这一期的Nature科幻：Great unreported discoveries no. 163
每周都有朋友义务翻译，太赞了，这期感谢wendyfly^^
Futures
Nature 441, 906 (15 June 2006) | doi:10.1038/441906a; Published online 14 June 2006
Great unreported discoveries no. 163
Mike Resnick
It's good to talk...
When the team at Iowa State (or was it Nebraska?) came up with proof positive that plants feel pain, it made headlines not just that day, but for months thereafter. We have millions of people who became vegetarians because they didn't want animals to die just so they could fill their stomachs, and suddenly they discovered that everything they eat feels pain.
I found it fascinating. That's why I changed my major and went into botany — because I couldn't stop wondering: if plants can feel, what else can they do? Like, for example, can they think?
Of course, thinking in itself is a dead end, especially if you're rooted to one spot, unless you can communicate your thoughts, so that's what I really tried to specialize in. It's a good thing I knew how to get government grants, because I spent the first 14 years after getting my PhD without any hint of success.
I would talk to them. I would play them music. I would write messages in every known language and hold them up. I even brought in professors who could speak dead languages. All to no avail.
Undaunted — well, not very daunted anyway — I brought in psychics to see if they could form a bond with any of the plants in my lab. Still no luck.
I would put bees and butterflies in screened cages and explain to the flowers that if they wanted to reproduce, all they had to do was tell me, and I would release the insects and the process of regeneration could get under way. Nothing.
Finally I tied them into computers, exceptionally bright machines that could turn almost any signal, no matter how slight, how basic, how weak, how alien — into a spoken translation. All I got was silence.
I still remember the breakthrough. I'd just met and lost my heart to Bubbles La Tour, a truly wonderful dancer who, despite her billing, could hardly be called a stripper as she started out naked (and then got energetic). I walked over to one of the hybrid daisies in the lab and began plucking off its petals one by one, muttering "She loves me...she loves me not...she loves me..."
"Ouch!" said a strange voice.
I looked around the lab, but I couldn't see anyone.
After a moment I decided I had imagined it, and I pulled off another petal.
"Damn, that smarts!" said the voice again. "What did I ever do to you?"
"I beg your pardon?" I said, looking around and trying to spot the speaker.
"Begging my pardon is all very well and good," said the voice. "But you're denuding me. Are you going to disembowel me next?"
"Who said that?" I demanded.
"Whose limbs have you been pulling off?" the voice shot back.
I stared at the daisy, and suddenly I saw that it was still attached to the computer. I'd run my most recent experiment two days before and hadn't remembered to disconnect it.
"You?" I said, bending over it.
"Yes, me," said the daisy. "And brush your teeth if you're going to stand this close to me. I'm supposed to be living in a world of gorgeous scents."
"You can talk!" I exclaimed excitedly, and then repeated: "You can talk!"
"What a stunning observation," said the daisy. "You must have been the brightest one in your class."
"There's no need for sarcasm," I said.
"There's no need for sadism, either, but you kept pulling off my limbs."
"Your petals," I corrected it.
"Semantics," said the daisy.
"Well, now that I know you can talk, I promise never to do it again," I said.
"I don't want to seem ungracious, but how long have you known I could feel pain?"
"It got you to speak, didn't it?" I said defensively.
"So when your spouse is mad at you and won't talk, do you pull off her arms and legs?"
"Hardly ever," I admitted.
"Well, there you have it."
"Look, I apologize, all right?" I said. "This is the most historic breakthrough in the history of the human race! We should be celebrating!"
"Well, it's not the most historic breakthrough in the history of the daisy race," the flower replied. "I find you arrogant, self-centred, and a rather dull conversationalist. I am all through communicating with human beings now and forever, and I'm going to go back to peacefully and silently contemplating my navel."
"You don't have a navel," I pointed out.
"I was couching the concept in terms you'd understand, which was clearly a waste of time. Now please go away."
I spoke to it for another half an hour, but couldn't get any response. I considered calling in Doctors DiChario and Gormley, but then I did some serious thinking, and I decided that if the daisy kept its promise and didn't speak to them, they'd think I was either crazy or a liar (or both). And if it did speak to them, they'd apply for the same grants I was living on, and with their superior credentials they'd wrest them away from me and I'd have to go out and find another (and doubtless more difficult) way to make a living. If I tried to make my findings public and the daisy passed the word to its kith and kin, no one would be able to verify it and I'd become a laughing stock. And if the other flowers were as foul-tempered and obnoxious as the daisy, why would anyone want to communicate with them in the first place?
The more I thought about it, the more I decided that nothing is sometimes the very best thing to do.
I carefully disconnected the daisy from the computer.
Some time later I found myself thinking about Bubbles La Tour again, and my hand absently went to the flower.
"She loves me..." I intoned dreamily, "She loves me not..."
(Five-time Hugo winner Mike Resnick is the author of more than 50 novels and 200 stories, and has edited more than 40 anthologies. He has won major awards in six countries, and his work has been translated into 22 languages.)
感谢日月光华科幻版wendyfly的翻译
发信人: wendyfly (祁红屯绿·准备回家啦~~), 信区: Whim
标题: 未公开的伟大发现（trans）
发信站: 日月光华 (2006年06月17日06:31:04 星期六)
能说出来真好……
研究小组在爱荷华州（或者内布拉斯加州？）提出了确切的证据证明植物可以感知疼痛，随后的那几天，甚至之后的好几个月，它都成为了报纸的头版头条。我们有上百万的人成为素食主义者只是因为他们不愿意为了果腹而使动物死于非命，但是现在他们突然发现他们吃的每一种东西都会感觉到疼痛。我觉得这神奇。这就是为什么我改掉自己的专业而转向植物学——因为我不可遏止地想知道：如果植物可以感觉，那它们还能干什么？就像，比如说，它们可以思考么？
当然，除非你能和别人交流你的思想，否则在自身中思考就是一条死路，特别是你被钉在一处的时候。所以这就是实际上我想研究的东西。所幸我知道如何能够得到政府的项目批准，因为在我拿到我的博士学位之后，我花费了14个年头，但是我还看不到任何成功的迹象。
我跟它们说话，我给它们演奏音乐，我用我所知道的每一种语言给它们写讯息。我甚至给它们介绍了很多能说已经佚失不用的语言的教授。全都枉费心机！
越战越勇——好吧，只是没那么气馁——我引进了心灵学，看看是否能够和我实验室里的任何植物形成一种结合。命运仍然没有眷顾我。我把蜜蜂和蝴蝶放在纱笼里，然后对花进行解说：如果它们想繁殖的话，就应该把所有它们要做的事情告诉我，我将把这些昆虫放进去，这样生殖的过程才能得以进行。毫无反应。
最后，我把它们联上了计算机，聪明异常的机器，它们能够几乎能够把任何信号转译为日常语言，无论它是多么细小，多么基本，多么微弱，多么陌生。但是我只得到一片寂静。
我仍然记得那次的峰回路转。我那时正遇见了Bubbles La Tour，并且对她一见倾心，一个绝对正点的舞女，虽然在她的节目单上，她几乎不能被叫做是脱衣舞娘，因为她全裸上场（然后才变得活力四射）。我走到一株实验室的杂交雏菊那里，然后开
始一片一片地扯下它的花瓣，念叨着：“她爱我……她不爱我……她爱我……”
“噢！”一个奇怪的声音。
我环顾了一下实验室，但是我没有见到任何人。
怔了一怔，我确定我只是幻觉，然后我拉掉另一些花瓣。
“妈的，真痛！”那个声音又开始了。“我跟你有仇么？”
“请原谅……”我说，一边环顾四周试图发现说话的人。
“请求我的原谅，话虽如此”，那个声音说，“可你正在剥光我！下一步你该将我开膛破肚了？”
“谁在说话？”我追问道。
“你正在拉掉谁的肢体？”那个声音反问道。
我盯着雏菊，突然我看到它仍然联在计算机上。之前两天我都在进行着我最近的实验，并且忘了断开它。
“是你？”我说，一边俯下身去。
“是，是我。”雏菊说。“而且如果你准备站的离我这么近的话请去刷牙。我还指望着以我馨香立足于这个世界呢！”
“你能说话！”我兴奋地叫起来，然后重复道，“你能说话！”
“观察得真敏锐！”雏菊说，“在你的同侪中，你一定是最聪明的一个。”
“你没有必要挖苦我。”我说。
“你也没有必要丧心病狂，你一直在扯掉我的肢体。”
“你的花瓣。”我纠正它。
“称谓不同而已。”雏菊说。
“好吧，现在我知道你能讲话，我保证再也不这样了，”我说。
“我不想显得这么没教养，但是你知道我感觉疼痛有多久了？！”
“这让你说话了，不是么？”我为自己辩护。
“那当你的配偶跟你生气，不再和你说话，你会扯掉她的胳膊腿么？”
“永远不可能！”我承认。
“哼，你已经这样做了。”
“来，我道歉，可以么？”我说，“这是人类历史上最具有历史意义的突破！我们应该庆祝！”
“这在雏菊的历史上可不是什么最具有历史意义的突破，”雏菊花回答道，“我发现你傲慢，自我中心，而且是一个了无趣味的夸夸其谈者。从现在起直到永远我将中止和人类的交谈，我将回到我的脐点和平地、安静地沉思。”
“你没有一个脐点啊，”我向它指出。
“我超先了概念所以你不懂，很明显在对牛弹琴。现在请你离开我。”
我又对它说了半个小时，但是没有得到任何反应。我考虑去拜访DiChario和Gormley博士，但是然后我严肃地思考了一会，认为，如果雏菊恪守它的诺言，不对他们说话，他们一定会觉得我不是疯了就是骗子（或者二者都有）。如果雏菊对他们说话了，他们将同样申请这个我赖以生存的项目，而且以他们更高的资历他们将把这些项目从我这里夺走，我不得不走出去另辟蹊径来谋生（毫无疑问会艰难的多）。即使我试图将我的发现公开，那个雏菊也会给它的亲戚朋友捎信，没有人能够验证它，而我将会成为一个笑柄。而且如果其他的花儿也像这个雏菊一样性格龟毛、惹人讨厌，谁愿意开始和它们交谈？！
我想的越多，越是觉得有时候最好的事情莫过于什么都不去做。
我小心地断开了雏菊和计算机的联结。
一段时间以后，我发现我还在想念着Bubbles La Tour，我的手不经意地伸向花儿。
“她爱我……”我如痴如醉地吟诵般地念叨着，“她不爱我……”#
.......................................................................................................................................
发信人: wendyfly (祁红屯绿·准备回家啦~~), 信区: Whim
标题: Re: 未公开的伟大发现（trans）
发信站: 日月光华 (2006年06月17日06:33:43 星期六)
睡不着觉，随便翻了一下……
意译的很厉害，大家随便看看，呵呵
还是要说，这比翻译经济学和哲学的东西好玩多了……
继续经济学翻译中~~
每周都有朋友义务翻译，太赞了，这期感谢wendyfly^^
Futures
Nature 441, 906 (15 June 2006) | doi:10.1038/441906a; Published online 14 June 2006
Great unreported discoveries no. 163
Mike Resnick
It's good to talk...
When the team at Iowa State (or was it Nebraska?) came up with proof positive that plants feel pain, it made headlines not just that day, but for months thereafter. We have millions of people who became vegetarians because they didn't want animals to die just so they could fill their stomachs, and suddenly they discovered that everything they eat feels pain. I found it fascinating. That's why I changed my major and went into botany — because I couldn't stop wondering: if plants can feel, what else can they do? Like, for example, can they think?
Of course, thinking in itself is a dead end, especially if you're rooted to one spot, unless you can communicate your thoughts, so that's what I really tried to specialize in. It's a good thing I knew how to get government grants, because I spent the first 14 years after getting my PhD without any hint of success.
I would talk to them. I would play them music. I would write messages in every known language and hold them up. I even brought in professors who could speak dead languages. All to no avail.
Undaunted — well, not very daunted anyway — I brought in psychics to see if they could form a bond with any of the plants in my lab. Still no luck.
I would put bees and butterflies in screened cages and explain to the flowers that if they wanted to reproduce, all they had to do was tell me, and I would release the insects and the process of regeneration could get under way. Nothing.
Finally I tied them into computers, exceptionally bright machines that could turn almost any signal, no matter how slight, how basic, how weak, how alien — into a spoken translation. All I got was silence.
I still remember the breakthrough. I'd just met and lost my heart to Bubbles La Tour, a truly wonderful dancer who, despite her billing, could hardly be called a stripper as she started out naked (and then got energetic). I walked over to one of the hybrid daisies in the lab and began plucking off its petals one by one, muttering "She loves me...she loves me not...she loves me..."
"Ouch!" said a strange voice.
I looked around the lab, but I couldn't see anyone.
After a moment I decided I had imagined it, and I pulled off another petal.
"Damn, that smarts!" said the voice again. "What did I ever do to you?"
"I beg your pardon?" I said, looking around and trying to spot the speaker.
"Begging my pardon is all very well and good," said the voice. "But you're denuding me. Are you going to disembowel me next?"
"Who said that?" I demanded.
"Whose limbs have you been pulling off?" the voice shot back.
I stared at the daisy, and suddenly I saw that it was still attached to the computer. I'd run my most recent experiment two days before and hadn't remembered to disconnect it.
"You?" I said, bending over it.
"Yes, me," said the daisy. "And brush your teeth if you're going to stand this close to me. I'm supposed to be living in a world of gorgeous scents."
"You can talk!" I exclaimed excitedly, and then repeated: "You can talk!"
"What a stunning observation," said the daisy. "You must have been the brightest one in your class."
"There's no need for sarcasm," I said.
"There's no need for sadism, either, but you kept pulling off my limbs."
"Your petals," I corrected it.
"Semantics," said the daisy.
"Well, now that I know you can talk, I promise never to do it again," I said.
"I don't want to seem ungracious, but how long have you known I could feel pain?"
"It got you to speak, didn't it?" I said defensively.
"So when your spouse is mad at you and won't talk, do you pull off her arms and legs?"
"Hardly ever," I admitted.
"Well, there you have it."
"Look, I apologize, all right?" I said. "This is the most historic breakthrough in the history of the human race! We should be celebrating!"
"Well, it's not the most historic breakthrough in the history of the daisy race," the flower replied. "I find you arrogant, self-centred, and a rather dull conversationalist. I am all through communicating with human beings now and forever, and I'm going to go back to peacefully and silently contemplating my navel."
"You don't have a navel," I pointed out.
"I was couching the concept in terms you'd understand, which was clearly a waste of time. Now please go away."
I spoke to it for another half an hour, but couldn't get any response. I considered calling in Doctors DiChario and Gormley, but then I did some serious thinking, and I decided that if the daisy kept its promise and didn't speak to them, they'd think I was either crazy or a liar (or both). And if it did speak to them, they'd apply for the same grants I was living on, and with their superior credentials they'd wrest them away from me and I'd have to go out and find another (and doubtless more difficult) way to make a living. If I tried to make my findings public and the daisy passed the word to its kith and kin, no one would be able to verify it and I'd become a laughing stock. And if the other flowers were as foul-tempered and obnoxious as the daisy, why would anyone want to communicate with them in the first place?
The more I thought about it, the more I decided that nothing is sometimes the very best thing to do.
I carefully disconnected the daisy from the computer.
Some time later I found myself thinking about Bubbles La Tour again, and my hand absently went to the flower.
"She loves me..." I intoned dreamily, "She loves me not..."
(Five-time Hugo winner Mike Resnick is the author of more than 50 novels and 200 stories, and has edited more than 40 anthologies. He has won major awards in six countries, and his work has been translated into 22 languages.)
感谢日月光华科幻版wendyfly的翻译
发信人: wendyfly (祁红屯绿·准备回家啦~~), 信区: Whim
标题: 未公开的伟大发现（trans）
发信站: 日月光华 (2006年06月17日06:31:04 星期六)
能说出来真好……
研究小组在爱荷华州（或者内布拉斯加州？）提出了确切的证据证明植物可以感知疼痛，随后的那几天，甚至之后的好几个月，它都成为了报纸的头版头条。我们有上百万的人成为素食主义者只是因为他们不愿意为了果腹而使动物死于非命，但是现在他们突然发现他们吃的每一种东西都会感觉到疼痛。我觉得这神奇。这就是为什么我改掉自己的专业而转向植物学——因为我不可遏止地想知道：如果植物可以感觉，那它们还能干什么？就像，比如说，它们可以思考么？
当然，除非你能和别人交流你的思想，否则在自身中思考就是一条死路，特别是你被钉在一处的时候。所以这就是实际上我想研究的东西。所幸我知道如何能够得到政府的项目批准，因为在我拿到我的博士学位之后，我花费了14个年头，但是我还看不到任何成功的迹象。
我跟它们说话，我给它们演奏音乐，我用我所知道的每一种语言给它们写讯息。我甚至给它们介绍了很多能说已经佚失不用的语言的教授。全都枉费心机！
越战越勇——好吧，只是没那么气馁——我引进了心灵学，看看是否能够和我实验室里的任何植物形成一种结合。命运仍然没有眷顾我。我把蜜蜂和蝴蝶放在纱笼里，然后对花进行解说：如果它们想繁殖的话，就应该把所有它们要做的事情告诉我，我将把这些昆虫放进去，这样生殖的过程才能得以进行。毫无反应。
最后，我把它们联上了计算机，聪明异常的机器，它们能够几乎能够把任何信号转译为日常语言，无论它是多么细小，多么基本，多么微弱，多么陌生。但是我只得到一片寂静。
我仍然记得那次的峰回路转。我那时正遇见了Bubbles La Tour，并且对她一见倾心，一个绝对正点的舞女，虽然在她的节目单上，她几乎不能被叫做是脱衣舞娘，因为她全裸上场（然后才变得活力四射）。我走到一株实验室的杂交雏菊那里，然后开
始一片一片地扯下它的花瓣，念叨着：“她爱我……她不爱我……她爱我……”
“噢！”一个奇怪的声音。
我环顾了一下实验室，但是我没有见到任何人。
怔了一怔，我确定我只是幻觉，然后我拉掉另一些花瓣。
“妈的，真痛！”那个声音又开始了。“我跟你有仇么？”
“请原谅……”我说，一边环顾四周试图发现说话的人。
“请求我的原谅，话虽如此”，那个声音说，“可你正在剥光我！下一步你该将我开膛破肚了？”
“谁在说话？”我追问道。
“你正在拉掉谁的肢体？”那个声音反问道。
我盯着雏菊，突然我看到它仍然联在计算机上。之前两天我都在进行着我最近的实验，并且忘了断开它。
“是你？”我说，一边俯下身去。
“是，是我。”雏菊说。“而且如果你准备站的离我这么近的话请去刷牙。我还指望着以我馨香立足于这个世界呢！”
“你能说话！”我兴奋地叫起来，然后重复道，“你能说话！”
“观察得真敏锐！”雏菊说，“在你的同侪中，你一定是最聪明的一个。”
“你没有必要挖苦我。”我说。
“你也没有必要丧心病狂，你一直在扯掉我的肢体。”
“你的花瓣。”我纠正它。
“称谓不同而已。”雏菊说。
“好吧，现在我知道你能讲话，我保证再也不这样了，”我说。
“我不想显得这么没教养，但是你知道我感觉疼痛有多久了？！”
“这让你说话了，不是么？”我为自己辩护。
“那当你的配偶跟你生气，不再和你说话，你会扯掉她的胳膊腿么？”
“永远不可能！”我承认。
“哼，你已经这样做了。”
“来，我道歉，可以么？”我说，“这是人类历史上最具有历史意义的突破！我们应该庆祝！”
“这在雏菊的历史上可不是什么最具有历史意义的突破，”雏菊花回答道，“我发现你傲慢，自我中心，而且是一个了无趣味的夸夸其谈者。从现在起直到永远我将中止和人类的交谈，我将回到我的脐点和平地、安静地沉思。”
“你没有一个脐点啊，”我向它指出。
“我超先了概念所以你不懂，很明显在对牛弹琴。现在请你离开我。”
我又对它说了半个小时，但是没有得到任何反应。我考虑去拜访DiChario和Gormley博士，但是然后我严肃地思考了一会，认为，如果雏菊恪守它的诺言，不对他们说话，他们一定会觉得我不是疯了就是骗子（或者二者都有）。如果雏菊对他们说话了，他们将同样申请这个我赖以生存的项目，而且以他们更高的资历他们将把这些项目从我这里夺走，我不得不走出去另辟蹊径来谋生（毫无疑问会艰难的多）。即使我试图将我的发现公开，那个雏菊也会给它的亲戚朋友捎信，没有人能够验证它，而我将会成为一个笑柄。而且如果其他的花儿也像这个雏菊一样性格龟毛、惹人讨厌，谁愿意开始和它们交谈？！
我想的越多，越是觉得有时候最好的事情莫过于什么都不去做。
我小心地断开了雏菊和计算机的联结。
一段时间以后，我发现我还在想念着Bubbles La Tour，我的手不经意地伸向花儿。
“她爱我……”我如痴如醉地吟诵般地念叨着，“她不爱我……”#
.......................................................................................................................................
发信人: wendyfly (祁红屯绿·准备回家啦~~), 信区: Whim
标题: Re: 未公开的伟大发现（trans）
发信站: 日月光华 (2006年06月17日06:33:43 星期六)
睡不着觉，随便翻了一下……
意译的很厉害，大家随便看看，呵呵
还是要说，这比翻译经济学和哲学的东西好玩多了……
继续经济学翻译中~~
