm a mathematician. We would like to be able to understand better. I mean, I showed you a computer model, but a computer is not understanding. A computer is, in a way, just another experiment. We would really like to have a deeper insight into how this works and to understand, you know, exactly where this organization comes from. How do the rules give rise to the patterns?
没有任何神奇之处。 可事实并非如此,从数学层面上说,我们并不了解。 我是一个数学家。我们总是希望更好的理解。 我是说,这里有一个计算机模型。但它并不是理解。 从某种程度上说,它只是另一种实验。 我们总是渴望更深刻地理解, 去理解这种组织是如何形成的。 规则如何带来模式?
There is one case that we have begun to understand better, and it's the case of fireflies. If you see fireflies in North America, like so many North American sorts of things, they tend to be independent operators. They ignore each other. They each do their own thing, flashing on and off, paying no attention to their neighbors. But in Southeast Asia -- places like Thailand or Malaysia or Borneo -- there's a beautiful cooperative behavior that occurs among male fireflies. You can see it every night along the river banks. The trees, mangrove trees, are filled with fireflies communicating with light. Specifically, it's male fireflies who are all flashing in perfect time together, in perfect synchrony, to reinforce a message to the females. And the message, as you can imagine, is "Come hither. Mate with me."
我们已经开始理解一个实例, 是关于萤火虫。 北美的萤火虫, 就如同北美的其他东西一样, 总是分头行动,忽视其他个体。 总是干自己的,忽明忽暗, 完全不理会周围。 可是在东南亚——比如泰国或马来西亚—— 雄性萤火虫之间有美妙的合作。 河岸边,每晚都可以看见。 美洲红树上满是以光亮交流的萤火虫。 特别的,那些雄性萤火虫完全同步的闪烁 来向雌性传递信息。 正如你们所想,那信息就是“来吧!和我约会!”
(Music)
(音乐)
In a second I'm going to show you a slow motion of a single firefly so that you can get a sense. This is a single frame. Then on, and then off -- a 30th of a second, there. And then watch this whole river bank, and watch how precise the synchrony is. On, more on and then off. The combined light from these beetles -- these are actually tiny beetles -- is so bright that fishermen out at sea can use them as navigating beacons to find their way back to their home rivers. It's stunning. For a long time it was not believed when the first Western travelers, like Sir Francis Drake, went to Thailand and came back with tales of this unbelievable spectacle. No one believed them. We don't see anything like this in Europe or in the West. And for a long time, even after it was documented, it was thought to be some kind of optical illusion. Scientific papers were published saying it was twitching eyelids that explained it, or, you know, a human being's tendency to see patterns where there are none. But I hope you've convinced yourself now, with this nighttime video, that they really were very well synchronized.
一会儿我将展示一只萤火虫的慢镜头, 这样你们就可以感觉到我所说。这是一个单镜头。 亮,暗——这是三十分之一秒。 然后让我们看看这整个河岸,看看这精确的同步。 明明暗暗。 这些虫身上汇聚的光亮——这些小虫啊—— 是如此明亮,连海上的渔民都可以看见。 他们把这光作为回家指路的灯塔。这真惊人。 很长时间内都没有人相信, 当德雷克爵士等西方旅行家来到泰国 回去时讲述这一不可思议的景象时, 没有人相信。 在欧洲或西方我们从来没有见过这类事。 就连被录制成纪录片之后很久, 仍只被认为是某种光学幻觉。 科学论文中论述它是由于眼睑的眨动。 可是你们知道,人类总是想要 在没有模式处发现模式。 但我希望在看过这些之后,你们已经信服 这确实是非常完美的同步了。
Okay, well, the issue then is, do we need to be alive to see this kind of spontaneous order, and I've already hinted that the answer is no. Well, you don't have to be a whole creature. You can even be just a single cell. Like, take, for instance, your pacemaker cells in your heart right now. They're keeping you alive. Every beat of your heart depends on this crucial region, the sinoatrial node, which has about 10,000 independent cells that would each beep, have an electrical rhythm -- a voltage up and down -- to send a signal to the ventricles to pump. Now, your pacemaker is not a single cell. It's this democracy of 10,000 cells that all have to fire in unison for the pacemaker to work correctly.
那么,现在的问题是,是不是一定要有生命 才可以达到这种同步。 我已经暗示答案是否定的。 你根本不需要是一个生命体。 你甚至可以只是单个细胞。 就好像你心脏里的起搏细胞一样。 没有它们,你我可活不下去。 心脏的每一次跳动都取决于这个关键的部位,窦房结, 大约一万个相互独立的细胞 以一种电流的韵律——电压起伏——“鸣叫”。 以此来发出让心室运作的信号。 你的起搏器并不是单一细胞。 正是个10000个细胞统一的合作 才使得起搏器正常工作。
I don't want to give you the idea that synchrony is always a good idea. If you have epilepsy, there is an instance of billions of brain cells, or at least millions, discharging in pathological concert. So this tendency towards order is not always a good thing. You don't have to be alive. You don't have to be even a single cell. If you look, for instance, at how lasers work, that would be a case of atomic synchrony. In a laser, what makes laser light so different from the light above my head here is that this light is incoherent -- many different colors and different frequencies, sort of like the way you clapped initially -- but if you were a laser, it would be rhythmic applause. It would be all atoms pulsating in unison, emitting light of one color, one frequency.
我并不是想让你们觉得同步总是个好主意。 如果你患有癫痫症,那么大约有10亿,至少几百万的脑细胞, “同步”失效。 所以这一倾向秩序的趋势并不总是好的。 其实你甚至不需要是一个细胞。你不需要活着。 举例来说,如果你们知道激光是如何工作的, 那就是一个原子层面上的同步例子。 我头顶的光线是杂乱的—— 有许多不同的颜色和频率, 有点像你们一开始时的鼓掌—— 但激光和这不同, 它是“有节奏”的“鼓掌。” 是所有原子按照同一个频率震动, 发射出同一色的单频率光线。
Now comes the very risky part of my talk, which is to demonstrate that inanimate things can synchronize. Hold your breath for me. What I have here are two empty water bottles. This is not Keith Barry doing a magic trick. This is a klutz just playing with some water bottles. I have some metronomes here. Can you hear that? All right, so, I've got a metronome, and it's the world's smallest metronome, the -- well, I shouldn't advertise. Anyway, so this is the world's smallest metronome. I've set it on the fastest setting, and I'm going to now take another one set to the same setting. We can try this first. If I just put them on the table together, there's no reason for them to synchronize, and they probably won't.
现在到了我演讲中最有风险的一部分, 来展示没有生命的物体也可以达到同步。 请为我摒住呼吸。 我这里有两个空水瓶。 我并不是Keith Barry,也不会变魔术。 我就是一个拿着两个水瓶的普通人。 我有一些节拍器。 你们可以听到吗? 我将使用一个节拍器, 这是世界上最小的节拍器——哦,我不应该做广告。 可这确实是世界上最小的节拍器。 我已经将它调至最高档。我把另一台 也调到同样。 我们可以先试试这个。我只是把它们一起放在桌上, 它们好像没有什么理由会同步,也许它们不会。
Maybe you'd better listen to them. I'll stand here. What I'm hoping is that they might just drift apart because their frequencies aren't perfectly the same. Right? They did. They were in sync for a while, but then they drifted apart. And the reason is that they're not able to communicate. Now, you might think that's a bizarre idea. How can metronomes communicate? Well, they can communicate through mechanical forces. So I'm going to give them a chance to do that. I also want to wind this one up a bit. How can they communicate? I'm going to put them on a movable platform, which is the "Guide to Graduate Study at Cornell." Okay? So here it is. Let's see if we can get this to work. My wife pointed out to me that it will work better if I put both on at the same time because otherwise the whole thing will tip over. All right. So there we go. Let's see. OK, I'm not trying to cheat -- let me start them out of sync. No, hard to even do that.
你们可能最好听着。我站在这里。 我只是希望它们分开 因为它们的频率并不是一模一样。 是吧?它们分开了。 它们同步了一段时间,但之后又分开。 原因是它们之间没有办法交流。 现在你们或许觉得这是个怪主意。 节拍器要怎么交流? 它们可以通过机械力交流。 现在我就是给它们一个机会去这么做。 我还将对这个略作调整。它们怎么交流? 我将它们放到一个可移动的平台上, 就是《康奈尔大学研究生学习指导》。可以吗?就在这里。 让我们试试是否可行。 我的妻子指出,如果我可以同时打开它们,那么将会更好。 否则周期会无法对应。 好了,我们开始。让我们悄悄。好的,我并不是要作弊—— 让它们刚开始时不要同步。不,这将更难。
(Applause)
(掌声)
All right. So before any one goes out of sync, I'll just put those right there.
好的。在它们失去同步之前,我要把它们摆到那里。
(Laughter) Now, that might seem a bit whimsical, but this pervasiveness of this tendency towards spontaneous order sometimes has unexpected consequences. And a clear case of that, was something that happened in London in the year 2000. The Millennium Bridge was supposed to be the pride of London -- a beautiful new footbridge erected across the Thames, first river crossing in over 100 years in London. There was a big competition for the design of this bridge, and the winning proposal was submitted by an unusual team -- in the TED spirit, actually -- of an architect -- perhaps the greatest architect in the United Kingdom, Lord Norman Foster -- working with an artist, a sculptor, Sir Anthony Caro, and an engineering firm, Ove Arup. And together they submitted a design based on Lord Foster's vision, which was -- he remembered as a kid reading Flash Gordon comic books, and he said that when Flash Gordon would come to an abyss, he would shoot what today would be a kind of a light saber.
(笑) 这一切看起来似乎有点神奇, 但这一种强大的对同步的倾向 有时候会有意想不到的结果。 举例来说, 2000年时在伦敦, 千年桥本应成为伦敦的骄傲—— 一座横跨泰晤士河的美丽的桥, 在100年里第一座。 为了争取桥的设计权,产生了激烈的竞争。 获胜的是由一只古怪队伍提交的设计—— 很有TED精神——的建筑师—— 可能算英国最伟大的建筑师,福斯特爵士—— 和一位雕塑家卡若爵士 以及Ove Arup工程公司合作而成。 他们以福斯特的创意为基础,提交了一份设计。 他的灵感来自于小时候读到Flash Gordon的漫画书, 他说当Flash Gordon来到一处深渊, 他会发射一种类似于今天所说“激光剑”的东西。
He would shoot his light saber across the abyss, making a blade of light, and then scamper across on this blade of light. He said, "That's the vision I want to give to London. I want a blade of light across the Thames." So they built the blade of light, and it's a very thin ribbon of steel, the world's -- probably the flattest and thinnest suspension bridge there is, with cables that are out on the side. You're used to suspension bridges with big droopy cables on the top. These cables were on the side of the bridge, like if you took a rubber band and stretched it taut across the Thames -- that's what's holding up this bridge. Now, everyone was very excited to try it out. On opening day, thousands of Londoners came out, and something happened. And within two days the bridge was closed to the public. So I want to first show you some interviews with people who were on the bridge on opening day, who will describe what happened.
他会把激光剑射过深渊,形成一道光的刀锋, 然后踏着光穿过深渊。 他说:“那就是我想给伦敦的创意。 我想在泰晤士河上建一道’光剑‘。“ 于是他们建起了”光剑“, 它是一层非常薄的金属之”虹“,或许是世界上—— 最平坦最薄的桥, 由绳索在两侧牵挂。 一般的索桥都由很粗大的绳索从上端牵挂。 而这些绳索从两侧固定桥, 就好像有人取了一块橡胶并将它平铺在泰晤士河上—— 那就是固定住桥的东西。 所有人都跃跃欲试把它建起来。 在开幕礼上,千万伦敦人来观看,发生一些事。 两天内桥就对公众关闭了。 先来看一些采访 由那些在开幕式上参观桥的人来形容发生了什么。
Man: It really started moving sideways and slightly up and down, rather like being on the boat.
男人:桥突然开始左右摇摆并开始上下震动, 好像身处船上。
Woman: Yeah, it felt unstable, and it was very windy, and I remember it had lots of flags up and down the sides, so you could definitely -- there was something going on sideways, it felt, maybe.
女人:是的。感觉非常不稳定。那天风很大。 我记得桥两边有许多旗帜。你可以确定—— 你可以感觉到桥在倾斜。
Interviewer: Not up and down? Boy: No.
记者:没有上下震动吗?男孩:没有。
Interviewer: And not forwards and backwards? Boy: No.
记者:也没有前后摇摆?男孩:没有。
Interviewer: Just sideways. About how much was it moving, do you think?
记者:只是侧移。那么大概多大幅度?
Boy: It was about --
男孩:大概——
Interviewer: I mean, that much, or this much?
记者:我是说,多大幅度,这么大?
Boy: About the second one.
男孩:差不多是第二个。
Interviewer: This much? Boy: Yeah.
记者:大约有这么多?男孩:是的。
Man: It was at least six, six to eight inches, I would have thought.
男人:至少有六到八英尺。
Interviewer: Right, so, at least this much? Man: Oh, yes.
记者:是的。至少这么多?男人:对。
Woman: I remember wanting to get off.
女人:我记得我想赶快下去。
Interviewer: Oh, did you? Woman: Yeah. It felt odd.
记者:是吗?女人:是的。那感觉很奇怪。
Interviewer: So it was enough to be scary? Woman: Yeah, but I thought that was just me.
记者:那么那已经有些吓人了?女人:是的。但我当时以为只有我这么觉得。
Interviewer: Ah! Now, tell me why you had to do this?
记者:啊!告诉我你为什么要这么做?
Boy: We had to do this because, to keep in balance because if you didn't keep your balance, then you would just fall over about, like, to the left or right, about 45 degrees. Interviewer: So just show me how you walk normally. Right. And then show me what it was like when the bridge started to go. Right. So you had to deliberately push your feet out sideways and -- oh, and short steps?
男孩:为了保持平衡。 如果你不能保持平衡, 那你就会向左或右倾倒大概45度。 记者:不过给我看看你们平时是如何走路的。好。 现在给我看看在桥开始移动时你们是怎么走的。好。 所以你们必须特意将脚向两侧摆,并且—— 哦,步伐很小?
Man: That's right. And it seemed obvious to me that it was probably the number of people on it.
男人:是的。当时我觉得很明显 一定是因为桥上人太多。
Interviewer: Were they deliberately walking in step, or anything like that?
记者:他们是故意这么走吗?
Man: No, they just had to conform to the movement of the bridge.
男人:没有。他们只是想要使桥的运动平缓。
Steven Strogatz: All right, so that already gives you a hint of what happened. Think of the bridge as being like this platform. Think of the people as being like metronomes. Now, you might not be used to thinking of yourself as a metronome, but after all, we do walk like -- I mean, we oscillate back and forth as we walk. And especially if we start to walk like those people did, right? They all showed this strange sort of skating gait that they adopted once the bridge started to move. And so let me show you now the footage of the bridge. But also, after you see the bridge on opening day, you'll see an interesting clip of work done by a bridge engineer at Cambridge named Allan McRobie, who figured out what happened on the bridge, and who built a bridge simulator to explain exactly what the problem was. It was a kind of unintended positive feedback loop between the way the people walked and the way the bridge began to move, that engineers knew nothing about. Actually, I think the first person you'll see is the young engineer who was put in charge of this project. Okay.
斯托加茨:好了。这些足以是你们明白发生了什么。 把那座桥想像成这个平台。 人们就是节拍器。 可能把自己想象成节拍器会有难度。 但毕竟,当我们走路时确实像节拍器,——我是说,走路时我们前后摆动, 特别是当我们像那些人那样走时。 桥刚开始震动, 他们倾斜得就像滑雪一般。 现在来看看桥的”步伐“。 但同时,在看过大桥开幕礼后,让我们来看一段有趣的视频, 它关于剑桥以为名叫Allan McRobie的桥梁工程师的工作。 他指出了大桥究竟发生了什么。 他还建起了一座桥的模拟器来解释问题究竟是什么。 那是一种在行人和桥梁运动之间的 出人意料的正反馈循环。 当时的工程师对此一无所知。 实际上,你们最先看到的将是 负责这个工程的年轻工程师。好的。
(Video) Interviewer: Did anyone get hurt? Engineer: No.
(视频)记者:有人受伤吗?工程师:没有。
Interviewer: Right. So it was quite small -- Engineer: Yes. Interviewer: -- but real?
记者:那很好。这很小。工程师:是的。记者:但却可以模拟真实的桥?
Engineer: Absolutely. Interviewer: You thought, "Oh, bother."
工程师:完完全全。记者:你会想:“哦,真麻烦!”
Engineer: I felt I was disappointed about it.
工程师:我有些失望。
We'd spent a lot of time designing this bridge, and we'd analyzed it, we'd checked it to codes -- to heavier loads than the codes -- and here it was doing something that we didn't know about. Interviewer: You didn't expect. Engineer: Exactly.
在设计桥上我们花了很多时间,也分析过它。 我们检验过负重了——我们用超过最高载重的重量检验过了—— 然后发生了一些我们当时根本不知道的事。 记者:你们完全没有预料到。工程师:的确。
Narrator: The most dramatic and shocking footage shows whole sections of the crowd -- hundreds of people -- apparently rocking from side to side in unison, not only with each other, but with the bridge. This synchronized movement seemed to be driving the bridge. But how could the crowd become synchronized? Was there something special about the Millennium Bridge that caused this effect? This was to be the focus of the investigation.
旁白:最动荡的一次震动中 成百上千人 一起从桥的一侧到另一侧, 并不只是所有人一起动,桥也在一起震动。 这种同步的运动似乎正在驱使桥移动。 但是人群是怎么同步的? 千年桥是不是隐藏着导致这种效果的特殊原因? 这成为调查的焦点。
Interviewer: Well, at last the simulated bridge is finished, and I can make it wobble. Now, Allan, this is all your fault, isn't it? Allan McRobie: Yes.
记者:好了。模拟桥终于建成了,我可以使它摆动。 现在,Allan,这都是你造成的吗?Allan McRobie:是的。
Interviewer: You designed this, yes, this simulated bridge, and this, you reckon, mimics the action of the real bridge?
记者:你设计了,这座模拟桥。 你认为它可以模拟真实的桥?
AM: It captures a lot of the physics, yes.
AM:它模拟了大桥的许多物理特征,是的。
Interviewer: Right. So if we get on it, we should be able to wobble it, yes?
记者:好的。所以如果我们站上去,我们可以摆动它,是吗?
Allan McRobie is a bridge engineer from Cambridge who wrote to me, suggesting that a bridge simulator ought to wobble in the same way as the real bridge -- provided we hung it on pendulums of exactly the right length.
Allan McRobie是一位剑桥来的桥梁工程师。 他写信给我,建议建一座模拟桥 来模拟真实的桥的摆动—— 前提是我们把它悬挂在实际长度的摆挂上。
AM: This one's only a couple of tons, so it's fairly easy to get going. Just by walking. Interviewer: Well, it's certainly going now.
AM:这一座只有几吨重,所以很容易就可以被摆动。 只需要在上面走走。记者:好的。很明显已经开始了。
AM: It doesn't have to be a real dangle. Just walk. It starts to go.
AM:并不需要特意去摇晃,只需要走走。它就会开始摆动。
Interviewer: It's actually quite difficult to walk. You have to be careful where you put your feet down, don't you, because if you get it wrong, it just throws you off your feet.
记者:实际上很难走。 你必须小心注意自己向哪里迈步。 因为一旦你走错,就会摔倒。
AM: It certainly affects the way you walk, yes. You can't walk normally on it.
AM:震动当然会影响你的走动。你不能像平时那样走。
Interviewer: No. If you try and put one foot in front of another, it's moving your feet away from under you. AM: Yes.
记者:不行。如果你试着把一只脚放到另一支前面, 其实就会把它放到另一只下面。AM:是的。
Interviewer: So you've got to put your feet out sideways. So already, the simulator is making me walk in exactly the same way as our witnesses walked on the real bridge.
记者:所以你就必须把脚向两边伸展。 所以这个模拟器已经是我按照真桥上 目击者一样的方式行走了。
AM: ... ice-skating gait. There isn't all this sort of snake way of walking.
AM:。。。滑雪式的倾斜。实际上没有人会这样像这样蛇行。
Interviewer: For a more convincing experiment, I wanted my own opening-day crowd, the sound check team. Their instructions: just walk normally. It's really intriguing because none of these people is trying to drive it. They're all having some difficulty walking. And the only way you can walk comfortably is by getting in step. But then, of course, everyone is driving the bridge. You can't help it. You're actually forced by the movement of the bridge to get into step, and therefore to drive it to move further.
记者:为了使实验更加可信, 我想要我的“开幕礼”团队,第二支检验队伍。 他们得到的指示是:正常走。 这真的很神奇因为没有人会可以去驱使桥摆动。 他们都只是觉得走起来有点难。 唯一可以使他们舒服走路的方式就是这样走。 之后,当然,所有人都开始驱使桥。 人们没有办法控制,他们实际上使被桥的运动驱使这么走。 结果这更加剧了桥的运动。
SS: All right, well, with that from the Ministry of Silly Walks, maybe I'd better end. I see I've gone over. But I hope that you'll go outside and see the world in a new way, to see all the amazing synchrony around us. Thank you.
SS:好了,那么,看过“愚蠢走路大使”之后, 或许我最好停止。我已经超时了。 但我希望当你们走出去,你们可以以一种全新的视角看世界。 去发现我们周围绝妙的同步现象。谢谢。
(Applause)
(掌声)