读麦·讲演·作为在电子时代里的继续生存的艺术（1973）·003

The brain-stem’s great body-regulating centre, the diencephalon, continued to function just as if the artifacts were non-existent. But as the diencephalon is also the organ in which instincts are generated, the earliest humans found themselves faced with a very old problem in a new garb. Their instinctive behavior ceased to be appropriate in the new situations which the cortex created by using artifacts. Just as in the pre-mammalian reptiles the new environment in the trees rendered many ancient reflexes pointless, the new artificial environment which man began to build for himself at the dawn of culture made many of his animal reflexes useless.

脑干主要的身体调节中枢——间脑——就好像这些人造物不存在一样。但由于间 脑也是产生本能的器官， 因此最早期的人类发现自己在一副新外表下面临着一个 非常古老的问题。 他们的本能行为不再适合于大脑皮层利用人造物所创造的新环 境。就像对于哺乳动物之前的爬行动物，树上的新环境使许多古老的反射显得不得 要领一样，人类在文化之初开始为自己创建的新的人工环境使他的许多动物反射收 不到效果。

按：新环境使旧反射显得不得要领或收不到效果，是人类的历史性难题。旧反射往往是内容细节层面的，而与新的媒介环境相匹配的，只能是新的模式。

人造物总括或者说技术总括，逐渐为人类营造了一个安逸舒适的环境，人在自然环境里作生存斗争的很多本能都失去了用武之地。安逸使人懈怠。

这段话麦氏引自Albert T. Simeons, Man’s Presumptuous Brain (New York: E. P. Dutton,1962),P43。