时差N小时:最危险的物种,人类

What would you say is the deadliest animal on earth—the most dangerous, brutal, destructive? Thewolf? The tiger? The great white shark? Nope. Thebest answer is the species known as Homo sapiens—human beings.

你认为世界上最致命的物种是什么——最危险，最残暴，最具毁灭性的物种?狼?老虎?大白鲨?全都不是。最正确的答案是被称为智人种的人类。

Not only do we kill members of other species at arate unparalleled in the history of the planet, but wedo something which is singular in the animal world:we make a point of killing each other, too.

人类不仅以前所未有的速度杀害其它物种，而且也自相残杀，这种所作所为在动物界中堪称独一无二。

That is, this kind of behavior was thought to be singular until just a few decades ago. It was1974 when the first hard evidence of intra-species murder was documented in animals otherthan man—that is, animals going out of their way to find a member of their own species andkill it without immediate provocation.

直到几十年以前，这种行为仍被认为是独特的。1974年第一起证据确凿的种内谋杀案件被记录在案，这次案件的凶手是动物而不是人。换而言之，动物用自己的方式寻找同类敌人，在没有直接挑衅的情况下杀掉它。

The species witnessed committing these murders was the chimpanzee, a close relative tohuman beings. Further observation of primate behavior has discovered that not only is intra-species murder common, so are such brutalities as rape, battering of females and infanticide.

那些被目睹犯下谋杀罪行的物种便是猩猩，一个人类的近亲物种。更进一步地观察灵长类动物的行为，就会发现在这个种群里内不仅种内谋杀很常见，连强奸，重伤雌性猩猩，杀婴这类暴行也时有发生。

It seems that the worst traits in human behavior started developing long before human beingsper se existed; as primates we have a very nasty evolutionary inheritance. Does this meanthat war, crime and violence among humans is unavoidable?

这似乎说明在人类开始进化很久以前，这种最糟糕的特质本就存在：作为灵长类动物，我们进化遗传了这种丑恶的特质。那么这意味着人类发起战争，犯罪还有暴力事件是不可避免的吗?

It would not be fair to go that far; but the evidence of violence in those species most closelylinked to our own does suggest that humanity will have to work very hard indeed atovercoming its genetic inheritance, if we are going to live in peace—or continue to live.

事态还没有严重到这种地步;但这种与每个人都戚戚相关的暴力证据暗示着人们，要想和平相处，继续活下去的话，就得非常努力地克服自身的基因缺陷。