AI and the End of Loneliness | Paul Bloom | TED · TED
心理学家Paul Bloom探讨AI伴侣如何缓解孤独，尤其对老年人有益，但对年轻人可能带来负面影响。适合练习听力与讨论人际关系。
I have a couple of questions for you -- but they’re personal.
我有一些问题想问你，不过这些问题属于个人隐私范畴。
So I’m not going to ask for a show of hands.
所以我不会要求大家举手表决。
First, right now, at this stage of your life, are you lonely?
首先，就在你现在这个生命阶段，你感到孤独吗？
And if not, have you ever been lonely?
如果答案是否定的，那你有没有感到过孤独呢？
My favorite description of loneliness comes from Zoë Heller's book "Notes on a Scandal."
我最喜欢的关于孤独的描述，出自佐伊·海勒（Zoë Heller）所著的《丑闻笔记》（Notes on a Scandal）一书。
And in it, the narrator, who is played in the movie by Judi Dench, distinguishes between passing loneliness and something deeper.
在影片中，由朱迪·丹奇饰演的叙述者区分了那种短暂的孤独感与某种更为深刻的情感状态。
So she observes that people think they know what it's like to be lonely.
她观察到，人们认为自己明白孤独的感受是什么样的。
You know, they had a bad breakup or a rough time in summer camp.
你知道的，他们可能经历了糟糕的分手，或者在夏令营里遇到了很多麻烦。
But then she says this.
但接着她说了这番话。
"About the drip, drip of long-haul, no-end-in-sight solitude, they know nothing.
对于那种漫长而无尽的孤独感——那种仿佛永远没有尽头、只能持续下去的孤独感——他们一无所知。
They don't know what it is to
他们根本不知道那是什么样的感觉（或经历）。
construct an entire weekend around a visit to the launderette, or to sit in a darkened flat on Halloween night,
可以围绕去自助洗衣店的一次经历来安排整个周末的行程；或者在万圣节之夜，坐在一间昏暗的公寓里……
because you can't bear to expose your bleak evening to a crowd of jeering trick-or-treaters."
因为你实在无法忍受将自己的悲惨处境暴露在那些嘲笑你、前来索要糖果的孩子们面前。
And she concludes with this: “I have sat on park benches and trains and school room chairs feeling the great store of unused,
她最后这样写道：“我曾坐在公园的长椅上、火车上以及教室的椅子上，感受到那些尚未被利用的、巨大的潜力……
objectless love sitting in my belly like a stone until I was sure I would cry out and fall,
那种毫无目标、毫无目的的爱，就像一块石头一样沉在我的肚子里；直到我确信自己会忍不住大声哭泣、甚至崩溃……
flailing to the ground."
身体剧烈摇晃，最终摔倒在地。
I like this quote for a few reasons.
我喜欢这句话，原因有几点。
It talks about solitude, and solitude is a big source of loneliness, but it also talks about love.
文章谈到了孤独，而孤独往往是导致寂寞的重要原因；同时，文章也提到了爱情。
You could be with somebody, but if you're not loved, not needed, not respected, you might feel lonely.
你可能会和某个人在一起，但如果你没有得到爱、没有感受到自己的价值、也没有被尊重，你仍然会感到孤独。
And then there's understanding.
然后就是理解了。
Suppose you have something in your head that's important to you, that matters a lot to you, but you feel others don't get it,
假设你脑子里有一些对你来说非常重要的事情，但这些事情别人并不理解（或者说别人无法理解你的感受）。
or don't care to get it, or aren't trying hard enough to get it.
或者他们根本不想得到它，又或者他们没有付出足够的努力去争取它。
This too could cause loneliness.
这也可能会让人感到孤独。
Loneliness ravages the body as well as the soul.
孤独不仅摧残灵魂，也会伤害身体。
A report by the Surgeon General associates it with greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke and the like.
美国卫生局局长发布的一份报告指出，这种状况会增加患心血管疾病、痴呆症、中风等疾病的风险。
It's the equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
这相当于每天吸15支香烟的危害。
Studies in the United States United Kingdom find that about one in five people describe themselves as often or always lonely.
在美国和英国进行的研究发现，大约五分之一的人认为自己经常或总是感到孤独。
And the most at-risk group is young adults.
风险最高的群体是年轻人。
I'm here to talk about a possible cure for loneliness and what it might mean.
我在这里是想谈谈一种可能治愈孤独感的方法，以及这种方法可能会带来什么影响。
And I think we could see loneliness as similar to boredom.
我认为，我们可以将孤独感视为与无聊感类似的一种情绪。
I'm old enough to remember when people were bored all the time.
我已经年纪大了，还记得过去人们总是感到无聊的那些日子。
Long train rides, long car rides, long plane rides.
漫长的火车旅程、漫长的汽车旅程、漫长的飞机旅程……
Late at night when the TV stations switched off and you were all alone, and you had to read.
深夜时分，所有的电视台都停止了播放，你独自一人，只能靠阅读来消磨时间。
But now most of us carry around our phones and those phones offer podcasts and movies and books and music and social media and so on.
但现在，我们大多数人都随身携带手机，而这些手机可以提供播客、电影、书籍、音乐以及社交媒体等功能。
And so for many of us, boredom is a thing of the past.
因此，对许多人来说，无聊已经成为了过去。
Well the cure for loneliness may also be found in our phones and our laptops.
嗯，孤独感的“解药”或许也可以在我们的手机和笔记本电脑中找到。
And it is, of course, generative AI.
当然，这就是生成式人工智能（Generative AI）。
Last year, some friends and I wrote an article called "In Praise of Empathic AI."
去年，我和一些朋友共同撰写了一篇题为《赞美具有同理心的人工智能》的文章。
If that title makes you cringe and makes you kind of angry, you're not alone.
如果那个标题让你感到不适或有些生气，那么你并不孤单。
Our colleagues hated it.
我们的同事们非常讨厌这件事。