Katie Mack: The death of the universe -- and what it means for life | TED Fellows

翻译人员: Frank Xu 校对人员: Yanyan Hong

[SHAPE YOUR FUTURE]

I love the universe.

The vastness, the mystery,

the astonishing beauty of the stars.

I love everything about it,

and I've devoted my life to studying it.

[塑造你的未来]

From atoms to galaxies,

我爱宇宙。

from beginning to end.

我爱它的浩瀚、神秘，

But lately, I've gotten stuck on that last bit.

还有惊世骇俗的星空之美。

The fact that the universe is dying.

我爱有关宇宙的一切，

并将一生投入于对它的学习中。

I know this may come as a shock.

I mean, it's the universe, it's everything.

从原子到银河，

从开始到结束。

It's supposed to be eternal, right?

但最近，我总在纠结最后那一部分，

But it isn't.

We know the universe had a beginning

就是宇宙正在衰亡的事实。

and everything that begins ends.

The start of the story is a familiar one.

我知道这可能会令人震惊。

In the beginning, there was light.

我是说，这可是宇宙，这可是一切。

We know that because we can see it directly.

它应该是永恒的，不是吗？

可它并不是。

The cosmos today is filled with low-energy background radiation

我们知道宇宙有个开端，

并且每件有开始的事都会结束。

left over from a time

宇宙诞生之初的故事 我们并不陌生，

when the whole universe was an all-encompassing inferno.

万物之初，要有光。

In its first 380,000 years, space wasn't cold or dark.

我们知道这点 是因为我们能够直接看到。

当下的宇宙充满了低能量的背景辐射，

It was thick with a churning, humming plasma.

这些辐射遗留自一个时期，

It was hot and dense.

那时整个宇宙本身是一片无边的烈焰。

It was loud.

But it was also expanding.

在最初的三十八万年里， 宇宙既不寒冷也不黑暗。

Over time, the fire dissipated and space cooled.

它曾充满了一股滚滚翻腾 并嗡嗡作响的等离子体，

Clouds of gas pulled together by their own gravity

它曾是炙热且紧密的，

formed stars and galaxies and planets and us.

它曾是喧嚣的。

但它也在膨胀。

And one day,

随着时间流逝，火焰消散， 宇宙也冷却了下来。

astronomers using a microwave receiver detected a bit of static

一团团气体被它们各自的引力拉拢到一起，

coming from every direction in the sky,

the leftover radiation from that primordial fire.

形成了恒星、星系、行星，还有我们。

We can now map out the cosmos

然后有一天，

使用微波接收器的天文学家 发现了一些信号干扰。

to the farthest reaches of the observable universe.

We can see distant galaxies

这些干扰自天外的四面八方而来，

whose light has taken billions of years to reach us.

它们是最初那场大火遗留下的辐射。

So by looking at them, we are looking deep into the past.

如今我们能够为宇宙绘制地图，

We can watch how the expansion of the universe has slowed down

范围能达到我们所能观察到的 宇宙最远的角落。

since that hot early phase 13.8 billion years ago.

我们能看到远方的星系，

它们的光用了数十亿年的时间 来到我们这里。

We can see collisions of entire galaxies

因此，当我们仰望它们时， 其实是在观望遥远的过去。

and watch the bursts of star formation,

我们能看到，宇宙的碰撞 是如何从 138 亿年前

that result from the sudden conflagration of all that cosmic hydrogen.

那个炙热的早期阶段放慢下来的。

And we can see that these collisions are happening less and less.

我们能看到整个星系之间的碰撞，

The expansion of the universe isn't slowing down anymore.

能看到恒星成型时的爆发，

A few billion years ago, it started speeding up.

这些爆发是大量氢气 被瞬间点燃的产物。

Distant galaxies are getting farther apart

我们也能看到这些星系碰撞越来越少。

faster and faster.

Star formation has slowed.

宇宙的扩张已经不再减缓了。

In fact, we can calculate exactly how much.

几十亿年前，它开始加速。

And when we do, we find something shocking.

远方的星系们正变得更加遥远，

Of all the stars that have ever been born or that ever will be,

而且越来越快。

恒星的形成已经慢了下来。

around 90 percent have already come into being.

实际上，我们能够计算出具体多少。

From now until the end of time,

the universe is working on just that last 10 percent.

而在计算时， 我们发现了些令人吃惊的事：

在所有已经诞生， 或者会在未来诞生的恒星里，

The end of the universe is coming.

大约百分之九十已经确实存在了。

There are a few ways it could happen,

but the most likely is called the heat death,

从现在开始到时间的结束，

and it's an agonizing, slow languishing of the cosmos.

宇宙只是在完成这最后百分之十的进度了。

Stars burn out and leave smoldering ash.

宇宙的终结正在到来。

Galaxies become increasingly isolated in their own dim pools of light.

它的终结有几种可能，

但最有可能的方式被叫做热寂，

Particles decay.

而它是一场极度痛苦且缓慢的宇宙衰败。

Even black holes evaporate into the void.

恒星烧尽并留下阴燃的灰烬。

Of course, we still have some time.

星系在它们自身暗淡的光芒中 变得越发孤独，

The heat death is so far in the future, we hardly have words to describe it.

粒子衰败。

Long past a billion years,

甚至黑洞也会蒸发，与虚空融为一体。

when the sun expands and boils off the oceans of the Earth.

当然了，我们还有些时间。

Long past 100 billion years,

when we lose the ability to see distant galaxies

热寂在十分遥远的未来， 我们几乎无法用文字来描述它。

and that faint trace of Big Bang light.

比十亿年还要久远，

Long after we are left alone in the darkness

在太阳膨胀，地球上的海水因此沸腾之际；

watching the Milky Way fade.

比一千亿年还要久远，

当我们无法再看到远方的星系

It's OK to be sad about it,

和宇宙大爆炸的光芒 留下的痕迹时还要遥远得多；

even if it is trillions of years in the future.

比我们被独自留在黑暗中

No one wants to think about something they love coming to an end.

看着银河慢慢消逝之后还要久远。

As disconnected as it may be to us here and now,

it is somehow more profound than personal death.

为这事难过没什么关系，

即便它发生在万亿年后的未来里。

We have strategies for accepting the inevitability of that.

没有人想去思考 他们所爱事物的终结。

After all, we tell ourselves, something of us will live on.

在宇宙的终点与我们此时此地 似乎没有直接关系的同时，

Maybe it will be our great works.

它在某种方面比个人的死亡更加深远，

Maybe it will be our children, carrying on our genetic material

对接受死亡的无法避免我们有一些策略。

or perhaps our basic outlook on life.

Maybe it will be some idea worth spreading.

毕竟，我们常说，我们留下的一些痕迹 在死后依旧会存在，

Humanity might venture out into the stars and evolve and change,

它或许会是我们的伟大成就。

或许会是带有我们遗传物质的后代，

but something of us will survive.

又或可能会是我们对一生简单的见解。

But if the universe ends,

它可能会是一些值得传播的理念。

at some point we have no legacy.

There will come a time when, in a very real sense,

人类可能会向外进发， 在星海中冒险并进化和改变，

our existence will not have mattered.

但是我们的一部分将会留存下去。

The slate will be wiped clean completely.

可是如果宇宙消亡了，

Why should we spend our lives

在某个时刻我们将不会有任何遗存。

seeking answers to the ultimate questions of reality

将会有一个时间，在那时， 在一种非常真实的意义上，

if eventually there will be no one left to tell?

我们的存在将不会再有任何影响。

Why build a sandcastle when you can see that the tide is coming in?

一切都将完全重归于零。

为什么我们应该花费我们的人生

I've asked a dozen other cosmologists

来找寻关于现实的终极问题的答案，

and they all had different answers.

就算最后将再没有人能够倾听我们诉说？

To some, the death of the cosmos just seems right.

为什么要在你能看到海浪过来时， 用沙子堆一座城堡？

It's freeing to know that we are temporary.

"I very much like our blipness," one told me.

我问过许多其他宇宙学者，

To others, the question itself motivates the search for some alternative theory.

而他们都有不同的答案。

对其中一些来说， 宇宙的死亡看起来就是合情合理。

There must be some way to carry on.

知道我们并非永恒是种解脱。

The slow fade to black just cannot be how our story ends.

有一位告诉我： “我挺喜欢我们短暂的存在。”

One found comfort in the possibility of the multiverse.

对于其他人，问题的本身 给予他们搜寻其他理论的动力，

"It's not all about us," he said.

必定会有某些方式来继续存在。

Personally, I feel lucky.

缓慢地褪向黑暗就不该会是 我们故事的结束方式。

Our cosmos existed for billions of years before us

他们中一人从多维宇宙的可能性里找到慰藉。

and it will carry on long after we are gone.

For this brief moment, we are here.

“一切并非都和我们有关，”他说。

We may be insignificant to the cosmos as a whole,

就个人而言，我感到幸运。

but we have an immense power to understand it,

我们的宇宙在我们之前 已经存在了数十亿年，

to see the beginning,

并且它将在我们离开后继续存在。

to contemplate the end,

在这个短暂的瞬间里，我们存在于此。

to look up into the sky

and see ourselves reflected in every tiny point of light.

对于整个宇宙来说， 我们或许并不重要，

但我们有着一种无限的能力来了解宇宙，

There is a kind of luxury in the freedom to look beyond our own little lives

来看到开始，

来冥思终结，

and contemplate the end of everything.

来望向天空，

并在每一点小小的光芒之中 看到自己的倒影。

We, fragile, doomed humans

carry within us a sense of discovery and wonder.

这算是种奢侈，它存在于 我们用以望向自己小小人生之外，

It will persist as long as there are thinking beings in the cosmos.

以及对一切事物终结的 苦思冥想的自由之中。

And we can decide how to use it.

作为脆弱且注定会消亡的人类们

在我们心中承载着一种发现和求知的意识。

Thank you.

只要宇宙中还有思想的存在， 宇宙将会生生不息，

而我们可以选择如何去看待。

谢谢。