新SAT必读演讲 Jean-Baptiste Michel-智课教育出国考试.pdf

智 课 网 S A T 备 考 资 料 新SAT必读演讲 Jean Baptiste Michel 智课教育出国考试 新SAT考试范围较广 一些名人演讲常常出现在SAT试题中 下面 智课教育小编为大家带来新SAT必读演讲 Jean Baptiste Michel 希望对大家SAT备考有所帮助 一 新SAT今日名人 Jean Baptiste Michel Jean Baptiste Michel looks at how we can use large volumes of data to better understand our world Why you should listen Jean Baptiste Michel holds joint academic appointments at Harvard FQEB Fellow and Google Visiting Faculty His research focusses on using large volumes of data as tools that help better understand the world around us from the way diseases progress in patients over years to the way cultures change in human societies over centuries With his colleague Erez Lieberman Aiden Jean Baptiste is a Founding Director of Harvard s Cultural Observatory where their research team pioneers the use of quantitative methods for the study of human culture language and history His research was featured on the covers of Science and Nature on the front pages of the New York Times and the Boston Globe in The Economist Wired and many other venues The online tool he helped create was used millions of times to browse cultural trends Jean Baptiste is an Engineer from Ecole Polytechnique Paris and holds an MS in Applied Mathematics and a PhD in Systems Biology from Harvard 二 新SAT必读演讲 So it turns out that mathematics is a very powerful language It has generated considerable insight in physics in biology and economics but not that much in the humanities and in history I think there s a belief that it s just impossible that you cannot quantify the doings of mankind that you cannot measure history But I don t think that s right I want to show you a couple of examples why So my collaborator Erez and I were considering the following fact that two kings separated by centuries will speak a very different language That s a powerful historical force So the king of England Alfred the Great will use a vocabulary and grammar that is quite different from the king of hip hop Jay Z Laughter Now it s just the way it is Language changes over time and it s a powerful force So Erez and I wanted to know more about that So we paid attention to a particular grammatical rule past tense conjugation So you just add ed to a verb at the end to signify the past Today I walk Yesterday I walked But some verbs are irregular Yesterday I thought Now what s interesting about that is irregular verbs between Alfred and Jay Z have become more regular Like the verb to wed that you see here has become regular So Erez and I followed the fate of over 100 irregular verbs through 12 centuries of English language and we saw that there s actually a very simple mathematical pattern that captures this complex historical change namely if a verb is 100 times more frequent than another it regularizes 10 times slower That s a piece of history but it comes in a mathematical wrapping Now in some cases math can even help explain or propose explanations for historical forces So here Steve Pinker and I were considering the magnitude of wars during the last two centuries There s actually a well known regularity to them where the number of wars that are 100 times deadlier is 10 times smaller So there are 30 wars that are about as deadly as the Six Days War but there s only four wars that are 100 times deadlier like World War I So what kind of historical mechanism can produce that What s the origin of this So Steve and I through mathematical analysis propose that there s actually a very simple phenomenon at the root of this which lies in our brains This is a very well known feature in which we perceive quantities in relative ways quantities like the intensity of light or the loudness of a sound For instance committing 10 000 soldiers to the next battle sounds like a lot It s relatively enormous if you ve already committed 1 000 soldiers previously But it doesn t sound so much it s not relatively enough it won t make a difference if you ve already committed 100 000 soldiers previously So you see that because of the way we perceive quantities as the war drags on the number of soldiers committed to it and the casualties will increase not linearly like 10 000 11 000 12 000 but exponentially 10 000 later 20 000 later 40 000 And so that explains this pattern that we ve seen before So here mathematics is able to link a well known feature of the individual mind with a long term historical pattern that unfolds over centuries and across continents So these types of examples today there are just a few of them but I think in the next decade they will become commonplace The reason for that is that the historical record is becoming digitized at a very fast pace So there s about 130 million books that have been written since the dawn of time Companies like Google have digitized many of them above 20 million actually And when the stuff of history is available in digital form it makes it possible for a mathematical analysis to very quickly and very conveniently review trends in our history and our culture So I think in the next decade the sciences and the humanities will come closer together to be able to answer deep questions about mankind And I think that mathematics will be a very powerful language to do that It will be able to reveal new trends in our history sometimes to explain them and maybe even in the future to predict what s going to happen Thank you very much Applause 三 新SAT必读演讲翻译 数学是一门很有用的语言 在解释物理 生物以及经济学方面 它拥有与生俱来的洞察力 但对于历史等人文学科解释力稍弱 我想有人认为用数学解释人文学科是不可能的 因为你不能量化人类的行为 你也不能用数学来度量历史 但我并不这样认为 我想向大家展示几个反例 我和我的合作伙伴Erez考虑了以下事实 这个事实就是身处不同时代的君王 会用非常不同的语言交谈 这是一股非常强大的历史作用力 因此英国国王阿尔弗雷德大帝 将会使用一种语法和词汇 而这种语法和词汇是完全不同于hip hop之王Jay Z所使用的 笑声 这就是我想说的事实 语言与时俱进 并且拥有强大的力量 因此我和Erez想了解更多有关语言的历史 我们研究了一个特定的语法规则 过去式 人们通过在动词后面加 ed 来表示过去 例如 Today I walk 今天我走路 Yesterday I walked 昨天我走路 但有一些动词的变形是不规则的 例如 Yesterday I thought 昨天我思考了 这里有趣的现象是 从阿尔弗雷德大帝到Jay Z时代 不规则动词变的越来越规则了 例如你们这里看到的动词 to wed 就变成了规则动词 因此我和Erez跟踪了100个不规则动词 在12个世纪的英语演化中的 命运 我们发现了一个非常简单的数学规律 来捕捉复杂的历史变化 这个规律就是 如果一个动词比另一个动词的使用频率高一百倍 这个动词规则化的速度就会慢十倍 这是历史的一部分 但却以数学的方式得以展现 在某些情况下 数学甚至可以帮助解释 或者对历史的推动力加以 解释 我和Steve Pinker 考虑了过去两个世纪中战争的激烈程度 事实上有一条广为人知的规律 造成一百倍伤亡人数的战争数目 只占更少伤亡人数的战争数目的十分之一 有30场战争的伤亡人数与 六日战争 第三次阿以战争 的几乎持平 但只有4场战争比 六日战 争 的伤亡人数高出一百倍 例如第一次世界大战 那么这背后的历史原因是什么呢 什么是这条规律的原因呢 我和Steve通过数学分析 认为这是由一个非常简单的现象导致的 而这个现象植根于我们的意识之中 这是一个众所周知的特征 人们对数量的感觉是相对的 诸如光源的强弱或者声音的大小 下面有个例子 派遣10000名士兵去参加下一场战斗乍一听是很多