【TED】What if you experienced every human
Imagine that your life began roughly 300,000 years ago as one of the planet’s first humans. At this time, you live in Africa near modern-day Morocco, and your life isn’t too different from that of your hominid parents. You make crude tools, hunt, and gather food and materials, until, eventually, you perish. But this is only the beginning. Because after dying, you travel back in time to be reincarnated as the second human ever to live. While you don't remember your former life, your previous actions affect you nonetheless. And after dying once more, you return as the third person, then the fourth, the fifth, and so on— living the lives of every single human that’s ever walked the Earth.
想象一下，你的人生 从大约 30 万年前开始了， 而你是地球上最早的人类之一。 此时此刻，你住在非洲， 接近如今的摩洛哥， 你的生活和你的原始人父母 并没有什么太大的区别。 你会做粗糙的工具，打猎， 收集食物和材料， 直到迎来死亡的那天。 但这只是个开始。 因为你死后，又穿越回去， 转世成为了史上第二个人类。 虽然你不记得你前世的事， 但是你之前的行为还是会 影响你的这一世。 死了一次又一次以后， 你转世成为了第三个人、第四个人， 第五个人等等…… 你会经历地球上 每一个存活过的人的人生。
Strung end to end, these lives last almost 4 trillion years. Since you only recall the life you’re currently living, your psyche doesn’t carry the entire weight of human history. However, each of your lifetimes still has a profound impact on your future selves. Sometimes your influence on the world is obvious, but these major historical figures only account for a tiny fraction of your experience. Instead, your existence consists mostly of ordinary lives, filled with everyday tasks like eating, laughing, working, and worrying. For approximately one tenth of your 4 trillion years, you’re a hunter-gatherer. For 60%, you’re an agriculturalist, developing tools and techniques which you employ over roughly 800 billion years of working on farms. Across your lifetimes, you spend 1.5 billion years having sex and another 250 million years giving birth. In total, 20% of your existence is spent raising children, to whom you impart a variety of cultural values that influence the trajectory of generations. In some lives, you shatter those cultures through invasion and imperialism. In others, you suffer as your lands and loved ones are taken away. In over 1% of lives, you’re afflicted with malaria or smallpox, while, in others, you treat these conditions— saving countless versions of yourself.
这些人生头尾相连 要持续 4 万亿年。 由于你只能记住 你现在所处的这一世， 你的脑子不会 肩负整个人类历史的重担。 但是，你的每一次人生 都会对未来的自己产生深远的影响。 有时，你对世界的影响很明显， 但是这些重大的历史事件 只是你经历中的沧海一粟。 相反，你的存在 大多由平淡日常组成， 充满了日常行为，如吃饭、 欢笑、工作、焦虑。 你的 4 万亿年中 大约有十分之一的时间 作为一名狩猎采集者。 有 60% 的时间，你作为 一名农学家开发工具和技巧， 用于长达约 8000 亿年的务农。 纵览你的人生， 你在性生活上花了 15 亿年， 又在生孩子上花了 2.5 亿年。 总共有 20% 的时间 花在了养孩子上， 你得把会影响世世代代延续的 各种文化价值传给你的孩子。 在某几段人生中，这些文化 会因为侵略和扩张分崩离析。 在某几段人生中， 你会因家破人亡而备受折磨。 有超过 1% 的时间， 你在经受疟疾或天花的折磨， 但是在其余的时间里， 你能治疗这些疾病， 拯救了你的好几世。
In humanity’s early days, the average lifespan is fairly short. There are fewer lives to live, and your influence is usually limited to people physically near you. But as humans survive longer on average and Earth's population grows, you start to spend more time reliving the same action-packed years. A full third of your existence comes after 1200 CE, and a quarter of it takes place after 1750. At this point, technology and society start changing faster than ever. You invent steam engines, configure factories, and generate electricity, which power the daily machinery of all of your later lives. You live through revolutions in science, the deadliest wars in history, and dramatic environmental destruction. On average, each new life lasts longer, but the pace of your existence keeps accelerating. Conversations that previously took months to unfold now happen in minutes. Business ventures that you built over generations transform overnight. You enjoy luxuries you never could have sampled before, even in your past lives as kings and queens.
在人类早期，平均寿命挺短的。 你只能活一小段时间， 于是你的影响力通常仅限于 真正在你“身边”的人。 但随着人类普遍越活越久， 地球上的人口越来越多， 你开始重复经历 那几年丰富多彩的人生。 你有整整三分之一的时间 是在公元 1200 年之后， 有四分之一的时间 是在 1750 年之后。 此时此刻，科技和社会 以前所未有的速度快速发展。 你发明了蒸汽机， 开了工厂，生产出了电力， 为你余生所用的 常见机械提供了动力。 你经历了科学革命、 史上最致命的战争 和剧烈的环境破坏。 基本上每一段人生都更长了， 但是你经历的节奏越来越快。 以前要花几个月进行的对话 现在只要几分钟。 你花了几世建立起的企业 一夜间就转型了。 你享受着之前 从未体验过的奢侈品， 就算是国王王后的 那几世也没有机会体验。
After living over 100 billion lives, you're finally reborn as the youngest person alive today. But despite living through 300,000 years of human history, your actions have more impact today than 99% of your past lives. High-speed air travel allows you to carry contagions and cures across an ocean in hours. And the internet makes your personal sphere of influence global, allowing you to collaborate with anyone, anywhere, without even leaving your home. In recent lives, you’ve invented tools to rewrite the genes of living organisms, permanently altering their future generations. And in this life, you might create even more technologies that make the world safer, kinder, and more equitable for countless future lives. However, one careless invention could just as easily be catastrophic. Between nuclear weapons, lab leaks, climate change, and other existential threats, humanity's risk of inducing our own extinction has never been higher. In this fast-paced, interconnected world, it’s frighteningly easy to undo all of humanity’s progress, or potentially, cut short all your possible futures.
活了超过 1000 亿世以后， 你终于转世成为了 当下最年轻的人。 虽然你活过了 人类历史的三十万年， 但是你的所作所为在此刻产生的影响 比过往 99% 的人生都大。 高速航空旅行可以让你在几小时内 传播疾病、传递药物。 互联网把你的个人影响力 扩散到全球， 让你可以与任何人在任何地点合作， 甚至不需要离开你家。 在最近的几轮人生中， 你发明了工具改写生物的基因， 永久改变了这些生物的后代。 在现在的这段人生中， 你可能会发明更多的科技， 让世界对于无数的未来生命 更安全、更友好、更公平。 但是，一个无意间的发明 都有可能会引发灾难。 核武器、实验室泄漏、气候变化 和其他关乎人类存续的威胁， 人类把自己推向灭亡的风险 到了史无前例的高度。 在这快速、互联的世界中， 要想抹消人类所有的进步， 或者切断你所有未来的可能 简直易如反掌。
There's no way to know what will happen next. But what’s clear is that your potential is limitless. So, how will you spend this life? And what can you do to work towards a better future for all your lives to come?
我们无法知晓接下来会发生什么。 但显而易见的是 你的潜力是无穷的。 那你会如何度过此生呢？ 为了给你接下来的每一次轮回 争取一个美好未来， 你能做些什么呢？
