以下是 Bryan johnson 的最新推文(gpt 翻译),献给那些试图在洪流中坚守自我的人
bryon 一直以病态的自律对抗凋零,不论结果如何都值得尊敬
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**“兄弟忙着不死,倒忘了怎么活了。”**
**“bro so busy trying to not die he forgot how to live”**
每天都有无数人告诉我:你该活得松一点。他们说,我太忙着避免死亡,以至于忘了如何生活。
I’m told hundreds of times a day that I need to live a little. That I’m so busy trying to not die that I’ve forgotten to live.
支撑这种说法的心理机制,是当下地球上最有意思的现象。
The psychology powering this sentiment is the most interesting phenomenon happening on earth right now.
每个人都会建构一个人格面具,一个呈现给世界的角色。它是“真实的自己”与“社会要求你成为的样子”之间的妥协。在当下文化里,这个角色的特征是:看起来活得很充分、高效、忙碌、懂得享受、有快感、有即兴感,并且无所畏惧。
Every individual constructs a persona, a character to present to the world. It’s a compromise between what they are and what society demands of them. In current culture, its characteristics are the appearance of living fully, productivity, busyness, enjoying life, pleasure, spontaneity, and being unafraid.
这个面具被精心打造出来,用来保护佩戴者,使其免于直面自身必然死亡所带来的恐惧。为了让这种无法调和的痛苦从自我意识中隐形,他们把自己溶解进群体,并共同扮演群体的仪式。
It’s carefully constructed to shield the wearer from the terror of their inevitable death. To make this irreconcilable pain invisible to themselves, they dissolve themselves into the group and enact its rituals.
在工位底下睡一觉,喝一杯,吸一口电子烟,吃顿快餐,小赌一把,熬夜追完最爱的剧,奢侈消费一下,放松点……活一点嘛。
Sleep under your desk, have a drink, pull the vape, grab a fast food meal, gamble a little, stay up late to watch your favorite show, splurge some, chill out…live a little.
他们确实在“活”。
They are living.
在细胞层面,代谢债务不断累积,修复机制被拿去交换瞬时的多巴胺。
At the cellular level, metabolic debt accumulates and repair mechanisms are traded for short term dopamine spikes.
但这一切是大家一起做的,所以它就是正常的,甚至是值得向往的。只要所有人都在一起走向死亡,并且共同同意把它称为生活,就没有人会孤独地死去。
But it’s done together, so it’s normal, and even desirable. No one will die alone if everyone is dying together and all agree to call it living.
群体同步移动,被这种节律性的动作安抚着。当有人拒绝参与这些共同仪式时,他们会把这种拒绝体验为一种侮辱,一种威胁;于是必须攻击它、贬低它、嘲笑它。
The group moves in unison, comforted by the rhythmic movement. When someone declines to participate in their shared rituals, they experience it as an insult and a threat that must be attacked, discredited and mocked.
在潜意识里,他们知道自己的仪式具有表演性,也知道这些仪式掩盖着某种必须被压抑的东西。但它被埋得太深,只剩下一声微弱的耳语,轻易被攻击者沉默。
Subconsciously, they know their rituals are performative and masking something that must be suppressed. But it’s been buried so deep that it’s only a faint whisper, easily silenced by a swipe at the offender.
可随后,那耳语变成了低声的提问:你们是不是害怕?他们攻击镜子,因为他们无法承受镜中的倒影。
But then the whisper becomes a quiet voice and asks if they’re afraid. They attack the mirror because they cannot bear the reflection.
在前现代社会里,死亡仪式是明确而诚实的。人们举行葬礼,守丧,清洗遗体,为死者祈祷,遵循安葬习俗。他们面对死亡,并创造共同体仪式,用来消化悲痛、恐惧与失去。
In pre-modern societies, death rituals were explicit and honest. They held a funeral, kept a mourning period, washed the body, prayed for the dead and observed burial customs. They faced death and created community rituals to metabolize the grief, fear and loss.
我们已经不再拥有死亡仪式了。当明确的习俗被侵蚀之后,消费文化将这个空洞货币化,把我们的存在焦虑驱赶到地下。感恩节的放纵,新年的酩酊,万圣节的纵欲,婚礼上的开放酒吧,那些犒赏、挥霍和“放纵日”——它们都是被商业化、被伪装过的庆典,被包装成群体仪式,用来麻痹共同的死亡焦虑。
We no longer have death rituals. As explicit customs eroded, consumer culture monetized the void, driving our existential anxieties underground. Thanksgiving debauchery, New Year drunkenness, Halloween indulgence, the wedding open bar, the treat, splurge and cheat day. They are commercialized, camouflaged celebrations staged as group rituals to dull the shared death anxiety.
昔日,我们直面恐惧;而今,却沉溺其间。那些群体仪式,重新命名并消化死亡;把不断积累的债务隐藏起来。
We previously faced the fear and now we gluttonize on it. Group rituals that name and face death can metabolize it. Rituals that hide from it accumulate the debt and are owned by their creditors.
当我拒绝参与社会性的死亡仪式时,我打破了咒语。
麻醉只有在所有人一起接受时才有效。
一个清醒的人,足以让整个房间意识到自己已经醉了。
When I abstain from societal death rituals, I break the spell. The anesthesia only works if everyone does it together. One abstainer reveals to the room that they are drunk.
这就是愤怒的来源。不是我的选择冒犯了他们。是他们在镜子里看见了自己。
This is the source of the anger. It’s not my decisions. It’s their reflection in the mirror.
可以预见的是,集体会试图把我的不合群病理化。
他们会说,系统性的自律不过是另一种防御机制;是一种对控制的狂热执念,用来逃避同样的存在恐惧。他们会辩称,保存这具生物容器是一种贫瘠的练习,是为了某场我永远不肯真正参与的游戏而无休止地准备。
Predictably, the collective seeks to pathologize my non-conformity. They will claim that systematic discipline is just another defense mechanism; a frantic obsession with control to escape the same existential dread. They will argue that preserving the biological vessel is a sterile exercise, a perpetual preparation for a game I refuse to play.
他们误解了我的目标。
They misunderstand the objective.
控制,仅能维持现状。而我追求的是一次进化的越狱。
自然选择在繁殖完成之后,就不再对我们负责。
接受那条自动滑向衰败的轨道,并不是“生活”;那不过是对一个算法的消极屈从。
Control is maintaining the status quo. I seek an evolutionary jailbreak. Natural selection stops maintaining us once reproduction is done. Accepting that automated slide into decrepitude isn't ‘living’, it’s passive submission to a blind algorithmic process.
我并不反对快乐。我反对的是赝品。
我拒绝死亡仪式,是为了能够真正接受意识所能给予的完整馈赠:充满活力的生理状态,清明的认知,深刻而饱满的情绪色彩。
生命力是掌控,而不是披着自由外衣的自我滥用。
I am not opposed to pleasure. I am opposed to the counterfeit. I say no to the dying ritual so that I can say yes to the full offering of consciousness: a vibrant physiological state, cognitive clarity, and deep emotional coloring. Vitality is mastery, not abuse dressed up as freedom.
回报是一副更清晰的镜片,是看见当下仍不可见之物的能力。高分辨率的意识,使人能够抵达更深的思想、更强的创造力,以及更丰富的体验差异;而当大脑与身体长期处在炎症、退化与麻醉之中时,这些深度就会变得遥远得多。我要扩展人类经验的边界。
The reward is a clearer lens, the ability to see what is currently invisible. High resolution consciousness allows for depths of thought, creativity, and experiential variance that are far harder to reach when the brain and body are chronically inflamed, degraded, and sedated. I want to expand the boundaries of the human experience.
在这个新未来中,摆在我们面前的,是此前从未有人真正品尝过的事物。我并不因为没有参与那些仪式而被剥夺。我是在指向一种人类心智尚未想象过的喜悦。
On offer in this new future are things that no human has ever tasted before. I’m not deprived by the lack of participating in the rituals, I’m pointing to a joy that the human mind has not yet imagined.
我不打算“稍微活一活”。我打算比任何曾经活过的人都活得更多,并邀请你与我同行。
I don’t intend to live a little. I intend to live more than any human who has yet lived and invite you to join me.