重拾被遗忘的语言:自然之声的内在力量
我们人类已经停止倾听了。存在一种我们都曾熟练掌握沟通之道的语言,却已将其关闭;我们天生就精通它,却遗忘了如何去听。我坚信,解决我们作为人类面临的许多危机,关键在于重新学习倾听这种语言——那便是大自然的声音。
我邀请大家做一个简单的练习:闭上眼睛,在心里记下此刻的感觉。无论你是因一周的忙碌而快乐,还是感到压力重重,亦或是被我的伦敦口音所吸引或打扰,请诚实地感受。现在,请闭上眼睛,打开耳朵。(播放自然之声) 你感觉如何?不同了,对吧?也许感觉好了一点,更放松了些。许多人脸上露出了笑容。你们刚刚被带到了西巴布亚。那美妙的旋律来自一只兜帽屠夫鸟(hooded butcherbird),信不信由你,它其实是肉食性的。你可能不认为掠食者也能歌唱。
这究竟是为何?是因为你们都是像我一样的自然爱好者吗?也许吧。但更可能的原因是,我们所有人从进化上就与大自然的声学语言紧密相连。我们与它如此紧密,以至于鸟鸣、虫鸣的打击乐、两栖动物的交响曲,都被科学证明能够触发你的副交感神经系统,即让你感到放松。你可能也注意到,你仿佛置身于一片热带雨林。这仅仅是依靠你的耳朵实现的。鸟鸣让我们感到放松,很可能是因为它一直是“大自然母亲”发出的一个真实信号,表明周围没有掠食者。但并非所有声音都令人放松。(播放狮子咆哮声) 在黑暗中听到附近一只看不见的母狮的吼叫,会引发一连串恐惧,但这种恐惧也是实用且成比例的。令人不安的、不寻常的寂静也会产生同样的效果。难怪我们会看到城市焦虑症的上升。我们可能在不知不觉中将自己置于一种进化性的压力之下。
大自然的声音对我们有特殊作用。虽然常常难以言喻,但我们的神经系统却像遥控器一样理解它。蒙上眼睛,我敢打赌,我可以把你们中的任何一个人置于一个生物多样性的环境中,你们就能告诉我那是黎明。(播放自然之声) 白天。(播放自然之声) 黄昏。(播放自然之声) 还是夜晚。(播放自然之声) 那声‘咕咕’声来自一只potoo(一种夜鸟),一个值得回家后查阅的奇特名字。这些声音都来自亚马逊雨林同一地点。生物多样性越丰富,就越容易分辨。还有一个更深的层次。至今仍有原住民追踪者(First Nations trackers)能够告诉你,森林中有一只看不见的掠食者正朝西北方向移动,仅仅凭鸟鸣的变化就能判断。我们的祖先是生态学的**‘多语者’**(polyglots of ecology)。倾听即是认知。注意力不集中,就意味着生命危险。我们的祖辈生活在与其它物种的歌声保持着一种专注的关系中,参与着跨越数百万年的对话。但那种流利度仍然存在于你们体内。在我们的整个进化过程中,倾听一直是我们的重要指南针。但现在我们关闭了它。难怪我们会迷失方向。
那么,这与解决危机有什么关系呢?我今天能站在这里的经历很不寻常。我并非来自一个自然风光优美的地方。我出生并成长在伦敦北部肮脏的老城区,更常听到的是警笛声和音乐——我得说,是好音乐——而不是鸟鸣。在 Ends 长大,我对音乐的热爱引导我走上了成为一名音乐家的道路。但我今天站在这里,是一个狂热的自然爱好者。尽管我在城市长大,但我从小就对大自然着迷。然而,我和我的朋友们却最难接触到它,尽管我们许多人都有来自自然富饶之地的祖先。很长一段时间,我觉得我必须将这两个世界分开。你如何营销一个能和你谈论复杂生物学知识的 Rapper,同时又拥有动物学全学位?但在 COVID 期间,我优秀的妈妈和姐姐真的说服我将这两者结合起来。声音是我两种热爱的共同点。然而,如果我们超过 55% 的人类生活在城市并且这个比例还在上升,我们就无法体验到这一点。如果我想让人们重新与自然联系,我就需要把这些声音带回来。
所以我制造了这些全向麦克风。这些就是我随身携带的。当我没被误认为是带着探测器的外星人时,我就录音。我第一次这样做时,发生了一件疯狂的事。我戴上耳机,然后我消失了。不是字面意义上的。但我不再是一个个体了。我被接入了一个压倒性的、高度同步的生命合唱之中。倾听这些声音……不仅仅是告诉我信息。它让我感觉……就像一种生命之汤,一种我的 DNA 所知的语言,我从根本上理解它,不是作为 Louis,而是作为一个人。这肯定能成为人们的新工具,特别是那些散居海外的人们,帮助他们重新连接故土,那里仍然有丰富的自然。请记住,在漫长的殖民主义、掠夺主义历史中,跨大西洋奴隶贸易的散居者不仅被剥离了故土,也被剥离了那里的自然。像日出一样常见的对我们祖先来说的声音,现在在我们经历中已经消失了。但这正在发生在我们所有人身上,无论我们来自哪里。重新连接自然是我们在这个星球上拥有未来的根本,因为地球的健康与我们的健康息息相关。
大自然的声音对我们这个物种至关重要。我们进化不仅是为了听取信息,更是为了对它产生情感反应。这也许就是音乐对我们如此强大的原因。它跨越障碍。言语无法表达时,它增添了意义。它产生共鸣。许多科学家认为,音乐在人类语言之前就已存在,灵感来源于模仿地球的歌声。但作为音乐家,我们相对来说是后来者。试问夜莺或座头鲸,是我们发明了音乐。大自然是最初的艺术家。
Original English
We humans have stopped listening. Wow, you all really listen to that. (Laughter) But it's true. There's a language out there that we all know how to communicate really quite well, but we’ve tuned out of. One we’re innately fluent in, yet forgotten how to hear. I truly believe the key to solving many of our crises as humans is relearning to listen to this language. What I'm talking about is the sounds of nature. I want to take you all somewhere real quick, if that's alright. I want you to close your eyes and make a mental note of how you feel right now. You can be happy from the week, stressed. It is a Wednesday in the middle of the week. Charmed already from my London accent or annoyed by it. Just be honest. Now close your eyes and open your ears. (Nature sounds) Mmm... How do you feel? Different, right? A bit better, maybe slightly more relaxed. I saw quite a few smiles playing across people's faces. You were just transported to West Papua. That beautiful melody was a hooded butcherbird, which, believe it or not, is carnivorous. Didn't think predators could sing like that, right? (Laughter) So what's happened? Is it that you're all nature geeks like me? Maybe. But it's probably because we're all evolutionarily hardwired to nature's sonic language. See, we're so hardwired to it, so much so, the birdsong, choruses of birdsong, the percussion of insects, the symphony of amphibians has all been shown scientifically to trigger your parasympathetic nervous system, aka make you feel relaxed. You probably also noticed you were in a forest and a tropical one at that. It might seem obvious to mention, but that was just from you using your ears. Look at you flexing your fluency already. It's possible the birdsong makes us feel relaxed because it's been ... a genuine signal from Mother Nature that there's no predators around. But it can't be all relaxing. (Lion roars) Hearing this from an unseen lioness near you in the dark, trust me, triggers a cascade of fear. But one that's also practical and proportionate. Eerie, unusual silence does the same thing. It's no wonder that we're seeing a rise in anxiety in cities. We may be unknowingly subjecting ourselves to an evolutionary stress. See, nature sound does something to us. It's often hard to put into words, true, but our nervous system understands it like a remote control. Blindfold on, I bet I could put any one of you in a biodiverse environment, and you'd be able to tell me if it was dawn. (Nature sounds) The middle of the day. (Nature sounds) Dusk. (Nature sounds) Or nighttime. (Nature sounds) That coo right there was a potoo, which is a crazy word worth looking up when you get home. Each of these was recorded in the exact same place in the Amazon rainforest. The more biodiverse, the easier it is. There's an even deeper level. There are still First Nations trackers alive today that can tell you there's an unseen predator moving through the forest in a northwest direction, just from the change in birdsong. Our ancestors were polyglots of ecology. (Birdsong) To listen was to know. Inattention was literally life-threatening. Our ancestral grandmothers and grandfathers lived in an attentive relationship to the songs of other species, contributing to conversations that span back millions of years. But that fluency is still in you. Why, for our entire evolution, listening has been a big part of our compass. But now we turned that off. It's no wonder that we lost our bearing. So what's this got to do with solving crises, Louis? I'm glad you asked. (Laughter) Now my path to standing before you here today is an unusual one. I'm not exactly from a place abundant in natural charms. Born and raised in grimy old north London, more common to hear sirens and music -- good music, I might add -- than birdsong. Growing up in Ends, my love of music led me down the path to becoming a musician. But I'm standing here today as a massive nature geek. Nice to meet you. Even though I grew up in a city, I've always been fascinated by nature from day dot. Yet it was something that me and my friends had the least access to. Yet many of us had ancestry from nature-rich places. For a long time I felt that these two worlds I had to keep separate. How would you market a rapper that can talk to you about the complexities of h with a full-blown degree of zoology? But during COVID, my amazing mom and sister really persuaded me to combine the things, the damn things, a couple more swear words I might add, but I won't say. See, sound was the common denominator between my two loves. Yet ... if there’s over 55 percent of us humans living in cities and rising, we don't get to experience this. If I wanted people to reconnect to nature, I needed to bring these sounds back. So I built these omnidirectional mics. These right here, I bring with me wherever I go. When I'm not being mistaken for an alien with a probe, I record. The first time I did this, something crazy happened. I put my headphones on. And I disappeared. Not literally, of course. (Laughter) But I wasn't an individual anymore. I was plugged into an overwhelming, highly synchronous chorus of aliveness. See, listening to these sounds ... (Nature sounds) ... didn't just tell me information. It made me feel ... like ... something like a soup of life, a language that my DNA knew that I fundamentally understood, not as Louis, but as a human. Surely this could be a new tool for people, particularly people from the diaspora, to reconnect to the places that we're from that are still abundant in nature there. See, remember, for a long history of colonialism, extractivism the transatlantic slavery diaspora have been pulled not just from the lands we're from, but from the nature there. Sounds as common as the rising sun to our ancestors are now our extinct in our experience. But that's happening to all of us, wherever we're from. Reconnecting to nature is fundamental if we're to have a future on this planet, because planetary health and our health go hand in hand. See, nature sounds are so important to us as a species. We evolved not just to hear the information, but to have an emotional response to it. That's probably why music is so powerful for us. It transcends barriers. Where words fail, it adds meaning. It resonates. Many scientists believe music predated language in humans, inspired by mimicking the songs of Earth. But we are relatively new on the scene as musicians. Try telling a nightingale or humpback whale that we invented music. Mother Nature is the original artist.[BODY_END]
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自然的交响曲:应对现代危机的钥匙
回到那只兜帽屠夫鸟,我可以想象出那种模仿的瞬间。(播放自然之声,伴随轻柔的电子钢琴声) 奇怪的是,我什么都没做,就认出了它,我说,这是 G Phrygian(弗里几亚音阶),对音乐不那么懂的人来说就是 C 小调。但我们来看看和声。(音乐继续) 好的。我可以想象,过去的人们听到这个,会受到启发,并开始创作音乐。但我们得检查一下和弦。当然,没有贝斯,一首歌算什么?(播放贝斯吉他声)
(演唱) 哦,是的。哦,是的。是的。 你可以冥想直到飘然欲仙, 生活在高处直到你轻如鸿毛, 尝试飞翔直到羽毛疼痛, 但倾听那个造就你的世界, 将是我们提升的方式。 重新连接,事物将会改变。 我知道事物是灰色的, 但未来是绿色的,如果我们努力。 让你的黑色素提升,你的水平提高。 让我们深呼吸,让我们通风。 你内在的自己是如此 OK。 闭上眼睛,做这件简单的事。 大自然喜欢你倾听。 快乐是最真实的愤怒。 给大自然母亲时间,伙计。 她只需要一件简单的事。 大自然喜欢你倾听。 大自然喜欢你倾听。 是的,是的,是的,是的,是的。 倾听这个世界,兜帽屠夫鸟如是说。 是的,是的,是的,是的。 倾听这个世界,兜帽屠夫鸟如是说。 告诉你!哇!是的! 倾听这只鸟,兜帽屠夫鸟如是说,告诉你。 所以倾听这只鸟,兜帽屠夫鸟如是说,告诉你。 倾听这只鸟,兜帽屠夫鸟如是说。 是的,是的。 倾听这只鸟。 倾听这……倾听这只鸟。 这只兜帽屠夫鸟。 (掌声)
这就是我的鸟类学理论。(笑声) 像那样喜欢科学的极客。所以,像我这样的人很少有机会去雨林,更不用说一年去三个地方了。相信我。但我很幸运,被邀请去了西巴布亚,多米尼加(或者更准确地称为 Waitukubuli,我一半的家人来自加勒比地区),以及位于厄瓜多尔亚马逊心脏地带的 Sarayaku 国家,与 Moth Collective 一起。每一个地方都是过去和现在由原住民管理的地区,也因此成为了生物多样性的热点。
我们在亚马逊时,Kichwa 人教我们关于 Kawsak Sacha(卡瓦克·萨查),它的意思是“活着的森林”。它不仅仅指巨嘴鸟、美洲豹、貘。(播放自然之声) 现在你能听到的许多青蛙。不,它指的是树木、河流、岩石、土壤、真菌、空气,一切。就像地球一样,森林本身是一个活的有机体,而我们就像器官一样,互相歌唱着我们的功能。没有了殖民主义,大自然听起来有多美妙?看到这些数千种生命及其栖息的宇宙的美妙声音……当然,这就是 Kawsak Sacha。但这也解释了为什么我们在缺乏这些生命交响乐的地方如此难以建立联系。
我们正处于气候危机、生物多样性危机之中。有战争、有种族灭绝、有抑郁、焦虑症在上升。但这一切的核心,是我们处于一场**“注意力不集中”**(crisis of inattention)的危机。我们就像苹果,忘记了我们来自的树是活着的。不仅它活着,而且它还结出许多其他果实。确切地说,是 870 万个。我们共享这个星球的 870 万个其他物种。(播放自然之声) 这是一只夜鹰,听起来像激光。我们错过了多少歌曲、文化和故事?我们并非能轻易地与自然分离开来,而倾听它,并不仅仅是告诉你这一点。它让你去感受它。
更加关注大自然的声学语言……也许能帮助我们更好地与它共存,因为倾听需要**‘具身化的尊重’**(embodied respect)。但我们已经停止倾听太久了,以至于几乎没有注意到我们正在让它变得寂静。我们冒着未来几代人认为寂静是正常的风险。(叹气) 这有点令人尴尬。我们才刚见面,我就欠你们一个道歉了。现在我希望能帮助你们倾听了,恐怕你们无法‘听而不闻’了。你们走出去会注意到美丽的鸟鸣。但你们也会注意到钻孔声、哔哔声、刮擦声、燃烧声和寂静。你无法‘听而不闻’大自然的交响乐,但你也无法‘听而不闻’我们正在对它做什么。
但没关系,因为‘注意到’就是关键。我们不仅要意识到我们可能会失去什么,还要意识到在一个充满自然的未来中,我们能获得什么。认识到大自然不是奢侈品,而是必需品。我们对生命对话的参与,不仅仅是被观察的对象,更是我们自身的一部分。(播放自然之声) 所以,走出去,改变的不是你看待世界的方式,而是你听世界的方式。而改变你听世界的方式,希望你将永远不会再以同样的方式看待它。谢谢你们。(欢呼和掌声)