想象一个又聋又盲的人，他只能依靠触觉来了解周围的环境。但情况还要更糟。这个人只能通过一根针来感知周围的事物。他握着针，用针尖在身边物体的表面上摩擦。那根针的针尖就是他认识世界的唯一窗口。这一小小的针尖，是他了解整个宇宙的唯一信息来源。

Imagine a deaf, blind person who only has his sense of touch available to learn about his surroundings. But it gets worse than that. This person can only feel his surroundings by using a needle. He holds the needle and rubs its tip over the surfaces of objects around him. The tip of that needle is his only window into the world. That tiny needle tip is his only source of information about the entire universe.

那么，当这个人开始跟我们讲现实的本质时，我们是多么惊讶啊。想象一下，当他向我们解释“这一切究竟意味着什么”时，我们是多么困惑。再想象一下，当他坚持说世界上唯一存在的东西，就是他能通过他的针头感觉到的东西时，我们又是多么觉得好笑。

So imagine our surprise when this man tries to tell us about the nature of reality. Imagine our confusion as he explains to us what “it all means.” Imagine our amusement when he insists that the only things that exist in the world are what he can feel through his needle.

假设现在这个人不用这根针，而是得用一小段线，通过把线拖过周围的物体来探知他所处的环境。这样一来，他对科学探究范围的理解就会更加准确。

Now imagine that instead of this needle, the man has to use a small piece of thread to feel out his environment by dragging the thread over surrounding objects. That will give you an even more accurate understanding of the scope of scientific inquiry.

考虑到人类所能感知的只是电磁波谱中极小的一部分，即我们用眼睛看到的可见光。当然，借助相对现代的技术，我们能够探测到我们的祖先根本不知道的其他类型的电磁辐射，例如红外线、紫外线、X射线、伽马射线等。那么，我们凭什么认为，还不存在其他的“信息通道”或“存在层面”，只是由于当前的技术局限（例如），我们至今对它们一无所知呢？

Consider that human beings are only privy to a very small sliver of the electromagnetic spectrum, i.e., visible light, that we perceive with our eyes. Of course, due to relatively modern technology, we can detect other kinds of electromagnetic radiation that our ancestors had no idea about, e.g., infrared, ultraviolet, x-rays, gamma rays, etc. What makes us think that there aren’t other “channels” of information or “planes of existence” that we as of yet, due to current technological limitations for example, have no idea about?

仅就我们的感知能力而言，我们根本无从得知自己所不知道的东西。若我们运气好，或许偶然会发现一些东西。但考虑到宇宙的浩瀚（至少就我们所知的那一部分而言），以及我们这颗小小星球上仍有大量地方未被探索，有充分的理由表明，我们对许多事情仍一无所知。

Just considering our faculties of perception, there is simply no way for us to know what we don’t know. If we get lucky, we might stumble upon something. But considering the vastness of the universe (the piece of it that we even know about, at least) and the fact that even so much of our own tiny planet has yet to be explored, there is plenty to suggest that we are in the dark on a whole lot.

现在来看看我们的心智能力。毕竟，感知与大脑“处理”感官信息的能力有着不可分割的联系，而这种“处理”正是我们有意识地觉察这些信息的前提。如果我们的大脑“看不见”某些东西，而感觉器官却确实接收到了它们，那又会怎样呢？同样，我们无从确定，因为我们无法跳出自己的大脑，去看清自己遗漏了什么。

Now consider our mental capacity. Perception, after all, is inexorably connected to the brain’s ability to “process” sensory information. And that “processing” is a prerequisite for our ability to consciously register that information. What if our brains can’t “see” certain things that our sensory organs nonetheless pick up? Again, there is no way to tell for sure because we cannot, as it were, step “outside” of our brains to see what we’re missing.

讽刺的是，科学本身其实也暗暗承认了这些极大的局限。毕竟，根据科学界的共识，我们不过是进化而来的猿类。人们告诉我们，我们的感知和认知能力，原本是为了在树上找到可食用的果实，以及挑选最合适的温暖伴侣而形成的。然而不知为何，这些日常猿类生活的功能，竟也能够用来探索宇宙的深处、思考其中的意义，还能对人性乃至道德的生物学起源侃侃而谈、吟咏不止。

The ironic thing is that science itself implicitly acknowledges these extreme limitations. According to scientific consensus, after all, we are nothing but evolved apes. Our perceptual and cognitive capacities, we are told, are suited for finding edible fruit in trees and getting the best warm body to mate with. Yet, somehow those functions of day-to-day ape-hood are also amenable to probing the depths of the universe, pondering what it all means, and waxing poetic about everything from human nature to the biological origins of morality.

我们都应该对这种盲目而可悲的傲慢付之一笑。

We should all chuckle in the face of such blind, pathetic hubris.