雷霆战机晶核怎么进阶:长生不老的负面后果

Stephen Cave是一本即将面世的新书《不朽：探索永生及其对人类文明的影响》的作者

Berlin

柏林

IMAGINE nobody dies. All of a sudden, whether through divine intervention or an elixir slipped into the water supply, death is banished. Life goes on and on; all of us are freed from fear that our loved ones will be plucked from us, and each of us is rich in the most precious resource of all: time.

设想一下，没有人会死。突然之间，不管是因为牧师的祈祷，或者是长生不老药溶进了自来水管，总之，没有人再会死去。生命将永远持续。我们所有人都从爱人将会死去的恐惧中解脱出来。并且，我们每一个人都将拥有无限的，但曾经是最为宝贵的资源：时间。

Wouldn’t it be awful?

难道这样不好吗？

This is the premise of the TV series “Torchwood: Miracle Day,” a co-production of Starz and the BBC that has been running over the summer and ends in September. The “miracle” of the title is that no one dies anymore, but it proves to be a curse as overpopulation soon threatens to end civilization. The show is a nice twist on our age-old dream of living forever. And it is right to be pessimistic about what would happen if this dream were fulfilled — but for the wrong reasons. Materially, we could cope with the arrival of the elixir. But, psychologically, immortality would be the end of us.

这是电视系列片《火炬木：奇迹日》所假设的前提条件，这部由Starz和BBC联合制作的系列片在整个夏季播出，到9月播完。该剧的片名“奇迹”，就是指没有人再会死去，但这最终被证明是一个祸端，人类文明将很快因为人口过剩而面临终结的威胁。这部系列片很有趣的扭转了我们长久以来对梦想永生的看法。并且，它对于永生的梦想实现后将会发生的事情，持完全悲观的态度——但却是出于错误的理由。在物质上，我们可以应付长生不老药的到来。但在精神上，不朽，将会成为人类的终结。

The problem is that our culture is based on our striving for immortality. It shapes what we do and what we believe; it has inspired us to found religions, write poems and build cities. If we were all immortal, the motor of civilization would sputter and stop.

问题在于，我们的文化是建立在我们对不朽的追求上。这种追求塑造了我们的行为和信仰；在它的启发下，我们建立宗教，谱写诗歌，建设城市。如果我们再也不会死去了，那么驱动文明的发动机将会立刻熄火并完全停止运转。

Poets and philosophers have long been attuned to the fact that the quest for immortality drives much of humanity’s peculiar ways. But only in recent decades has scientific evidence backed this up.

诗人和哲学家很久以前就阐述了这样一个事实：人类的发展，在很多方面，由人类对不朽的追求所驱动的。但直到最近几十年，这一事实才有了科学证据的支持。

In a study that began in 1989, a group of American social psychologists found that just briefly reminding people that they would die had a remarkable impact on their political and religious views.

在1989年开始的一项研究中，一组美国社会心理学家发现，只要稍稍提醒人们，他们最终将会死去这一事实，就能对他们的政治和宗教观念产生非常显著的影响。

In their first experiment, the researchers recruited court judges from Tucson. Half the judges were reminded of their mortality (via an otherwise innocuous personality test) and half were not. They were then all asked to rule on a hypothetical case of prostitution similar to those they ruled on. The judges who had first been reminded of their mortality set a bond nine times higher than those who hadn’t (averaging $455 compared to $50).

在他们的第一次实验中，研究员招募了一批图森法院的法官作为研究对象。其中一半法官被提醒他们将会死去（通过一个无关痛痒的人格测试），而另一半法官则没有被提醒。之后，所有法官都按照要求，对一桩假设的卖淫案作出裁决，这桩案件与他们曾经裁决过的案子很相似。结果表明，那些经过死亡提示的法官所设置的保释金，9倍于那些没有经过死亡提示的法官所设置的数额（两组法官设定的保释金平均值分别是455美元和50美元）

These psychologists — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg and Tom Pyszczynski — were testing the hypothesis that we have developed our cultural worldviews in order to give us the sense that we might defy death. They reasoned that if this were not the case, when faced with reminders of mortality, people would cling more fiercely to their beliefs and be more negative about those who threatened them. This is just what happened with the judges: when reminded that they would one day die, they were more severe in punishing those who violated their worldview.

这些心理学家——Sheldon Solomon， Jeff Greenberg 和 Tom Pyszczynski——曾经测试了一个假说：我们发展出我们的人文世界观，以便给自己一种可以抵御死亡的感觉。他们论证了，如果意识到死亡难以避免，当面对终究难逃一死的提示时，人们会更加强烈的依赖他们的信仰，并更加消极的对待那些令他们感受到威胁的事物。这正是发生在法官身上的现象：当被提示总有一天会死去后，他们更加严厉的惩罚了那些亵渎了他们世界观的人。

Social psychologists have since tested this hypothesis in more than 400 experiments that aim to explore different aspects of our worldview, from patriotism to religion. So far, their results consistently support a thesis — known as Terror Management Theory — that particular aspects of our outlook are governed by our need to manage our fear of death. In other words, our cultural, philosophical and religious systems exist to promise us immortality.

社会心理学家曾经在400组实验中测试了这个假说，目的是从世界观的不同方面加以探索，从爱国主义到宗教。至今为止，他们的结果始终支持着一个论点——著名的恐惧管理理论——我们观念中的某些方面受到一种需求的支配，这一需求就是控制我们自己对死亡的恐惧。换言之，我们的文化、哲学和宗教等系统之所以存在，就是因为我们可以从中得到不朽的承诺。

Every civilization has had such systems. They are embodied in the pyramids of Egypt, the cathedrals of Europe and even the skyscrapers of modern cities. Odds are that you too, dear reader, subscribe to at least one such system — a set of beliefs that motivates you and somehow promises life’s continuance. Perhaps you believe that if you attend church or a synagogue or a mosque, your soul will endure in another realm. Perhaps you are encouraging your children’s confidence that something of you will live on in them; or perhaps you are taking vitamins and jogging in the hope that you can outrun the Reaper.

人类历史上每一个文明都有类似的系统。它们体现于埃及的金字塔，欧洲的大教堂，甚至体现于现代都市中的摩天大厦。很可能也包括你，亲爱的读者，支持着至少一个这样的系统——比如一套信仰，激励着你，并以某种方式向你许诺生命将永远延续。可能你相信，如果去某个基督教堂、犹太教堂，或者穆斯林清真寺，你的灵魂将继续存在于另一个世界中。你可能会为鼓励自己孩子的自信，而告诉他们你的某一部分将永远和他们在一起；或者可能你在服用维他命并且进行慢跑锻炼，以期待自己能比死神跑得更快。

Some of these systems overtly flaunt their death-defying promise: Christianity and Islam, for example, make a great deal of the prospect of eternal bliss. As do the arts, in particular cinema and its accompanying celebrity culture — as the film star James Dean acknowledged when he said that “the only success, the only greatness, is immortality.” But when we look deeper we also find the promise of deathlessness in places where it is not at all explicit: in the accumulation of wealth, with its attendant aura of life-sustaining power; through immersion in a greater whole, whether a nation or a football team; or even in the pursuit of scientific research, with its claim to enduring truth.

这些系统中的一部分公然宣扬他们对抗死亡的承诺——比如基督教和伊斯兰教，竭尽全力的承诺永久的赐福。或者像艺术，在电影及相伴而来的明星文化中——就像电影明星James Dean那引人注目的话，“唯有不朽，才是成功，才是伟大。”但如果看得更深入一些，我们还会发现在某些地方，这些不死的承诺表现得非常隐晦：在财富的积累中，通过财富所体现的延续生活的能力来表现实现不朽的承诺；无论是一个民族还是一支球队，都是通过以个体融入更大的整体从而实现不朽；甚至在科研工作中，也通过宣扬坚持真理而取得了不朽。

The real question posed by the “Torchwood” scenario is: what would happen to all our death-defying systems if there were no more death? The logical answer is that they would be superfluous. We would have no need for progress or art, faith or fame. Suddenly, we would have nothing to do, yet in the greatest of ironies, we would have endless eons in which to do it. Action would lose its purpose and time its value. This is the true awfulness of immortality.

《火炬木》的剧情提出的真正问题是：如果再也没有死亡，那么所有我们这些抵御死亡的系统又会发生什么？合理的答案是，它们都将失去意义，变得多余而不再有存在的必要。我们不再需要发展，不需要艺术，不需要信仰，甚至不需要名望。突然之间，我们将会无事可做，更为讽刺的是，我们将会永远无所事事的生活下去。人类活动将失去它的目的，而它的价值也将不复存在。这才是永生所导致的真正糟糕的结果。

Let us be grateful that the elixir continues to elude us — and toast instead our finitude.

让我们为长生不老药还没有被发现而感到高兴吧，同时也庆幸我们生命的有限。