Recording One
录音 1
Today I'm going to talk about a very special kind of person. Psychologists call them "masters of deception," those rare individuals with a natural ability to tell with complete confidence when someone is telling a lie.
今天我要讲的是一种非常特别的人。心理学家称他们为“欺骗大师”,这种人非常罕见,当别人说谎时,他们有一种天生的能力,能够完全自信地识破。
For decades, researchers and law enforcement agencies have tried to build a machine that will do the same thing.
几十年来,研究人员和执法机构一直在尝试制造一种能做同样事情的机器。
Now a company in Massachusetts says that by using magnetic brain scans they can determine with 97% accuracy whether someone is telling the truth.
现在,马萨诸塞州的一家公司表示,通过使用磁脑扫描,他们可以以97%的准确率确定某人是否在说真话。
They hope that the technology will be cleared for use in American courts by early next year. But is this really the ultimate tool for you, the lawyers of tomorrow?
他们希望这项技术能在明年初在美国法庭上得到应用。但这真的是未来律师的终极工具吗?
You'll not find many brain scientists celebrating this breakthrough.
你会发现很多大脑科学家对这一突破并不乐观。
The company might be very optimistic, but the ability of their machine to detect deception has not provided credible proof.
该公司可能非常乐观,但他们的机器检测欺骗的能力并没有提供可信的证据。
That's because the technology has not been properly tested in real-world situations. In life, there are different kinds of lies and diverse context in which they're told.
这是因为这项技术还没有在现实世界中得到适当的测试。在生活中,有各种各样的谎言,还有不同的说谎背景。
These differences may elicit different brain responses. Does their hypothesis behind the test apply in every case?
这些差异可能引起不同的大脑反应。他们的假设是否适用于所有情况?
We don't know the answer, because studies done on how reliable this machine is have not yet been duplicated. Much more research is badly needed.
我们不知道答案,因为关于这台机器的可靠性研究还没有被复制,仍然需要更多的研究。
Whether the technology is eventually deemed reliable enough for the courts will ultimately be decided by the judges.
这项技术最终能否被法庭认为足够可靠,最终将由法官决定。
Let's hope they're wise enough not to be fooled by a machine that claims to determine truthfulness at the flick of a switch.
我们希望他们足够聪明,不要被一台声称只要按一下开关就能确定真实性的机器愚弄。
They should also be sceptical of the growing tendency to try to reduce all human traits and actions to the level of brain activity. Often, they do not map that easily.
他们还应该对试图将人类所有特征和行为都归结到大脑活动层面的趋势持怀疑态度。通常情况下,两者并不能轻易匹配。
Moreover, understanding the brain is not the same as understanding the mind. Some researchers have suggested that thoughts cannot properly be seen as purely "internal."
此外,理解大脑并不等同于理解大脑。一些研究人员认为,思想不能完全被看作是“内在的”。
Instead, thoughts make sense only in reference to the individual's external world.
相反,思想只有在个人的外部世界中才有意义。
So while there may be insights to be gained from matching behavior to brain activity, those insights will not necessarily lead to justice in a court of law.
因此,虽然我们可以从大脑活动与行为的匹配中获得一些洞见,但这些洞见并不一定会在法庭上得到公正的裁决。
Problems surround the use of machines to spot deception, at least until it has been rigorously tested.
至少在经过严格的测试之前,使用机器来发现欺骗,问题仍然存在。
A high-tech test that can tell when a person is not telling the truth sounds too good to be true. And when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
一项高科技测试可以判断一个人是否在说谎,听起来好得令人难以置信。当某件事听起来好得令人难以置信时,它通常是真的。
Questions 16 to 18 are based on the recording you have just heard.
请根据你刚刚听到的录音回答16 - 18题。
16. What have researchers and law enforcement agencies tried to do?
16. 研究人员和执法机构试图做什么?
17. How do many brain scientists respond to the Massachusetts company's so-called technological breakthrough?
17. 对于这家马萨诸塞州公司所谓的技术突破,大脑科学家们做出了什么样的回应?
18. What does the speaker think of using a high-tech test to determine whether a person is telling the truth?
18. 说话者如何看待使用高科技测试来判断一个人是否在说真话?