【TED演讲】世界上最大的家庭聚会……我们都被邀请了！

中英文字幕

Six months ago, I got an email from a man in Israel who had read one of my books, and the email said, "You don't know me, but I'm your 12th cousin."

六个月前，我收到一封来自以色列的一名男子的电子邮件，他读过我的一本书，电子邮件说：“你不认识我，但我是你的第十二个表弟。"

And it said, "I have a family tree with 80,000 people on it, including you, Karl Marx, and several European aristocrats."

上面写着：“我有一张家谱，上面有8万人，包括你、卡尔·马克思和几位欧洲贵族。"

Now I did not know what to make of this.

现在我不知道该如何理解这件事。

Part of me was like, okay, when's he going to ask me to wire 10,000 dollars to his Nigerian bank, right?

我的一部分想，好吧，他什么时候会要求我汇10，000美元到他的尼日利亚银行，对吧？

I also thought, 80,000 relatives, do I want that?

我也想，8万个亲戚，我想要吗？

I have enough trouble with some of the ones I have already.

我已经遇到的一些麻烦已经够多了。

And I won't name names, but you know who you are.

我不会点名，但你知道你是谁。

But another part of me said, this is remarkable.

但我的另一部分说，这太了不起了。

Here I am alone in my office, but I'm not alone at all.

这里我一个人在办公室里，但我并不孤单。

I'm connected to 80,000 people around the world, and that's four Madison Square Gardens full of cousins.

我联系着全世界80,000人，这相当于麦迪逊广场花园坐满了我的亲戚。

And some of them are going to be great, and some of them are going to be irritating, but they're all related to me.

他们中的一些会很棒，有些会令人恼火，但他们都与我有关。

So this email inspired me to dive into genealogy, which I always thought was a very staid and proper field,

因此，这封邮件启发我投身于家谱学的研究，我一直以为家谱学是一个沉闷而正式的领域，

but it turns out it's going through a fascinating revolution, and a controversial one.

但事实证明，它正在经历一场引人入胜的变革，而且颇具争议。

Partly, this is because of DNA and genetic testing, but partly, it's because of the Internet.

部分原因是DNA和基因检测，但部分原因是互联网。

There are sites that now take the Wikipedia approach to family trees, collaboration and crowdsourcing, and what you do is,

现在有一些网站采取维基百科的方式，来建立家族树，进行协作和众包，你要做的是，

you load your family tree on, and then these sites search to see if the A.J. Jacobs in your tree is the same as the A.J. Jacobs in another tree, and if it is, then you can combine, and then you combine and combine and combine until you get these massive, mega-family trees with thousands of people on them, or even millions.

上传你的家族树，然后这些网站会搜索看看你家族树中的A.J. Jacobs是否与另一棵家族树中的A.J. Jacobs是同一个人，如果是的话，你就可以把两棵家族树合并，然后再合并，再合并，直到你得到这些庞大无比的家族树，上面有几千人，甚至几百万人。

I'm on something on Geni called the world family tree, which has no less than a jaw-dropping 75 million people.

我加入了一个叫Geni的网站，上面有一个叫做“世界家族树”的东西，上面赫然有7500万人。

So that's 75 million people connected by blood or marriage, sometimes both.

因此，有7500万人通过血缘或婚姻联系在一起，有时两者兼而有之。

It's in all seven continents, including Antarctica.

它遍布所有七大洲，包括南极洲。

I'm on it.

这就在上面。

Many of you are on it, whether you know it or not, and you can see the links.

无论您是否知道，你们中的许多人都在上面，并且您可以看到链接。

Here's my cousin Gwyneth Paltrow.

这是我的表弟格温妮丝·帕特洛。

She has no idea I exist, but we are officially cousins.

她不知道我的存在，但我们正式是表兄弟了。

We have just 17 links between us.

我们之间只有17个链接。

And there's my cousin Barack Obama.

这是我的表弟巴拉克·奥巴马。

And he is my aunt's fifth great-aunt's husband's father's wife's seventh great-nephew, so practically my old brother.

他是我阿姨的第五个曾阿姨的丈夫的父亲的妻子的第七个曾侄子，所以几乎是我的老兄弟。

And my cousin, of course,

当然，我的表弟，

the actor Kevin Bacon -- (Laughter) — who is my first cousin's twice removed's wife's niece's husband's first cousin once removed's niece's husband.

是演员凯文·贝肯——（笑声）——他是我的一表远亲的妻子的侄女的丈夫的一表远亲的侄女的丈夫。

So six degrees of Kevin Bacon, plus or minus several degrees.

所以是六度凯文·贝肯，加减几度。

Now, I'm not boasting, because all of you have famous people and historical figures in your tree, because we are all connected,

我不是在炫耀，因为你们所有人的家族树中都有名人和历史人物，因为我们都是相互联系的。

and 75 million may seem like a lot, but in a few years, it's quite likely we will have a family tree with all, almost all, seven billion people on Earth.

7500万听起来很多，但几年之后，我们很可能会拥有一个包含地球上几乎所有70亿人口的家族树。

But does it really matter?

但这真的很重要吗？

What's the importance?

有什么重要性？

And I do think it is important, and I'll give you five reasons why, really quickly.

我确实认为这很重要，我会很快地给你五个原因。

First, it's got scientific value.

首先，它具有科学价值。

This is an unprecedented history of the human race, and it's giving us valuable data about how diseases are inherited, how people migrate,

这是人类前所未有的历史，它为我们提供了有关疾病如何遗传、人们如何迁移、

and there's a team of scientists at MIT right now studying the world family tree.

麻省理工学院有一个科学家团队正在研究世界家谱。

Number two, it brings history alive.

第二，它让历史栩栩如生。

I found out I'm connected to Albert Einstein, so I told my seven-year-old son that, and he was totally engaged.

我发现我和阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦有联系，所以我告诉了我七岁的儿子，他完全投入了。

Now Albert Einstein is not some dead white guy with weird hair.

现在阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦不再是某个头发奇怪的死去的白人了。

He's Uncle Albert.

他是艾伯特叔叔。

(Laughter) And my son wanted to know, "What did he say?

（笑声）我儿子想知道：“他说了什么？

What is E = MC squared?"

E = MC平方是多少？"

Also, it's not all good news.

而且，这并不全是好消息。

I found a link to Jeffrey Dahmer, the serial killer, but I will say that's on my wife's side.

我发现了连环杀手杰弗里·达默的联系，但我想说那是在我妻子那边的。

(Laughter) (Applause) So I want to make that clear.

（笑声）（掌声）所以我想澄清这一点。

Sorry, honey.

抱歉亲爱的。

Number three, interconnectedness.

第三，相互关联性。

We all come from the same ancestor, and you don't have to believe the literal Bible version,

我们都来自同一个祖先，你不必相信圣经的字面版本，

but scientists talk about Y chromosomal Adam and mitochondrial Eve, and these were about 100,000 to 300,000 years ago.

但科学家们谈论的是Y染色体亚当和线粒体夏娃，这是大约10万到30万年前的事。

We all have a bit of their DNA in us.

我们身上都有一点他们的DNA。

They are our great-great-great-great-great-great -- continue that for about 7,000 times -- grandparents,

他们是我们的曾曾曾曾曾曾——继续这样算下去，大约7000次——祖父母，

and so that means we literally all are biological cousins as well, and estimates vary,

这意味着从生物学上来说，我们都是表亲。

but probably the farthest cousin you have on Earth is about a 50th cousin.

但你在地球上最远的表弟可能是大约第50个表弟。

Now, it's not just ancestors we share, descendants.

现在，我们分享的不仅仅是祖先，还有后代。

If you have kids, and they have kids, look how quickly the descendants accumulate.

如果你有孩子，他们也有孩子，看看后代积累的速度有多快。

So in 10, 12 generations, you're going to have thousands of offspring, and millions of offspring.

所以十、十二代后，你将有数千个后代，甚至数百万个后代。

Number four, a kinder world.

第四，一个更友善的世界。

Now, I know that there are family feuds.

现在，我知道家里有不和。

I have three sons, so I see how they fight.

我有三个儿子，所以我看看他们是如何战斗的。

But I think that there's also a human bias to treat your family a little better than strangers.

但我认为人类也存在一种偏见，认为对待家人比对待陌生人好一点。

I think this tree is going to be bad news for bigots,

我认为这棵家族树对偏执狂来说是个坏消息，

because they're going to have to realize that they are cousins with thousands of people in whatever ethnic group they happen to have issues with,

因为他们将不得不意识到，他们与任何他们碰巧有问题的种族群体中的数千人都是表亲关系。

and I think you look back at history,

我认为，回顾历史，

and a lot of the terrible things we've done to each other is because one group thinks another group is sub-human, and you can't do that anymore.

我们彼此之间所做的许多可怕的事情，都是因为一个群体认为另一个群体是次人等的，但现在你再也不能这样做了。

We're not just part of the same species.

我们不仅仅是同一个物种的一部分，

We're part of the same family.

我们还是同一个家庭的一部分。

We share 99.9 percent of our DNA.

我们共享99.9%的DNA。

Now the final one is number five, a democratizing effect.

现在最后一个是第五个，民主化效应。

Some genealogy has an elitist strain, like people say, "Oh, I'm descended from Mary Queen of Scots and you're not,

有些家谱有一种精英主义色彩，就像人们说，“哦，我是苏格兰玛丽女王的后裔，而你不是，

so you cannot join my country club."

所以你不能加入我的乡村俱乐部。"

But that's really going to be hard to do now, because everyone is related.

但现在这确实很难做到，因为每个人都是相关的。

I'm descended from Mary Queen of Scots -- by marriage, but still.

我是苏格兰女王玛丽的后代——是通过婚姻，但不管怎么说，我确实是。

So it's really a fascinating time in the history of family, because it's changing so fast.

因此，这是家族历史上一个真正迷人的时刻，因为它变化得太快了。

There is gay marriage and sperm donors and there's intermarriage on an unprecedented scale,

有同性婚姻和精子捐赠者，还有前所未有规模的异族婚姻，

and this makes some of my more conservative cousins a little nervous, but I actually think it's a good thing.

这让我的一些比较保守的表兄弟有点紧张，但我实际上认为这是一件好事。

I think the more inclusive the idea of family is, the better, because then you have more potential caretakers,

我认为家庭的概念越包容越好，因为这样你就有更多潜在的照顾者，

and as my aunt's eighth cousin twice removed Hillary Clinton says -- (Laughter) — it takes a village.

正如我姨妈的八表远亲希拉里·克林顿所说——（笑声）——这需要全村人的力量。

So I have all these hundreds and thousands, millions of new cousins.

所以我有了成百上千、数百万的新表兄弟。

I thought, what can I do with this information?

我想，我能用这些信息做什么？

And that's when I decided, why not throw a party?

就在那时我决定，为什么不举办一场派对呢？

So that's what I'm doing.

这就是我正在做的事情。

And you're all invited.

你们都被邀请了。

Next year, next summer, I will be hosting what I hope is the biggest and best family reunion in history.

明年，明年夏天，我将举办历史上规模最大、最好的家庭聚会。

(Applause) Thank you.

（掌声）谢谢。

I want you there.

我希望你在那里。

I want you there.

我希望你在那里。

It's going to be at the New York Hall of Science, which is a great venue, but it's also on the site of the former World's Fair, which is, I think,

它将在纽约科学厅，这是一个很棒的场地，但它也在前世界博览会的遗址上，我认为，

very appropriate, because I see this as a family reunion meets a world's fair.

非常合适，因为我认为这是家庭团聚遇见世界博览会。

There's going to be exhibits and food, music.

将会有展览、食物和音乐。

Paul McCartney is 11 steps away, so I'm hoping he brings his guitar.

保罗·麦卡特尼（Paul McCartney）距离这里只有11步之遥，所以我希望他带着吉他。

He hasn't RSVP'd yet, but fingers crossed.

他还没有回复邀请，但我会拭目以待。

And there is going to be a day of speakers, of fascinating cousins.

还将有一天的时间让发言人上台演讲，让有趣的表亲们展示自己。

It's early, but I've already, I've got some lined up.

现在还早，但我已经准备好了。

Cass Sunstein, my cousin who is perhaps the most brilliant legal scholar, will be talking.

我的表亲卡斯·桑斯坦可能是最杰出的法律学者，他将发表演讲。

He was a former member of the Obama administration.

他曾是奥巴马政府的一员。

And on the other side of the political spectrum, George H.W. Bush, number 41, the father, he has agreed to participate, and Nick Kroll, the comedian, and Dr. Oz, and many more to come.

在政治光谱的另一端，第41任美国总统乔治·赫伯特·沃克·布什（老布什）已经同意参加，还有喜剧演员尼克·克罗尔、奥兹博士等很多人也将出席。

And, of course, the most important is that you, I want you guys there,

当然，最重要的是你们，我希望你们在那里，

and I invite you to go to Global Family Reunion. org and figure out how you're on the family tree, because these are big issues, family and tribe,

我邀请你们访问GlobalFamilyReunion.org网站，看看你们是如何出现在这棵家族树上的，因为这些都是关于家庭和部落的重大问题，

and I don't know all the answers, but I have a lot of smart relatives, including you guys, so together, I think we can figure it out.

而我不知道所有的答案，但我有很多聪明的亲戚，包括你们，所以我认为，只要我们齐心协力，就能找到答案。

Only together can we solve these big problems.

只有共同努力，才能解决这些大问题。

So from cousin to cousin, I thank you.

所以，从表亲到表亲，谢谢你们。

I can't wait to see you.

我迫不及待地想见到你。

Goodbye.

再见。