3. The Species Who Knew Too Much

CHAPTER 3 THE SPECIES WHO KNEW TOO MUCH We all know that it's good to be smart. It's even better to be very smart. But being TOO smart is just asking for trouble. Take human beings for example: We were smart enough to invent gardening and health care, we developed Bob Evans Restaurants and FOX News, and we've managed to take hard candies and gentle-yet-effective laxatives to exciting new horizons. But somewhere along the way, we got TOO smart for our own good. We started inventing dumb things like car alarms, leaf blowers, and spray-on hair.

第三章知道太多的物种我们都知道聪明是件好事。 聪明一点就更好了。 但是太聪明只会自找麻烦。 以人类为例：我们足够聪明，发明了园艺和医疗保健，我们开发了鲍勃·埃文斯餐厅和福克斯新闻，我们成功地将硬糖和温和有效的泻药带到了令人兴奋的新领域。 但在这条路上的某个地方，我们变得太聪明了。 我们开始发明一些愚蠢的东西，比如汽车报警器、吹叶机和头发喷雾。

You'd think that dumb things would have been good enough for us, but no. Our big, ridiculous brains just weren't satisfied. We had to take things one step further. So we began creating incredibly dangerous things like atomic bombs and nuclear warheads, and we built enough of them to wipe out everybody on the planet. Then, like the smarty-pantses we are, we handed the launch codes over to politicians. Only human beings are smart enough to be that dumb!

你会认为那些愚蠢的事情对我们来说已经足够好了，但事实并非如此。 我们又大又可笑的大脑不满足。 我们必须更进一步。 所以我们开始制造非常危险的东西，比如原子弹和核弹头，我们制造了足够多的东西来消灭地球上的所有人。 然后，像我们这些自作聪明的人一样，我们把发射代码交给了政客们。 只有人类才会聪明到那么笨！

It turns out that brains are a lot like beans. They're both good, but you really don't want to overdo it with either one. You see, too much of a good thing usually ends up being a VERY BAD thing. One way or another, you're probably going to end up with a big, stinky mess. The story you are about to read is the unfortunate tale of how the smartest brain on the planet created the biggest, stinkiest mess the world has ever seen. But before I can tell you that story, I have to tell you this story...

事实证明，大脑和豆子很像。 它们都很好，但你真的不想用任何一个过度。 你看，太多的好事通常最终会变成一件非常糟糕的事情。 不管怎样，你最终可能会落得一个又臭又乱的烂摊子。 你即将读到的故事是一个不幸的故事，关于地球上最聪明的大脑如何创造了世界上有史以来最大、最臭的混乱。 但在我告诉你那个故事之前，我必须告诉你这个故事……