数学界的震荡与失去的英雄梦想
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 这里是《纽约时报》播客节目《The Daily》,我是蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯(Rachel Abrams)。就在今天早晨,数学界最艰深复杂的难题之一可能刚刚被攻克了——然而解开它的并非人类,而是人工智能(AI)。如今许多人都在为人工智能可能抢走自己的饭碗而惶恐不安,而现在,你也可以把数学家列入这张名单之中了。在短短几个月的时间里,人工智能系统接连挑战了数学领域里最庞大、最核心的几个重大问题,并且它们真的把这些问题给解出来了。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: From the New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams, and this is the Daily. This morning, one of the hardest problems in mathematics may have just been solved, not by a human, but by artificial intelligence. So many people are freaked out about AI taking their jobs. And now you can add mathematicians to that list. In the span of just a few months, AI systems have tackled some of the biggest problems in math. And they've solved them.
新闻原声播报: 几十年来,数学家们一直在殚精竭虑地试图攻克这个难题。他们此前始终无法找到突破口。然而人工智能却举重若轻地把它给解开了。
英文原文
News Clip: For decades, mathematicians have been working to solve this problem. They haven't been able to crack it. But AI, it just did it easily.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 上个月,被攻破的是该领域所谓的千禧年大奖难题(Millennium Problems)之一;紧接着就在上周,OpenAI 又密集发布了 350 多项涵盖数学几乎每一个角落的全新研究成果。这些问题字面意义上是地球上最聪明的头脑苦心钻研了数十年、甚至几个世纪的难题。人工智能对这一领域的席卷接管,引发了一系列令人不安的疑问,也释放了极其复杂的情绪。因此在今天,我们邀请到了一位数学家——康奈尔大学(Cornell University)数学教授斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨(Steven Strogatz),共同探讨当人工智能不仅要来夺走你的工作,还要夺走你的人生终极追求与意义时,究竟会发生什么。今天是 10 月 13 日,星期二。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: Last month, it was one of the field so-called millennium problems. And then last week, OpenAI released a torrent of over 350 other results covering virtually every corner of mathematics. These are problems that literally the smartest humans on Earth have been working on for decades and sometimes even centuries. This AI takeover of the field has raised some uncomfortable questions and unleashed a range of emotions. And so today we speak with a mathematician, Cornell math professor Steven Strogatz, about what happens when AI doesn't just come for your job, but for your purpose. It's Tuesday, October 13th.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 史蒂夫·斯特罗加茨,非常感谢你能来参加我们的节目。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: Steve Strogatz, thank you so much for joining us.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 嗨,蕾切尔。我非常高兴能见到你,来到这里和你交流。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: Hi Rachel. I'm really happy to see you and and be here with you.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 史蒂夫,我们今天邀请你的原因之一,当然是因为你是康奈尔大学备受尊敬的教授;但更主要的原因在于,你向来以擅长把数学语言“翻译”成通俗易懂的日常英语而闻名,专门帮助我们这些不会讲“数学语言”的外行理解数学。你其实还写过一本专门阐述这一主题的著作,书名叫《大数学》(Big Math)。因此我们特意向你求助,希望能帮助我们解读你和你的同行们目前正在亲身经历的这一场颠覆性的、动荡不安的数学时刻。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: So Steve, one of the reasons we're talking to you is of course because you are an esteemed professor at Cornell, but we are really talking to you because you are known for translating math into English for those of us who do not speak math. And you actually have a book that gets at this very thing. It is called Big Math. And so we are turning to you to help sort of translate this destabilizing moment in math that you and your colleagues are living through.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 是啊。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: Yeah.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 你能否先向我们描述一下,你会如何概括当下数学界整体的心态与情绪氛围?
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: Can you just start by explaining to us how would you sum up the mood in math right now?
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 哎呀,情绪氛围啊。是的,当下的情绪……大家的心态可以说是心烦意乱、不知所措(discombobulated)。我们所有人都像陷入了漩涡,晕头转向。有些人兴奋不已,他们认为在我们计算机朋友的帮助下,一个伟大的黄金时代正在降临。但我认为大多数人正在体会的是一种哀伤(grief),而且我们正处于哀伤的不同阶段:有些人还在试图讨价还价,有些人开始逐渐接受现实,还有些人依然处于全然的否认之中。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: Ooh, the mood. Yeah, the mood. The mood is um discombobulated. We're all a swirl. We're spinning. Some people are exhilarated. They see a great golden age upon us with the help of our computer friends. Most people I think are feeling grief and we're in different stages. Some people are bargaining, some are accepting, some are still denying.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 那么今天你正处于悲伤的哪一个阶段呢?
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: What stage of grief are you in today?
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 我今天感觉还挺不错的。不过我之前的心境一度非常灰暗低落。甚至有几天,我在接受采访的过程中当场痛哭失声。你知道,真正正在逝去的东西在于……我们向来喜欢将自己视作英雄,而这种英雄时代或许已经彻底终结了。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: I'm feeling pretty good. I have been dark. There have been days when I uh actually cried during interviews. You know what's actually being lost is um we like to think of ourselves as heroes and maybe that's over.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 这可真是一个重磅的新闻与定性。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: That's the big news.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 如果你再也无法成为世界上第一个解决某个难题、第一个理解某种深刻本质、或者第一个向全人类解释它的人,你又怎能自称是英雄呢?在我们的数学文化传承延续的数千年岁月里,我们当中的某些人确实幻想过在自己的生命故事中扮演英雄。而现在,那一切都已经落幕了。至少,这代表了我内心处于哀伤状态时的真实声音。当然,就像任何一位教授一样,我也完全可以站在对立面跟自己辩论反驳;但在那个悲伤的版本里,我们真的再也无法成为英雄了。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: It's hard to be a hero if you can't be the first to solve a problem or to understand something or to explain it to the world. And for the thousands of years that our culture of math has existed, we some of us did fantasize about being heroes in our own story. And now that's over. At least I mean this is the grief version of myself talking. I can of course like any professor argue against myself but in the sad version we won't get to be heroes anymore.
解谜的执念:从同步的蟋蟀到大脑神经元
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 史蒂夫,我想深入探讨一下这一点。因为我觉得很多正在听节目的听众可能不太能完全理解你所说的“英雄”到底是指什么,也不太理解你所说的“解开从未有人解开过的难题”究竟意味着什么。比如,当我想象一名大学数学教授给学生上课时,我脑海里浮现的其实是电影《心灵捕手》(Good Will Hunting)里的那个经典场景——教授在走廊的黑板上留下了一道高难度的傅里叶系统题,希望有学生能在学期结束前证明它。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: I want to get into this Steve because I feel like a lot of people listening aren't going to quite understand what you mean by heroes and what you mean by solving problems that nobody's ever solved before. Sure. Like when I think of for example a math college professor teaching students, I'm thinking of that scene in Goodwill Hunting. I also put an advanced FIA system on the main hallway chalkboard and I'm hoping that one of you might prove it by the end of the semester.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 那个场景里,马特·达蒙(Matt Damon)饰演的角色在黑板上飞快地解出一道极其漫长复杂的数学难题,教授走过来说:“抱歉,你在干什么?那是别人的心血,你这是在乱涂乱画!”——在你的这个故事版本里,你是马特·达蒙吗?
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: Where Matt Damon's character is solving a very long complicated math problem on a chalkboard. Sorry. What do you do? Sorry. That's people's work. You get graffiti here. Am I Matt Damon in this version of the story?
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 你要么是马特·达蒙,要么就是那个在黑板上发现马特·达蒙的证明的人,心里惊呼:“天呐,这家伙是个绝世天才,他只是需要一点点支持和指引!”看起来很对味。我大概更像是后者,是发现证明的那个人。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: You're either Matt Damon or you're the guy that finds Matt Damon's proof and thinks, "My god, this guy's a genius and he just needs a little bit of support." Oh my god. Looks right. I'm probably that guy.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 好吧。那么我相信你的日常生活肯定比电影场景要复杂得多。我只是想弄明白:你们平时是在帮助人们解开外行人眼中的那些复杂谜题吗?
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: Okay. So, is it I'm sure that your days are more complicated than this movie scene. I'm just trying to get a sense of like are you helping people solve what lay people might think of as complicated puzzles or
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: “谜题”(Puzzles)这个词用得很贴切。没错,我们的整个世界就是关于谜题的。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: That's a good word for it. Yes. Our world is about puzzles.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 嗯哼。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: Mhm.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 这些谜题有些是我们自己创造出来的,这取决于我们在研究哪种数学;但有些时候,它们是大自然亲手交到我们面前的谜题。这其实正是我所从事的那类数学研究。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: It's puzzles that we create depending on which type of math we're doing. Sometimes it's puzzles that nature hands to us. That's the kind of math I do actually.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 等等,能跟我们展开讲讲这是什么意思吗?这听起来非常有意思。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: Wait, tell us what you mean by that. That's really interesting.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 比如有一件事是我个人一直深深为之着迷的,那就是:群体是如何自发组织起来的?这可以是一群人,也可以是一群蟋蟀。我是说,这可能也是我的知名研究领域之一。在我们伊萨卡(Ithaca)这里有一种蟋蟀,学名叫雪白树蟋(Snowy tree cricket)。它们在树林里形成极其庞大的合唱团,所有的蟋蟀都以完全一致的节奏、步调高度同步地鸣叫。通常情况下,如果你看到交响乐团里的音乐家们以完美的节拍合奏,那是因为他们全都是受过极其严格专业训练的顶尖大师;然而,这些蟋蟀居然也做得到。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: Well, here's something I've personally been fascinated with, which is how do groups get organized? Could be groups of people, could be groups of crickets. I mean, that's one thing I might be known for. We have crickets here in Ithaca, a species called the snowy tree cricket. They chirp in enormous choruses, all chirping in unison, in sync. And normally like if you see people say in a symphony all the musicians playing in perfect time they're very highly trained expert musicians but yet these crickets can do it too.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 它们究竟是如何做到步调一致鸣叫的呢?我们现在找到了答案:当一只蟋蟀听到另一只蟋蟀的叫声时,它的神经系统会产生微小的微调,从而改变它下一次鸣叫的时间点。我们甚至可以精确测量这种调整。那么摆在面前的数学问题就是:假设田野里有一千只蟋蟀,这个庞大的群体究竟是如何自发组织、最终让整整一千只蟋蟀全部整齐划一地合唱鸣叫的?
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: How do they chirp in unison? And we now know the answer that when one cricket hears the chirp of another it actually makes a little adjustment into its nervous system that changes the timing of its next chirp. And we can measure that. So now the math problem is suppose I have a thousand of them in a field. How does that collective get itself so that all thousand are chirping in unison?
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 你可能会说,我根本不在乎蟋蟀怎么叫;但是,你自己的心脏内部也有着一模一样的同步运作机制!你体内有一组特殊的起搏细胞,负责触发心脏其余部分跳动,将血液源源不断地泵送到全身和大脑。如果这 10,000 个细胞没有高度组织化地齐步放电、协调命令心室收缩泵血,你就会陷入极其严重的疾病之中。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: And and you might say I don't care about crickets but your heart also has things that go in unison. You have special cells that trigger the rest of your heart to beat and pump blood to your body and to your brain. And if those 10,000 cells are not organized to all zap in unison telling your ventricles to pump, you're going to be very sick.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 所以我想说的是,对一个数学家而言,这两者在本质上其实是同一个问题。它们是同一个宏大主题下的不同变奏。我们所尝试做的,就是将混乱芜杂的现实世界抽象成一个极其纯粹优美的数学世界。在那里,我们可以推导出我们究竟如何能够促进同步,又该如何抑制同步。因为在某些病理情况下同步是有害的,比如帕金森病(Parkinson's disease)或癫痫(Epilepsy)患者,他们大脑中的神经元在不应该同步的时候发生异常同步放电。这归根结底是一个深刻的数学问题。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: So what I'm saying is to a mathematician, these are the same problem. This is variations on a theme. And what we try to do is abstract the messy real world into a very beautiful pristine mathematical world where we can figure out how can we encourage synchrony, how can we discourage it. There are cases where it's bad, like people who have Parkinson's disease or epilepsy. Their brain cells are firing in sync when they shouldn't be. This is a math problem.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 史蒂夫,总结一下你的意思:去弄懂一千只蟋蟀为什么能同步移动和鸣叫,对普通大众来说可能并没有什么太大的直接兴趣或意义;然而,搞清楚这一点,却能反过来帮助我们揭示人类心脏的运作机制。因此,虽然听你的讲解我也觉得蟋蟀挺有趣的,但即便有人不在乎蟋蟀,他们也必须在乎下游的医学影响,因为这切实关系到每个人的生死健康。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: So, just to summarize, Steve, what you're saying is that understanding a thousand crickets and why they move and make the noise that they do, that might not be of great interest or importance to many people. However, understanding that can help you understand how the heart works, for example. And so, it might not matter to me how a cricket makes its noise, although I am actually interested in that, listening to you explain it. But it should matter to me because the downstream effects of that, the medical implications, that matters to me.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 确实就是这个逻辑。这是人类历史上一个带有某种神秘魔力的奇妙现象:只要你放手让人们去追随纯粹的好奇心,伟大的奇迹就可能诞生,尽管这个过程有时可能需要耗费几个世纪的光阴。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: That's the argument. This is a a spooky aspect of history that if you let people follow their curiosity, great things can happen, but it might take centuries.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 我从你的描述中深刻感受到了这一点:你之所以热爱数学,绝不仅仅是因为它是一份糊口的工作,或者仅仅为了追求某种功利的最终结果;我能感觉到你之所以渴望理解数学,是因为你对我们周围的世界怀有极其纯粹而强烈的好奇心。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: I feel like what I'm getting from what you're describing is the sense that you are a person who doesn't just care about math because it's good for your job or to get to an end result. I'm getting the sense from you that you care about understanding math because you are curious about the world around you.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 嗯哼。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: Uhhuh.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 我想请你谈谈数学领域里的人们是如何看待自我的,以及当他们真正解开其中某些难题时,内心究竟能获得怎样独特的精神体验?
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: And I wonder if you could just talk a little bit about how people feel about themselves in the math field and the feelings they get from actually solving some of these puzzles.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 能探讨到这里真好,因为这种“感受”正是我们当前面临危机时最核心的症结所在。你刚才提到了谜题——想想看,当你沉浸在你最喜欢的谜题中时,不论是拼图、数独还是填字游戏,当你被卡住、百思不得其解时,那种感觉其实带有某种奇妙的张力;而一旦你迎来突破的那一瞬间,又是何等的满足!
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: M yeah it's good to go here this question of feeling is what's at stake among other things you mentioned puzzles think about what it is to do whatever your favorite puzzle is jigsaw sodoku cross word puzzle it sort of feels good to be stumped and then it's satisfying when you have a breakthrough
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 是的,尤其是当你终于填出那个填字游戏单词的时候,感觉太棒了。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: When you finally get the word of the cross word yes.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 对吧?那种所有碎片严丝合缝咔嗒一声拼在一起的感觉,是不是美妙至极?人们本能地迷恋这种感受,而我们当中的许多人毕生都是为了这种感觉而活的。我们渴望这种感觉,这就像是一种成瘾。我们一次又一次地渴望重新经历这种震撼。所以从某种意义上说,我们数学家从事的就是用这种方式不断让自己获得极致快感的行当。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: Yeah isn't it good everything clicks into place people like that feeling and a lot of us live for that we want that. It's like an addiction. We want that feeling over and over. So, we're in the business of of pleasuring ourselves that way. Now,
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 呃……我能请你换一种稍微含蓄一点的词汇来描述吗?
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: C can I ask you to describe that slightly differently?
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 我之所以特意选择用这个词,是因为我真觉得它带有某种类似于性欲的特质(笑)。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: I wanted to say it that way because I actually think it is sexual slightly.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 哎呀,天呐!
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: Oh god.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 你可以更抽象地来看待它,如果我们不想说得太出格的话。但实际上发生的过程是一场追寻。在我们的领域里,我们渴望答案,渴望解决方案,渴望深刻的理解,渴望那些恍然大悟的“顿悟时刻”(Aha moments)。而事实在于:那些难题最初总是抗拒我们,它们必须被精心地诱导、试探、甚至可以说被“勾引”,才肯最终吐露它们的秘密——这确实带有一种近乎性感的吸引力。你为什么要对此抗拒呢?
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: Because think of it or abstractly if I don't want to be too risque here, but what's going on is there's a quest. In our case, we want answers. We want solutions and we want understanding. We want aha moments. And so the fact that the problems resist and have to be seduced into yielding their secrets, it's kind of sexy. Steve, I'm sorry. I You Why are you resistant to that?
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 我倒不是抗拒,我只是在想,现在不知道有多少 17、18 岁的年轻人正在听这段对话,然后会突然决定去大学报名选修数学专业!你刚刚凭一己之力招募了整整一代未来的数学家。好吧,虽然刚才这段对话画风突变,但我相信绝大多数人确实能够理解并共鸣你所说的这种巨大的成就感与满足感。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: I'm not. I'm just thinking about how many 17 18-year-olds are hearing this and are suddenly going to sign up to be math majors. You just recruited an entire generation of mathematicians. Um, no, this interview took a bit of a turn, but I think a lot of people can appreciate and relate to the idea of the satisfaction.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 我真心希望你们在最终节目里能保留这一段,因为这是千真万确的真实心声。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: I I hope that you will keep this part of it because this is real.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 你知道,史蒂夫,我又不是数学家,你是这方面的专家,所以关于你们数学家能从数学中获得多大的快感,我完全尊重你的专业发言权。但我特别想强调的是:对许多人而言,这绝不仅仅是一份工作,而是一份远远超越职业范畴的毕生激情。这也引出了我想探讨的下一个问题:我想聊聊你和你的同行们近期是如何一步步意识到人工智能可能带来颠覆性冲击的。我想请你带我们回顾一下,你最初对人工智能的看法究竟是怎样的?
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: You know, I'm not the mathematician, Steve, so you are the expert. I'm going to defer to you about the pleasure you people get from math. But I just I just want to really underscore that to a lot of people this is not just a job that for some people this is a passion that goes beyond a career. And and so this kind of gets me to my next point, which is I want to talk about this kind of dawning realization that you and other people in your field have had about how disruptive AI could be. And I want to go back and have you explain to me and to our audience what your initial perception of AI was.
优美证明的诞生:AI 攻克埃尔德什猜想
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 是的。你知道,起初我们全都在嘲笑人工智能。你可能还记得它刚问世的时候,总是在胡言乱语、通篇幻觉,根本无法让人信赖。当时在网上流传着一个家喻户晓的段子,而且是真的——它甚至数不清“Strawberry”(草莓)这个单词里到底有几个字母“r”。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: Yeah. You know, at first we were laughing at AI. You may remember when it first came out, it was hallucinating all the time. Couldn't be trusted. There was a joke going around and it was real. It couldn't count the number of Rs in Strawberry.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 当然记得。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: Sure.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 但那不过是 2022 年左右的事情。随着岁月推移,人工智能在数学能力上的进化速度惊人。很快,它的水平就赶上了一个优秀的优秀高中生;紧接着,它达到了优秀大学本科生的水准;而到了今年(2026年)三月,它已经开始展现出极其优秀的研究生水平——这个衡量标准对我们这些大学数学教授来说意义非凡,因为我们每天的工作都在跟研究生打交道。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: But that was like 2022. As the years went by, AI got better at math very fast. It soon was as good as a good high school student. Then it was a good college student. Then in March of this year, it started to be at the level of a very good graduate student, which is a a measure that means something to us as math professors because we deal with grad students all day long.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 能具体解释一下你看到了什么,才让你原有的认知发生了彻底转变吗?
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: Can you just explain what you started seeing that made your perception change?
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 当然可以。这涉及到现在随处可见的一个热词——基准测试(Benchmarks)。我们会给人工智能布置任务,观察它们能否解出难题,以及它们是以何种方式解出来的。它们解题时是否具有风格与格调?我想我又用了一个可能会让你感到意外的形容词。除了我刚才提到的性感而充满激情的本性之外,我们数学家其实还极度看重风格。我们追求的是优雅(Elegant)。在数学界,你能给另一位同行最高的赞誉永远都是:“天呐,多么优雅的证明啊!”
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: Sure. So, this is the gets into the word that's everywhere nowadays, benchmarks. We give them tasks and we see can they solve a problem and how do they solve it? Do they solve it with style? I guess I keep coming up with adjectives that will surprise you. Besides our our sexy, passionate nature, we're also very interested in style. We want to be elegant. The highest compliment you could give to another mathematician is, "Oh, what an elegant proof."
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 对你们而言,“优雅”究竟意味着什么?
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: What does elegant mean for us?
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 对我们来说,优雅是指某种具有巨大的出人意料之感,但一旦你亲眼看到它,又会觉得它具有无可辩驳的必然性的东西。你知道,就是那种让人忍不住一拍脑门、恍然大悟的惊叹:“天啊,这简直太完美了!多么绝妙的论证,我怎么就从来没想过呢?”长久以来,人工智能和计算机给出的数学运算并不优雅,它们的表现就像冷冰冰的机器——它们确实能完成任务,但毫无风采,毫无灵气。然而到了今年五月,当人工智能成功攻克了一个让全世界顶尖数学家都梦寐以求的重大难题,并且是以极具艺术风采的方式攻克时,所有人都猛然坐直了身子。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: Elegant for us is something that has a surprise value, but is also inevitable once you see it. You know, it's a head slapping thing like that is so perfect. That's such a great argument. Why didn't I think of that? So for a long time, the AIs, the computers were not producing elegant math. They behaved like machines. They would get the job done, but with no panache, no flare. But by May of this year, everybody sat up straight when an AI solved a problem that the world's best mathematicians were interested in. And it did it with flare.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 好的,史蒂夫,请带我们回到五月份。你当时究竟看到了什么?它又是如何开始改变你的世界观的?
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: Okay. So take us to May, Steve. What did you see exactly and how did it start changing you?
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 首先,它解开了一位极其可爱且迷人的老数学家很久以前提出的难题。这道谜题与一位名叫保罗·埃尔德什(Paul Erdős)的匈牙利裔美国数学家密切相关。他是个传奇人物,本质上就像是个流浪汉数学家。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: Well, first of all, it solved a problem that a very charming old mathematician had posed back this is a puzzle associated with a mathematician named Paul Erdish, a Hungarian American mathematician. He was a character. He was basically a hobo mathematician.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 你这是什么意思?
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: What do you mean?
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 他根本没有固定的居所。他会突然出现在你家门前——这里的“你”指代世界上任何一位数学家。他会敲开你的门,大喊一声:“我的脑子开门了!”(My brain is open!)。这意味着你必须把他请进家里,悉心照顾他的起居,因为他生活自理能力极差,连煮个鸡蛋都不会。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: He didn't really have a home. He would show up at your door, meaning you're any mathematician anywhere in the world. He would knock on the door and he would announce, "My brain is open." And that meant you had to take him into your house and take care of him because he couldn't boil an egg.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 哇,史蒂夫,我真切地开始感受到你们数学家全都是些非同寻常的奇特角色了。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: Wow. I'm really starting to get the sense that mathematicians are real characters, Steve.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 他还是个甲基苯丙胺(冰毒/兴奋剂)重度依赖者。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: He was also a methamphetamine junkie.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 哇,好吧……
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: Wow. Okay.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 这家伙会服用大量的药物,因为他整个人时刻处于极度亢奋的状态,无时无刻不渴望着做数学。那么为什么所有人都会心甘情愿地容忍他呢?因为他实在太绝顶聪明了!他来到你家,会抛出一道他专门为你量身定制的绝妙数学谜题,然后跟你一起并肩作战。他是一个极富才华的谜题提出者,毕生留下了大约上千道引人入胜的数学问题。关于他我最后还想多说一句:因为他非常擅长解题,所以到处赢取数学奖金;但他从不留恋钱财,他会把奖金设立成悬赏基金,用来奖励那些能解出他提出的谜题的年轻人。其中就包括一位今天被公认为当今世界上最伟大的活着的数学家——陶哲轩(Terence Tao)。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: This guy would take so many drugs because he was hyped up all the time wanting to do math. Now, why would anyone put up with him? Well, he was extremely brilliant and he would come to your house with a problem tailored specifically for you and he would work on it with you. So, he was a really good puzzle poser and he also left the legacy on the order of a thousand problems. I want to say one last thing about him. So he was constantly winning money because he was solving problems. And then he would give this money away to people who could solve his problems, including a person who today is considered maybe the greatest living mathematician
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 陶哲轩。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: Terry Tao.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 是的。世上有一张广为人知的小陶哲轩的照片,他常被称为“数学界的莫扎特”,因为他自幼便是不世出的神童。抱歉,说到这里我情绪有点激动哽咽了……就像《周六夜现场》里常调侃的那样。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: Terry Tao. And so there's a picture of little Terry Tao who is often called the Mozart of math because he was a child prodigy. Um, sorry I'm getting a little far clempted here. Like they say on Saturday Night Live.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 没关系,这完全由不得人。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: No, something you can't.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 这种学术界世代之间的薪火相传实在太美好了。你在照片里可以看到头发斑白的老埃尔德什,两人坐在一起,手握纸和铅笔。两个表情极度严肃的大书呆子。当时陶哲轩大概只有八岁,两位伟大的数学家就那样并肩坐在那里,心无旁骛、其乐融融地攻克着某个在现实世界看来无关紧要的纯数学问题,纯粹只为了享受在一起探索数学的至高快乐。所以我想说的是,埃尔德什除了是个瘾君子和绝世天才之外,骨子里也是个极其温柔纯粹的人。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: It's so sweet this generational passing. You see the picture of old man Erdish with his gray hair. The two of them are um are sitting together with their their paper and pencil. Such nerds with very serious faces. Terry Tow is like eight years old. two great mathematicians working together happy as clams on some real world inconsequential problem for the pleasure of being together. So my point was that Erish was a sweet man in addition to being a junkie and a genius.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 这几重身份之间并不互相排斥。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: Not mutually exclusive.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 完全不排斥。那么,埃尔德什给我们留下了这些璀璨如瑰宝的难题,而一台该死的机器——你可以把我这段粗口消音掉——居然把埃尔德什的单位距离猜想(Unit Distance Conjecture)给彻底解开了!
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: Not all exclusive. Okay. So the fact that Erdish left us these beautiful problems and aing machine you could bleep me solved the unit distance conjecture of Erdish.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 好的,等等,请务必帮我们把这个转换成通俗易懂的日常英语。也就是说在今年五月份,由埃尔德什提出的、无数人倾注大量心血去追求攻克的这道著名谜题……
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: Okay. Wait wait wait. We have to translate this into English. So in May one of the puzzles created by this man Erdish that people have spent a lot of time trying to solve and it is a passion it sounds like.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 噢,是的!
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: Oh yeah.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 它发生了什么?它被人工智能给攻克了?你是要告诉我们这个吗?
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: What happens to it? It's solved by AI. Is that what you're telling us?
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 它被人工智能解开了。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: It's solved by AI.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 好的。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: Okay.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: OpenAI 内部的某个人让他们的机器去运算攻关这道埃尔德什难题,而它竟然以一种极其美丽、优美、绝对优雅、极富想象力的方式给出了证明,达到了极高的审美巅峰!我们所有数学家全都目瞪口呆,因为它的构思实在太精巧绝伦了,而且我们能够从中汲取教益——这一点至关重要:它不是不可解释的黑盒,我们能够完全看懂并复盘它的思路步骤。它调用了数学中被称为离散几何(Discrete geometry)的一个分支分支——你不需要理解具体细节——然后又引入了另一个完全不同的领域:数论(Number theory)。这两个数学领域在历史上彼此之间极少有深入交流,但 AI 敏锐地发现,如果把这两者放在一起对话,那恰恰就是解开整个谜题的神秘金钥匙!
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: Open AI. Somebody in there sets their machine to working on the one of these great airish problems and it solves it in a way that is very beautiful, elegant, absolutely elegant, very imaginative, an aesthetic high point. All of us are a Gogg because this is so clever and we can learn from it. That this is important. It's not opaque. We can follow what it did. It took a certain part of math. You don't need to know what I mean by this, but it's called discrete geometry. Okay? And then it took a different part of math called number theory. Two parts that hadn't talked to each other much in the past and found that if you put them in conversation with each other, that was like the magic key.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 在此之前,全世界根本没有任何人类想到过可以建立这样的桥梁与关联,而这正是破局的核心关键。所以客观公正地说,AI 的这一成果确实美轮美奂、才华横溢,但它终究不是出自人类之手。有人会说它是从我们人类这里“偷”来的,因为它汲取了数千年来人类全部的智慧结晶。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: No one thought of making that connection before it, it was the key to the problem. So, objectively, what it did was really beautiful and brilliant, but it wasn't human. Now, it stole, some people would say it stole from us because it learned from thousands of years of human ingenuity.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 它是站在其他所有人类前辈的肩膀上建构起来的。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: It built from other people's work.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 它通读了人类出版过的每一本数学专著,读过了每一篇数学论文,它所拥有的综合知识储备是历史上任何单一人类数学家都未曾具备的。因此,我们亲手创造出了这样一种全新的、完全异类的外星智能(Alien kind of intelligence),而如今它居然反过来开始给我们当老师、教导我们做数学了!这一切发生在五月。而那仅仅是五月,现在已经是十月了。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: It read every book. It read every math paper. It has knowledge like no human mathematician has ever had. So, it's a totally alien kind of intelligence that we have created that's now teaching us. That's what happened in May. That was just May. This is October.
纳维-斯托克斯方程、超人类智能与金丝雀的悲鸣
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 我们稍后马上回来。我们想回到你在数学界逐渐产生这种深刻觉醒的故事上,史蒂夫。你在五月份经历了这样一次巨大的顿悟与震动;而正如我们所谈到的,转眼已经到了十月。就在上个月,OpenAI 宣布他们攻克了数学界的一座巍峨大山——其中一道千禧年大奖难题。这一消息引发了轩然大波,影响力彻底打破了纯数学界的围墙,传导到了像我这样的普通外行人耳中。我想先向我们的听众解释一下:究竟什么是千禧年大奖难题?为什么它的被攻克会让人感觉是一个重大的历史分水岭?
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: We'll be right back. I want to get back to the story of this dawning realization in your world, Steve, about AI. So, you have this big aha moment in May. We are now, as we speak in the month of October. Last month, OpenAI announced that it had solved this huge math problem, this millennium problem. And it made all kinds of news that had broken outside of the math community. It got to lay people like me for instance. And I want to just explain first of all to our listeners what is the millennium problem and why did this feel like a watershed moment?
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 数学界总共正式设立了七道千禧年大奖难题。它们是在 2000 年为了庆祝新世纪的到来而正式确立的,这也是为什么它们被称为“千禧年难题”。在公元 2000 年,世界上最优秀的数学大师齐聚一堂,对整个学科进行盘点与审视:我们当下的数学究竟发展到了何处?有哪些是全人类最渴望征服的七座巍峨险峰?
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: So there are seven of these problems. They were all formalized to commemorate the new century. That's why they're the millennium problems. in the year 2000 some of the world's finest mathematicians got together to take stock like where are we in our field and what are seven great mountains that we would like to climb
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 这些问题被设立出来,纯粹就是为了攻克它们本身的意义,正如你前面提到的那些,纯粹是为了解题带来的极致满足感。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: These are problems created for the sake of solving them like what you were talking about earlier these are problems made for the satisfaction of solving them
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 没错,它们是具有远大抱负的殿堂级谜题。这是我们数学界的七大终极梦想,分布在数学的七个不同领域之中。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: That's right they're aspirational puzzles so these were our big dreams seven of them in seven different parts of math
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 好的。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: Okay.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 这七道千禧年大奖难题中,其实在几年前就已经被一位非常特立独行、甚至可以说是疯狂的俄罗斯数学家(格里戈里·佩雷尔曼,Grigori Perelman)解开了一道。他有个怪癖,极不喜欢剪指甲,指甲留得特别长,你可以想象一下一辈子从来不剪指甲是什么样子。我倒不是想把所有数学家都描绘成疯子或者瘾君子之类的……
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: So One of the seven millennium problems was already solved a few years back by a really crazy Russian mathematician who didn't like to cut his fingernails. So that they got very long. Like imagine if you never cut your fingernails ever. I don't want to make all mathematicians sound crazy or drug addicts or whatever. Uh
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 我知道,你只是在向我们呈现最真实的现状(笑)。不过那你待会儿可得列举几个正常一点的数学家来平衡一下。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: I'm just giving you the truth here. You're going to have to list some other ones then.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 好的。七大难题中此前已经有一道被攻破,因此还剩下六道。到了今年九月,数学界开始暗中流传风声,说有一家 AI 公司即将彻底攻破剩下的六道难题之一;而据传闻,正是被称为纳维-斯托克斯千禧年难题(Navier-Stokes Millennium Problem)的重大挑战。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: But I'm just so Okay, one of them was solved already. There were six remaining. By um September, rumor started to leak out that one of the AI companies was on the verge of solving one of the last six millennium problems. And the rumor was that it was the one called the Navier Stokes Millennium problem.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 那具体是一道什么性质的问题呢?
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: And what was that?
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 简而言之,它是关于水和空气等流体究竟是如何流动的。我们在物理和工程中用来描述任何能够流动的物质——无论是水、空气、蜂蜜、熔岩还是血液——其流动规律全都由著名的纳维-斯托克斯方程(Navier-Stokes equations)所统治。而这道千禧年大奖难题的核心任务,是要证明纳维-斯托克斯方程在极端条件下是否会发生崩溃失效;也就是说,去证明现行的纳维-斯托克斯方程是否存在某种致命的缺陷与奇点。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: Well, it's about water and air and how they flow. Okay. And the equations we use to describe the flow of anything that can flow, honey, lava, blood, that's governed by these equations, the Navier Stokes equations. And it was to show that the Navier Stokes equations could break down is what the problem was. Show that the Navier Stokes equations have a fatal flaw.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 那么史蒂夫,当你最初听到 AI 已经攻克了这个终极难题的传闻时,你的第一反应是什么?
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: And so Steve, when you start hearing rumors that the AI had solved this problem, your reaction is what?
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 内心瞬间涌起一种感觉:“终于还是来了,这一天终究不可逆转地到来了。”
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: There was a feeling of like this is it. This day has come.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 等等,这听起来……我一时分辨不出你对此究竟是悲观的末日论者(Doomer),还是乐观派?
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: Wait, that sounds is I can't tell if you're doomer about this.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 这正是问题最纠结的所在——如今没有任何人知道自己究竟该做何感想。你可能会产生本能的末日悲观情绪,或者科技乐观主义情绪;你会感到欣喜若狂,或者感到心惊胆战。而我的第一反应,坦白讲是恐惧。我们作为人类这一个物种,未来究竟还有没有能力掌控这个由我们亲手打造出来的庞然大物?我们早就心知肚明它在智力上终将超越人类;我们在国际象棋领域早就见识过这一点了。但国际象棋在根本上无足轻重,而数学是整个现代科学的基石,数学关乎一切!如今它在数学至少某一个维度——纯粹的解题维度上——已经达到了超人类的水平,我认为只需要再轻轻跃进一步,用不了多久,它在数学的所有维度上都将彻底碾压人类。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: That's the problem. No one knows how to feel. You might have an instinctive doomer feeling or techno optimist feeling and then you felt happy or you felt terrified. My first feeling I guess was terrified. Are we as a species going to be able to control this thing we created? we knew that it would get to be superhuman in intelligence. We already saw it in chess. But chess doesn't matter. Math matters. And now that it's superhuman in at least one aspect of math, the problem solving aspect, it's going to be a short hop and skip and a jump till it's superhuman at all aspects of math, I think. And where does that leave us in math?
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 那么这会让我们数学家何去何从?更进一步说,我们数学界难道不是整个人类所有创造性劳动的“煤矿里的金丝雀”吗?无论是诗歌创作、新闻报道、临床医学,还是任何你所能想到的领域,谁能幸免?当然,这也许是一件天大的好事。也许它能帮我们彻底攻克癌症,也许它能帮我们研发出革命性的新型电池——这绝非虚妄的空想,如果我们足够聪明、能把它善加利用,我们很有可能会迎来人类历史上最美好的黄金时代。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: But also, are we the canary in the coal mine for all of human creative work, whether it's poetry or journalism or medicine or you name it. Now, maybe it's a great thing. Maybe it cures cancer for us. Maybe it develops new kinds of batteries. I mean, this is not just idle speculation. It it's quite possible if we're smart enough to harness this well, we might be in the best time ever to be alive.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 但我之所以倾向于成为一个悲观派,是因为我们根本无法理解我们亲手造出的这个东西!如果你问它:“你究竟是如何攻克纳维-斯托克斯千禧年难题的?”它给出的解释极其拙劣糟糕。它根本无法把自己解释得通透。也许随着技术演进,它的自我解释能力会逐步提升;但即便如此,我认为它很快就会进化得如此超前,以至于就算它是世界上最有耐心、教学水平最高的导师,也再也无法向我们解释清楚它的思维逻辑了——因为那就像是由我去教我的小狗学微积分一样。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: But why I'm tend to be a doomer is because we don't understand this thing we built. If you ask it, how did you solve the Navier Stokes Millennium problem? It gives a crappy explanation. It can't explain itself very well. Maybe it will get better at explaining itself. Even if it does, I think it will become so advanced so soon that even the best, most patient pedagogical teacher will not be able to explain itself to us because it'd be like me teaching calculus to my dog.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 我的狗根本不可能理解微积分,因为以它的认知能力而言,微积分实在太高级深奥了。而在不久的将来,我们人类面对人工智能时的处境,恐怕就如同那只看着我却听不懂微积分的小狗一样。既然如此,我又凭什么能确信,它作为一个超越我们的物种,骨子里会真正将我们人类的利益放在心上呢?
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: My dog can't understand it. I'm too advanced for it. And I think we are going to be in the relation to AI that my dog is to me soon. And therefore, how do I know it's going to have my as a species, my human species best interest at heart?
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 史蒂夫,我想稍微跳出来宏观审视一下。因为我从你的话里听出了两层截然不同的担忧:第一层,你担心这个工具本身会彻底脱离人类的控制,这是技术层面的恐惧;但与此同时第二层,你也深深担忧这个工具会夺走人类从解题中获得的纯粹满足感,夺走人们探索未知的激情——那种人人皆能感同身受的、最根本的情感体验。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: I want to just zoom out here for a second, Steve, because I'm hearing two things from you. I'm hearing that you are both scared of the actual tool itself and it getting out of the control of humans, but I am also hearing from you that you're worried about this tool taking away the satisfaction that people get and the passion people have of just solving problems. Sort of this fundamental thing that we can all relate to.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 是的,这两层担忧兼而有之。而第二层往往最容易被冷酷地一笔抹杀。我们通过解开难题所获得的满足感,我们作为一个学术共同体携手攻坚所体会到的快乐——所有这些饱含人性的珍贵事物。然而网络上总有一种冷血强硬的声音会轻蔑地说:“那又有什么大不了的?算了吧,接受现实吧,忍着吧!”
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: Yes, both. It's just so easy to dismiss the second one. Mh. The satisfaction that we get from solving problems and the joy we get as a community to work on things together, all that, all the human stuff. There's a certain hardboiled kind of person who says that's not that valuable. Like, so what? Get over it. Suck it up.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 但任何有同理心、能体会他人价值的人,都应该理解拥有一件能带给自己充实与寄托的事物究竟意味着什么。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: Really, but everybody understands what it means to have something that gives you fulfillment.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 他们理应理解。一个怀抱善意、心思细腻的人自然能够体会。但我可以告诉你,如果你去浏览社交网络,尤其是去 X(原 Twitter)上看看,那里有大批人在疯狂议论 AI 与数学。现在网上流传着一个极其火爆的梗,客观说我也觉得挺幽默的,那句话叫:“快把薯条装进袋子里,陶哲轩!”(Put the fries in the bag, Terence! 指调侃连菲尔兹奖得主陶哲轩也要去麦当劳打工打包装薯条)。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: They should. A sensitive person acting in good faith gets that. But I can tell you if you look at the internet, especially Go on X, where there's a lot of people talking about AI and math, there's a very popular joke that I actually think is pretty funny going around that says, "Put the fries in the bag, Terrence."
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 就是我们刚才谈到的那位数学家陶哲轩。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: Terrence Tao, who we spoke about,
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 没错,就是那位陶哲轩。你看,某些人其实是在幸灾乐祸。他们内心有一种隐秘的快感:班级里最聪明的那个尖子生,如今也马上要跟我们大家一样丢掉饭碗了!当自动化浪潮席卷而来时,没有人能置身事外,人人都在劫难逃,现在轮到你们这些高高在上的数学家了。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: Terrence Tao. Yeah, that same Terry Tao. You know, there's certain people who are gloating, who have a feeling of satisfaction that the smartest kid in the class is now going to be out of a job just like the rest of us. That when automation comes, it's bad for everybody. Now it's your turn.
望远镜的隐喻与存在主义虚无
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 如果你允许的话,我想稍微探讨一下乐观的前景,并向你请教:因为关于人工智能最主流的善意乐观论调向来是,AI 能够接手所有枯燥繁重的苦差事(Grunt work),从而把你——史蒂夫·斯特罗加茨——从繁琐事务中彻底解放出来,去专注于更有意义、更高阶的创造性工作,对吧?正如各大 AI 科技公司一再宣称的那样:“这只是一件工具,它只会赋能你,让你能把想做的事情做得更好。”我想知道,你认为这种乐观论调是否有可能是完全正确的?
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: But just for a moment, if you'll indulge me, I I want to talk about the optimistic case for a second and just pose that to you because the good faith optimistic case for AI has always been that AI could do the grunt work and then free you Steve up to do more meaningful work, right? Like the AI companies will say, "This is a tool and it's only going to allow you to continue doing what you're trying to do but better." And I just sort of wonder if you think that that argument could be correct.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 我确实认为这种论调很有可能是完全正确的。我打心底里这么觉得。我现在愿意戴上我的“乐观笑脸面具”——而且我绝非在逢场作戏,我内心里确实真切地感受到巨大的兴奋与振奋。作为一名教师,我本能地渴望年轻人能对未来保有希望;我不想对他们撒谎,我希望他们能满怀希望,而且我是发自肺腑地相信这一点。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: I do think it could be correct. I really do. I'm going to put on my happy face now. And I'm not faking it. I actually do find it very exciting and uplifting. And and the teacher in me who wants young people to have hope. I don't want to lie to them. I want them to have hope and I want to mean it.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 你在康奈尔大学给大三、大四的本科生授课,他们由于年轻、适应力极强,恰恰是处于利用好这一全新生产力工具的最佳位置。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: At Cornell, I'm teaching kids, juniors, seniors in college. Mhm. and they are in the best position to make use of this new tool because they're young and adaptable.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 确实如此。前几天我们数学系开了一场全员市政厅会议(Town Hall Meeting),因为全系上下大家都在震惊恐慌。所有的本科生、研究生和教授们齐聚一堂。在会上我的一位同事打了一个非常精妙的比方,他说:“这就像是人类发明了一架崭新的望远镜。现在的问题不再是工具本身,而是——你打算把你的望远镜对准星空的哪一个方向?”这才是真正的核心叩问:你选择把这台前所未有的观测神器瞄准哪里,将决定你未来的成败与成就。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: I mean the other day at a town hall meeting the math department of course were all freaking out. So all the students are gathered all the faculty at this meeting one of my colleagues said it's like a new telescope. Where are you going to point your telescope? So that's the question. Where are you going to point this thing that's going to determine your success in the future? Mhm.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 但随之而来的疑问在于:在这个乐观的剧本里,我们真能断定 AI 不会把这一切统统吞噬殆尽吗?谁能保证它未来不会拥有极高超的审美审美品味?谁能保证它不会自己提出最深刻的问题?
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: I guess the question though is in this optimistic scenario, are we sure that the AI won't take all of it? Like who says it won't start to have great taste or it won't come up with good questions?
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 到目前为止,它在提出真正优质的原创性问题上还没有展现出任何天赋。目前还没有出现一个能够像保罗·埃尔德什那样的 AI。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: So far it has no aptitude for asking good questions. It's there's no Paul Erdish AI yet.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 这么说来,做播客主持人目前看来依然是一个相当安全的职业(笑)。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: That can podcast host is still a pretty safe profession.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 我不知道,也许吧!好吧,那确实是个大问题(笑)。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: I don't know. Maybe. Okay, that's the question.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 史蒂夫,你目前在自己的日常研究工作中已经开始使用人工智能了吗?
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: Are you using AI in your own work, Steve, yet at all?
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 有的,我确实在深度使用它,而且我非常享受这个过程。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: Yes, I do use it and I really enjoy it.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 用它来做些什么呢?
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: For what?
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 我用它来做各种各样的事情。比如,我用它来自学。我可以向它提出深度的问题;例如我想系统地学习那道千禧年难题——纳维-斯托克斯方程问题,我自己并不是那个具体细分领域的专家,我就让 AI 当我的私人导师,它的教学水平简直无与伦比。而且不仅仅是数学,我对学术界的所有知识领域都怀有强烈的探究欲,我向来热爱所有的学科。这会把我们引向一个非常奇异的哲学境地,但这是真切的体验:我最近一直在沉思关于生命的终极意义——这一切的意义究竟何在?
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: I use it for all kinds of things. Uh, I use it to teach myself. I can ask it questions like if I wanted to learn about the millennium problem, the Navier Stokes problem. I'm not an expert in that. I ask it to tutor me and it's so good. But not just math. I mean, I'm really curious about all of school. I always have been. I loved all the subjects. So, this will really get us to a strange place. But it's true. I've been thinking a lot about the meaning of life. Like what's the point?
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 这正是我们许多不同行业的人如今都在发出的灵魂拷问:如果 AI 都能做到,那么人生的意义到底是什么?那么,你得出了什么答案?
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: Which is a question a lot of us are asking in my profession. What is the point? What have you come up with?
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 噢,你也想知道这个终极谜底吗?
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: Oh, you want to know the answer to that one too?
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 我当然迫切想知道(笑)。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: I would love the answer.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 好的。我可以跟你分享我的心路历程,而不是一个现成的标准答案。我知道人类几千年来一直在苦苦思索这个问题。这让我想起了飞鸟乐队(The Byrds)的一首经典老歌《Turn! Turn! Turn!》。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: Yeah. I I'll just tell you about my journey, not the answer. I know that people have thought about this for millennia. And um I was reminded of this old birds song, turn.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 那首歌的歌词出自《圣经》典籍。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: So that's biblical,
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 没错,它摘自《圣经·旧约》中的《传道书》(Ecclesiastes)。我以前从来没有读过它,所以我特别想去弄明白《传道书》究竟讲了什么。因为里面有一段脍炙人口的名篇,那位传道者纵观环宇,竭尽全力试图理解人世间这一切劳碌的终极意义究竟何在。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: right? That's from um Ecclesiastes, which I had never read. So I wanted to learn what's Ecclesiastes about because there's a famous passage in there where he says basically he's looking around and trying to understand what's the point of it all.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 而他给出的结论具有极强的现代感,初看之下甚至显得无比阴暗绝望——他说:毫无意义,一切都是虚空。他说“虚空的虚空,凡事都是虚空”(Vanity of vanities; all is vanity)。我所做的一切尽皆归于虚无,毫无成就可言。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: And his really very modern and very dark initially dark seeming conclusion is there is no point. It's all vanity. He says it's vanity of vanities. Everything I do is in vain. It accomplishes nothing.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 无论是深爱过的人,还是倾注心血的工作,到头来全都化作虚无。作者在那段著名的经文里写道:“我又转念,见日光之下,快跑的未必能赢,力战的未必得胜……”抱歉,这段话实在太优美动人了。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: I got nowhere by the people I loved, the work I did. It was all for nothing. And he says in there, he the writer says, you know, that in one famous passage like I saw um that the the race I'm sorry, it's so beautiful.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 没关系,请继续。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: No,
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 他说跑得最快的人未必能在比赛中夺冠,最勇猛强壮的人未必能在战争中打胜仗。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: he says the the race is not always to the swift. Like the the fastest person doesn't necessarily win. um or the battle is not to the strong.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 嗯哼。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: Mhm.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 换句话说,世人往往得不到他们应得的回报。世界的运转法则根本不是按功行赏的,生活充满了不公。快跑的未必能赢,强健的未必得胜,所临到众人的,是时间与机运(Time and chance happeneth to them all)。命运之中充斥着无数无法捉摸的随机性与荒诞。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: In other words, people don't get what they deserve. It doesn't work like that. Life is unfair. The race is not to the swift. The battle is not for the strong. Time and chance happenth to them all. Like there's a lot of randomness.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 我们终将老去,无论我们多么强壮、跑得多快,无数不可预测的风浪都会随机降临在我们身上。这对我们每一个人都是不可避免的宿命。想到这里你难免会悲叹:上帝啊,谁会愿意生活在这样一个荒谬残酷的世界里?然而……
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: We get old. A lot of random stuff happens no matter how strong or fast we are. It's true for all of us. Okay. So then you think, Jesus, who wants to live in a world like that? Well,
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 等等,你这番话让我忍不住联想到:按照你先前对数学的描述,数学不正是人类试图去理解、组织并从这种无常混乱的世界中寻找秩序的一种最伟大的抵抗吗?
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: wait, but you're you know what you're making me think of is that isn't math the way you've described in an attempt to understand and organize and make things a little bit
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 没错!我们是在奋力反抗虚无。我们当然渴望寻找到秩序与意义。但是,如果你真正读懂了那本书里的深刻意境,你就会彻底明白:在茫茫宇宙与浩瀚时空的尺度下,人类不过是沧海一粟、稍纵即逝的微小光斑。你的生命极其短暂,那么在你有生之年的有限时光里,你究竟该如何自处?我之所以会陷入如此癫狂深奥的哲学思考,是因为这恰恰映射了当下数学界每个人的真实生存处境——就在我们系的那场市政厅全员大会上,坐在会议室最后一排的一位女学生站起来问道:“那么这一切还有什么意义呢?如果人工智能做数学比世界上任何人类都要出色得多,固然我可以坐在那里当一个旁观者向它学习,但我进入这个领域,是因为我也渴望亲自去发现真理啊!我渴望体验亲自解开谜题的那种心跳与狂喜!我不想让我的一生仅仅化作一场徒劳的虚空!”
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: right. We're pushing back. Sure, we would like to find meaning, but but if you really go to this place in the book, then you know you're a blip. You only live a short time, certainly in cosmic sense. So what are you going to do with yourself while you're here? The re Okay. Why am I going to this insane place? Because this is kind I think this is where we are in math because this is when the student in the back of the room at our town hall says, "What's the point? If the AI can do math better than any human being, sure, I could sit there and learn from it, but I want to discover things too. I want that thrill.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: “我不想让我的一生变成毫无价值的虚空与徒劳。”
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: I don't want my life to be in vain."
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 是的,一点也没错:“我不想让我的一生归于虚妄。”如果你把亲自探索真理的权利与喜悦从我手中彻底夺走,那我究竟还在活着干什么?所以你现在完全可以理解,为什么我会回过头去向这些古老的智慧寻求慰藉与答案。据我的理解——虽然我绝不是什么圣经学者——但它带给我的启示是:正因为生命如此短暂脆弱,你的存在才弥足珍贵;你必须在身处人世的有限光阴里,淋漓尽致地活出生命的全部重量。书中还有一句名言:“凡事都有定期,万物在天底下各按其时成为美好。”上帝啊(哽咽清嗓子)……抱歉,我整个人情绪彻底失控崩溃了。但如果说凡事各按其时成为美好,那么我们就曾拥有属于我们的季节——在那个时刻里,我们曾热烈地坠入爱河,曾迸发过璀璨的创造力,曾全心全意做着有意义的事,曾悠闲地牵着小狗在草地上散步。我们确实拥有过属于我们人类的时光;而在那之外,我们不过是尘土,“尘归尘,土归土”。最美丽的本质,恰恰存在于从诞生到归于尘土之间的这个过程之中。我是不是把你给惹哭了?不,我没哭,是你哭了(笑)。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: Yeah, I that's exactly right. I don't want my life to be in vain. So, if you take that away from me, what am I doing? So, you could see why I'm looking to um this ancient wisdom. And as I understand it, I'm no biblical scholar, but as I understand it, the lesson is well that your life is precious because it's short. That you have to make the most of it while you're here. So, um there's another line in there that says everything is beautiful. in its time. Like, God, I'm sorry. I'm a wreck. But if everything is beautiful in its time, we get to have a turn where we're in love. We're creative. We do what's meaningful. We get to walk our dog, whatever. We do have a time. Otherwise, we're dust, right? We're ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The beautiful part is the in between. Am I getting to you? No, I'm not crying. You're crying.
人性的救赎:在有限生命中彼此相拥
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 我想你确实深深打动我了。史蒂夫,在这个节目里,通常可只有我能把别人弄哭啊!
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: I think I did get to you. I'm the only one that gets to make people cry on this show, Steve.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 哇。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: Whoa.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 当时面对那位渴望生命意义的女学生,你究竟对她说了什么?
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: What did you say to the student? What did you say to the student who wanted?
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 我当时没有回答她。因为那是全员市政厅大会,现场坐了一百多号人,但我很想在会后私下找她深聊。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: I didn't answer. It was a town hall, so there were like there were a hundred people there, but I want to talk to her later.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 如果你现在对她开口,你会对她说什么?
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: What would you say?
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 我会对她说:“走吧,让我们一起来把这本书读一遍。”(笑)
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: Said, "Let's read this book together."
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 你这是在说,人工智能最终反而会让你变得更加虔诚、更具宗教情怀吗?听起来真的很像这么回事,不是吗?
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: Are you saying that AI is going to make you more religious? I think it it sure seems like it, doesn't it?
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 是的,也许吧。但我认为这关乎的根本不是上帝,它关乎的是具体的人,关乎人与人之间的联结。因为唯有“人”,才是我真正坚定不移信仰的所在。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: Yeah, maybe. But I don't think it's about God. I think it's about people. Um cuz that I do believe in.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 也许经历这一切之后,你反而愈发懂得珍惜究竟是什么让人类成为人类,也更加懂得珍惜我们在世间驻留的宝贵时光。我好奇在你的心中,这是否会成为这场风暴所结出的一个意想不到的硕果?
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: Maybe you are also appreciating what makes us human more and what makes our time here special. And I wonder if that is going to maybe in your mind be one result of all of this.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 我想真的会如此,真的有可能,我打心底里如此希望。天呐,蕾切尔,你今天真是要把我给“击溃”了(笑)。这本该是一期关于硬核数学的节目,但你却带我走进了一个如此深刻迷人的精神境地。非常感谢你愿意陪我走过这趟心灵旅程。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: I think it might. It might. I hope so. Man, you're killing me, Rachel. This was supposed to be a math show, but you took me to a really interesting place. Thank you for coming with me.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 我真心希望我们的听众能够像我一样,从今天这场坦诚深刻的对话中收获满满。史蒂夫·斯特罗加茨,万分感谢你能来到我们的节目。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: I hope that our listeners get as much out of this conversation as I did. So, Steve Strogat, thank you so much for joining us.
斯蒂文·斯特罗加茨: 哇,谢谢你,蕾切尔。我想我得赶紧回家好好躺下来休息平复一下了(笑)。
英文原文
Steven Strogatz: Wow. Thank you, Rachel. I'm going to have to go home and lie down.
今日要闻与制作团队致谢
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 我们稍后马上回来。以下是你今天还需要了解的其他重要资讯:为了在中期选举中全力协助共和党,埃隆·马斯克(Elon Musk)自七月初以来已向共和党及其超级政治行动委员会(Super PAC)累计注入超过 2.76 亿美元资金。这使得马斯克一跃成为本轮选举周期中迄今为止公开已知的最大个人捐赠者。为了协助共和党维持其参议院多数席位,马斯克的团队表示,他已向参议院领导基金(Senate Leadership Fund)单独捐赠了 1.58 亿美元——这是美国政治捐款历史上规模最大的单笔资金注入之一。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: We'll be right back. Here's what else you need to know today. In an effort to boost Republicans in the midterms, Elon Musk has funneled more than $276 million to Republicans and his super PAC since the beginning of July. That makes Musk by far the largest known donor this election cycle. To help Republicans maintain their Senate majority, Musk's team says he gave $158 million to the party's Senate Leadership Fund. That's one of the largest political donations in American history.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 另外,美国国土安全部特工于本周一搜查了明尼苏达州民主党众议员伊尔汗·奥马尔(Ilhan Omar)位于华盛顿特区的住所。在此次突击搜查之前,国土安全部部长马克韦恩·穆林(Markwayne Mullin)上个月曾公开表态,称其部门正在就奥马尔及其家人的赴美移民档案展开调查,并暗示该项调查的潜在结果之一可能包括实施遣返驱逐。奥马尔长期以来坚决驳斥此类所谓移民欺诈指控,指责其完全是不折不扣的政治迫害与恶意捏造。此次搜查行动发生在距离中期选举投票日不足 60 天的敏感时期;而依照美国司法部的长期政策惯例,在此类选举敏感窗口期内通常严格禁止采取可能干扰选情的非必要调查行动。奥马尔目前正在明尼苏达州积极竞选连任。
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: and Homeland Security agents searched the DC home of Representative Ilhan Omar on Monday. The search comes after Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen said last month that his department was investigating Omar and her family's immigration to the US. He suggested that one outcome of that investigation could be deportation. Omar has long said that such allegations of immigration fraud are false and politically motivated. The search took place less than 60 days before the midterms. In spite of a Justice Department policy that discourages unnecessary investigative steps in that window out of fear of influencing elections, Omar is running for reelection in Minnesota.
蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯: 本期节目由杰克·达多罗(Jack D'Isidoro)、阿德里安娜·赫斯特(Adrienne Hurst)和迈克尔·西蒙·约翰逊(Michael Simon Johnson)共同制作,埃里克·克鲁普克(Eric Krupke)参与协助。特约编辑为安妮·米诺夫(Annie Minoff),佩奇·考瓦特(Paige Cowett)参与编辑协助。配乐制作人包括帕特·麦卡斯克(Pat McCusker)和玛丽安·洛扎诺(Marian Lozano)。原创音乐创作者为马丁·考特尼(Martin Courtney)。音效工程由艾丽莎·莫克斯利(Alyssa Moxley)操刀完成。我们的节目主题音乐由 Wonderly 创作提供。特别致谢丹·鲍威尔(Dan Powell)。以上就是今天的《The Daily》。我是蕾切尔·阿布拉姆斯,我们明天见!
英文原文
Rachel Abrams: Today's episode was produced by Jack Dadoro, Adrienne Hurst, and Michael Simon Johnson with help from Eric Krupkkey. It was edited by Annie Minoff with help from Paige Cowat. contains music by Pat McCusker and Marian Lozano. Original music by Martin Courtourtney. It was engineered by Alyssa Moxley. Our theme music is by Wonderly. And special thanks to Dan Powell. That's it for the Daily. I'm Rachel Abrams. See you tomorrow.