Questions No One Knows the Answers to (Full Version)

無人知道答案的問題－完整版

譯者: Melody Tang 審譯者: Harry Chen

On a typical day at school,

在學校尋常的一天裡

endless hours are spent learning the answers to questions,

永遠沒有盡頭的時間 花在學習問題的解答上

but right now, we'll do the opposite.

但是現在我們要反過來做

我們將關注於你無法 學到答案的問題上

We're going to focus on questions where you can't learn the answers

because they're unknown.

因為答案還沒有人知道的

I used to puzzle about a lot of things as a boy, for example:

我在孩童時期曾經對很多事情感到不解

例如當狗會是什麼樣的感覺？

What would it feel like to be a dog?

魚會感覺到疼痛嗎？

Do fish feel pain?

How about insects?

那昆蟲又怎樣呢？

Was the Big Bang just an accident?

「宇宙大爆炸」僅是個意外嗎？

And is there a God?

上帝真的存在嗎？

And if so, how are we so sure that it's a He and not a She?

如果真的有－我們如何確定 祂是男生而非女生呢？

Why do so many innocent people and animals suffer terrible things?

為什麼會有這麼多無辜的人類和動物 遭受到悲慘的事情？

Is there really a plan for my life?

我的生命中真的有命數嗎？

Is the future yet to be written,

未來是否還沒註定好呢？

or is it already written and we just can't see it?

還是未來早已註定好了 而我們不過無從得知而已

But then, do I have free will? I mean, who am I anyway?

不過話說回來我有自由意志嗎？ 我是指我到底是誰呢？

Am I just a biological machine?

我僅僅是一台活生生的機器嗎？

But then, why am I conscious? What is consciousness?

不過話說回來我為什麼會有意識呢？ 意識又是什麼東西呢？

Will robots become conscious one day?

機器人哪天也會變成有意識的嗎？

I mean, I kind of assumed that some day

我彷若在假設未來的某一天

I would be told the answers to all these questions.

會有人告訴我所有這些問題的答案

肯定有人知道答案對吧！

Someone must know, right?

Guess what? No one knows.

你猜怎麼著－沒有人知道的

大部分的問題困惑著我更甚以往

Most of those questions puzzle me more now than ever.

但是探索這些問題是很有趣的 因為它會帶你到知識的盡頭

But diving into them is exciting

because it takes you to the edge of knowledge,

and you never know what you'll find there.

而你永遠不知道你會在那裡發現到什麼

So, two questions that no one on Earth knows the answer to.

因此由兩個地球上沒有人 知道答案的問題來做開端吧！

(Music)

（音樂）

［有多少個宇宙存在呢？］

[How many universes are there?]

Sometimes when I'm on a long plane flight,

有時候當我坐在遠途飛行的飛機上時

I gaze out at all those mountains and deserts

我會向外凝視那些山脈和沙漠

and try to get my head around how vast our Earth is.

嘗試著猜測我們的地球到底有多巨大

And then I remember that there's an object we see every day

接著我想到一個我們每天 都看得到的東西

that would literally fit one million Earths inside it:

恰恰可以裝進一百萬個地球－就是太陽

the Sun.

它應該是大到不切實際了

It seems impossibly big.

But in the great scheme of things, it's a pinprick,

其實不過也只是滄海一粟罷了

one of about 400 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy,

只是銀河系四千億顆星星的其中之一

這些星星你可以在晴朗的夜晚看到

which you can see on a clear night

如同白茫的霧氣般在天空延展

as a pale white mist stretched across the sky.

And it gets worse.

還有更不堪的事

There are maybe 100 billion galaxies detectable by our telescopes.

或許只有一千億個的星系是可以被 我們的天文望遠鏡所探測到的

So if each star was the size of a single grain of sand,

假設每個星星是 一粒沙子的大小的話

僅僅銀河系就有足夠的星星

just the Milky Way has enough stars

to fill a 30-foot by 30-foot stretch of beach

以沙子填出 30 乘 30 平方呎大

three feet deep with sand.

3 呎深的沙灘

And the entire Earth doesn't have enough beaches

整個地球上的沙灘甚至還不足以

to represent the stars in the overall universe.

代表全宇宙中所有的星星數

Such a beach would continue for literally hundreds of millions of miles.

這樣的一個沙灘將會綿延數億英里長

Holy Stephen Hawking, that is a lot of stars.

天啊！史蒂芬．霍金 這可是超級多的星星啊

But he and other physicists now believe in a reality

但是現在他和其他物理學家相信實際上

that is unimaginably bigger still.

仍然還要比現在所知多上不知道多少

首先天文望遠鏡掌握到的一千億個星系

I mean, first of all, the 100 billion galaxies

within range of our telescopes

are probably a minuscule fraction of the total.

可能只是總數裡極小的部分

Space itself is expanding at an accelerating pace.

太空正以加速度擴展中

The vast majority of the galaxies

絕大部分的星系正迅速離我們而去

are separating from us so fast that light from them may never reach us.

它們所發出的光線可能永遠到不了地球

Still, our physical reality here on Earth

我們地球上的物理現象

is intimately connected to those distant, invisible galaxies.

仍舊緊密地與那些遙遠的、 見不著的星系有關聯

We can think of them as part of our universe.

我們可以把它們看做是 我們的宇宙的一部分

They make up a single, giant edifice

它們組成了一個巨大的體系

遵循著相同的物理法則 而且全部都是由與構成了你和我

obeying the same physical laws and all made from the same types of atoms,

electrons, protons, quarks, neutrinos, that make up you and me.

相同的原子、電子、質子、 垮克、中子所組成

However, recent theories in physics, including one called string theory,

然而包括「弦理論」在內的近期物理理論

are now telling us there could be countless other universes

告訴了我們可能有著 無以計數由不同粒子、

built on different types of particles,

帶有不同屬性所建立、 遵循不同法則的其他宇宙存在

with different properties, obeying different laws.

Most of these universes could never support life,

大部分的宇宙可能永遠不能供養生命

and might flash in and out of existence in a nanosecond.

而且其誕生與消滅可能只在豪微秒以內

不過無論如何它們總算一起構成了 可能多達11次元空間的巨大多元宇宙

But nonetheless, combined, they make up a vast multiverse

of possible universes in up to 11 dimensions,

featuring wonders beyond our wildest imagination.

我們最奔放的想像力也勾不著之奇景

「弦理論」最主流之版本預測出由 10 的 500 次方個宇宙構成一個多元宇宙

The leading version of string theory predicts a multiverse

made up of 10 to the 500 universes.

就是 1 後面帶著 500 個 0

That's a one followed by 500 zeros,

a number so vast that if every atom

一個如此龐大的數字

如果我們可觀測到的宇宙裡 每粒原子都有自己的宇宙

in our observable universe had its own universe,

and all of the atoms in all those universes each had

以及在所有那些的宇宙中全部的原子 各自有自己的宇宙

their own universe,

你再重複兩輪同樣的推演

and you repeated that for two more cycles,

you'd still be at a tiny fraction of the total,

你仍將會是總數的一小部分而已

namely, one trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion

也就是 1 ／10 的 180 次方

trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillionth.

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

But even that number is minuscule compared to another number:

即便是這個數字與另一個數字 相比還是微不足道：無窮

infinity.

Some physicists think the space-time continuum is literally infinite

部分物理學家認為時空 連續體確實就是無窮大

and that it contains an infinite number of so-called pocket universes

而且那包含了無窮帶有不同屬性 名喚"自成一格之宇宙"的東西

with varying properties.

你的大腦還能運作吧？

How's your brain doing?

「量子論」添加了全新的問題進來

Quantum theory adds a whole new wrinkle.

I mean, the theory's been proven true beyond all doubt,

該理論已經從所有的 質疑聲中被證實為真了

but interpreting it is baffling,

不過我是指釐清它很容易讓人搞糊塗

and some physicists think you can only un-baffle it

有些物理學家認為

只有當你想像著龐大數量的平行宇宙 在每個時點又誕生了出來

if you imagine that huge numbers of parallel universes

are being spawned every moment,

and many of these universes would actually be very like the world we're in,

而且多數的那些宇宙將會確實 非常類似於我們所在的世界

would include multiple copies of you.

還會包含繁多個你本人的翻版 這樣你才可能不搞混

In one such universe, you'd graduate with honors

在其中一個宇宙你會光榮地畢業、

and marry the person of your dreams, and in another, not so much.

以及與你的夢中情人成婚

而在另一個宇宙中的你就沒那麼好了

Well, there are still some scientists who would say, hogwash.

也還是有一些科學家可能 會說這是一派胡言

The only meaningful answer to the question of how many universes there are is one.

對於有多少宇宙存在這個問題 只有一個有意義的答案

Only one universe.

那就是僅僅一個宇宙而已！

And a few philosophers and mystics might argue

有少部分哲學家和神秘力量信奉者

that even our own universe is an illusion.

會說就連我們的宇宙也不過是個幻像

So, as you can see, right now

所以如同你所能知道的 對於這個問題現在仍沒有一個共識

there is no agreement on this question, not even close.

還差的遠呢！

All we know is the answer is somewhere between zero and infinity.

我們只知道這個答案 介於零到無窮之間

Well, I guess we know one other thing.

我認為我們還知道另一件事情

This is a pretty cool time to be studying physics.

這是絕佳的時候來學習物理

We just might be undergoing the biggest paradigm shift in knowledge

我們可能正在經歷人類有史以來 知識上最大的思維方式轉變

that humanity has ever seen.

(Music)

（音樂）

[Why can't we see evidence of alien life?]

［為什麼找不到外星生命的跡象呢？］

Somewhere out there in that vast universe

在浩瀚宇宙的某一處

there must surely be countless other planets teeming with life.

肯定有無數的其他星球充斥著生命體

But why don't we see any evidence of it?

但是為什麼我們看不到任何跡象呢？

「恩里科‧費米」在 1950 年 提問了這個著名的問題：

Well, this is the famous question asked by Enrico Fermi in 1950:

Where is everybody?

「外星人都在哪兒呢？」

密謀論主義們聲稱不明飛行物體 亦即「幽浮」不時光臨到地球

Conspiracy theorists claim that UFOs are visiting all the time

and the reports are just being covered up,

而且有關的報告、報導都被掩蓋了 不過老實講他們也不是很有說服力啦

but honestly, they aren't very convincing.

But that leaves a real riddle.

但是這留下了一個真正的謎團

In the past year, the Kepler space observatory

去年裡克卜勒太空望遠鏡 又在一些恆星週邊發現了數以百計的行星

has found hundreds of planets just around nearby stars.

And if you extrapolate that data,

如果你用那些資料估算一下

it looks like there could be half a trillion planets

光我們銀河系就很可能 有 5000 億顆的行星

just in our own galaxy.

If any one in 10,000 has conditions

假使一萬顆裡有任何一顆行星 有著能供養某型態生命的條件

that might support a form of life,

在銀河系裡面

that's still 50 million possible life-harboring planets

依然還有五千萬顆 可能蘊藏生命體的行星

right here in the Milky Way.

So here's the riddle:

所以謎團在這裡

地球直到「宇宙大爆炸」90 億年 之後才開始形成

our Earth didn't form

until about nine billion years after the Big Bang.

Countless other planets in our galaxy should have formed earlier,

在我們的星系中有無數星球 應該形成於更早之前

and given life a chance to get underway

給予生命體現蹤的機會

早於地球出現生命體之前的 數十億年或數千萬年

billions, or certainly many millions of years earlier than happened on Earth.

If just a few of them had spawned intelligent life

如果只有一小部分孕育出過智慧生命

and started creating technologies,

並且創造出科技

those technologies would have had millions of years

那些科技早已有數百萬年的時間

to grow in complexity and power.

來提升複雜性和力量

On Earth,

在地球上

we've seen how dramatically technology can accelerate

我們已經見識到科技可以如何 突然間單單在一百年內加速發展

in just 100 years.

In millions of years, an intelligent alien civilization

在數百萬年裡一個高智慧的外星文明

肯定可以輕易地流傳遍整個星系

could easily have spread out across the galaxy,

perhaps creating giant energy-harvesting artifacts

或許創造出巨型的採收能量裝置

or fleets of colonizing spaceships

或者是太空船殖民艦隊

或是可以填滿夜空的美麗藝術作品

or glorious works of art that fill the night sky.

最起碼你會認為

At the very least, you'd think they'd be revealing their presence,

不論刻意與否

deliberately or otherwise,

through electromagnetic signals of one kind or another.

應該有透過某種電磁波訊號 或是其他方式顯露出它們的存在

And yet we see no convincing evidence of any of it.

但是我們還找不到任何有力的證據

Why?

為什麼呢？

Well, there are numerous possible answers, some of them quite dark.

是這樣啦，有許多可能的答案

其中有一些很令人絕望

Maybe a single, superintelligent civilization

也許單一超智慧文明

has indeed taken over the galaxy

已經確實掌控了銀河系 而且實施嚴格的電波靜音

and has imposed strict radio silence

because it's paranoid of any potential competitors.

因為它會對任何潛在的競爭對手擔憂不已

It's just sitting there ready to obliterate

它就是已經坐等著要徹底摧毀 會變成威脅的任何東西

anything that becomes a threat.

或者它們也許沒那麼有智慧

Or maybe they're not that intelligent,

又或許創造精密科技的智慧能力進化

or perhaps the evolution of an intelligence

capable of creating sophisticated technology

is far rarer than we've assumed.

遠比我們所設想的更難得

After all, it's only happened once on Earth in four billion years.

四十億年來終究只發生過一次 就是在地球上

Maybe even that was incredibly lucky.

也許就連這次已是無比地幸運了

Maybe we are the first such civilization in our galaxy.

或許我們是本星系中的第一個智慧文明

Or, perhaps civilization carries with it the seeds of its own destruction

或者有可能文明帶有無力控制

其所創造出之科技的自我毀滅因子

through the inability to control the technologies it creates.

But there are numerous more hopeful answers.

不過還是有很多充滿希望的答案

For a start, we're not looking that hard,

首先我們並沒有認真在搜找 我們現在只花極少的金錢在這上頭

and we're spending a pitiful amount of money on it.

Only a tiny fraction of the stars in our galaxy

在我們星系只有一小部分星球

have really been looked at closely for signs of interesting signals.

真的曾經被仔細觀察過 值得玩味之訊號的跡象

或者是我們沒有找對方向、用對方法

And perhaps we're not looking the right way.

也許當文明在發展時

Maybe as civilizations develop,

they quickly discover communication technologies

他們很快地就發現了遠比電磁波 更精密、更有用的通訊科技

far more sophisticated and useful than electromagnetic waves.

Maybe all the action takes place inside the mysterious

也許所有的動作都發生在最近才被發現

recently discovered dark matter,

如謎般的暗黑物質或是暗黑能量之中

or dark energy, that appear to account for most of the universe's mass.

那看起來佔了整個宇宙的絕大多數

Or, maybe we're looking at the wrong scale.

或者可能我們找錯了大小範圍

Perhaps intelligent civilizations come to realize

也許智慧文明理解到生命最終 只用美妙的方式

that life is ultimately just complex patterns of information

以複雜之資訊彼此互動

interacting with each other in a beautiful way,

and that that can happen more efficiently at a small scale.

這種互動溝通在小規模下變得更有效

So, just as on Earth, clunky stereo systems have shrunk

因此就如同地球上笨重的立體音響

已縮小成美麗輕巧的 iPod

to beautiful, tiny iPods, maybe intelligent life itself,

或許智能生命體為了減少在環境中 留下的足跡已經將自己變得微不可察

in order to reduce its footprint on the environment,

has turned itself microscopic.

So the Solar System might be teeming with aliens,

因此太陽系也許滿是外星人 我們就只是無法察覺到它們而已

and we're just not noticing them.

Maybe the very ideas in our heads are a form of alien life.

可能我們腦中的此刻的想法就是 一種外星生命的形式

Well, okay, that's a crazy thought.

好啦，這真是個瘋狂的想法

是外星人讓我這麼說的

The aliens made me say it.

But it is cool that ideas do seem to have a life all of their own

不過這實在很勁爆 說想法似乎全都有各自的生命

and that they outlive their creators.

而且比想出它們的人更長壽

Maybe biological life is just a passing phase.

也許生理生命只不過是個過渡的階段

Well, within the next 15 years,

在未來十五年裡我們有可能看到 來自有良機的鄰近行星之真實光譜資料

we could start seeing real spectroscopic information

from promising nearby planets

that will reveal just how life-friendly they might be.

那將顯現它們可能有多麼迎合生命

And meanwhile, SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence,

同時「搜尋天外文明計畫」亦即 SETI

is now releasing its data to the public

現在正對普羅大眾開放它的資料

so that millions of citizen scientists, maybe including you,

因此可能也包括你在內的 數百萬平民科學家

can bring the power of the crowd to join the search.

能把群眾的力量帶進這個研究中

而在地球上已經做過了試著憑空 創造出生命的神奇實驗

And here on Earth, amazing experiments

are being done to try to create life from scratch,

life that might be very different from the DNA forms we know.

此生命可能與我們所知的 DNA 型式非常不一樣

這所有一切將會幫助我們瞭解

All of this will help us understand whether the universe is teeming with life

到底宇宙是充滿生命體

or whether, indeed, it's just us.

或者確實就只有我們而已

Either answer, in its own way,

兩個答案各有千秋都令人敬佩

is awe-inspiring,

因為就算我們是唯一的智慧文明

because even if we are alone,

我們思索、夢想、問這些問題的現實

the fact that we think and dream and ask these questions

might yet turn out to be

可能會變成宇宙中最重要的事實之一

one of the most important facts about the universe.

And I have one more piece of good news for you.

而且我要再多給你一則好消息

追求知識和理解永遠不會乏味

The quest for knowledge and understanding never gets dull.

It doesn't. It's actually the opposite.

不但不會還恰恰相反

The more you know, the more amazing the world seems.

你知道的越多 這個世界就似乎越神奇

And it's the crazy possibilities, the unanswered questions,

其中荒唐的可能性和尚未有答案的問題

that pull us forward.

催促著我們向前進

So stay curious.

所以持續好奇吧！