Finding life we can't imagine | Christoph Adami

譯者: Jerry Liu 審譯者: Ana Choi

So, I have a strange career.

我的職業很奇怪。

I know it because people come up to me, like colleagues, and say,

這麼講是因為常有人這樣告訴我，例如我的同事

"Chris, you have a strange career."

都會說:「克里斯，你的職業很奇怪耶。」

(Laughter)

(觀眾笑聲)

And I can see their point,

其實我理解他們的意思,

because I started my career as a theoretical nuclear physicist.

因為我一開始當過

理論核子物理學家。

And I was thinking about quarks and gluons and heavy ion collisions,

那時我成天想的都是夸克和膠子,

還有重離子的撞擊,

and I was only 14 years old --

那時我才14歲而已。

No, no, I wasn't 14 years old.

不，不對，不是14歲那年的事。

But after that,

不過在那之後

我有了一間專屬的實驗室,

I actually had my own lab

就在計算神經科學系那邊,

in the Computational Neuroscience department,

但是我完全都沒有做神經科學的研究。

and I wasn't doing any neuroscience.

Later, I would work on evolutionary genetics,

後來我開始研究演化基因,

and I would work on systems biology.

接著便是系統生物學。

But I'm going to tell you about something else today.

不過以上這些跟我今天要講的主題一點關係也沒有。

I'm going to tell you about how I learned something about life.

我要講的是

我如何探悉到生命的一些東西。

And I was actually a rocket scientist.

我以前當過火箭專家。

I wasn't really a rocket scientist,

但嚴格上來說我不算是真正的火箭專家,

but I was working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

只不過我曾經在

位於陽光普照的加州的太空總署的

噴射推進實驗室工作過;

in sunny California, where it's warm;

whereas now I am in the mid-West, and it's cold.

而我現在在中西部,

氣候很寒冷。

But it was an exciting experience.

不過這是一個很有趣的經驗。

One day, a NASA manager comes into my office,

有一天NASA主管走進我的辦公室,

sits down and says,

坐下後說:

"Can you please tell us, how do we look for life outside Earth?"

「請你告訴我們，

如何能尋找到外太空的生命?」

我當時很驚訝,

And that came as a surprise to me,

因為我當初是被請來

because I was actually hired to work on quantum computation.

進行量子計算研究的。

然而我回答得很漂亮。

Yet, I had a very good answer.

I said, "I have no idea."

我答:「我一點也不知道。」

(Laughter)

And he told me, "Biosignatures, we need to look for a biosignature."

接著他對我說:「生命跡象,

我們必須找出生命跡象。」

我問他:「那是什麼?」

And I said, "What is that?"

And he said, "It's any measurable phenomenon

他說:「生命跡象就是能讓我們能

辨識出任何可量化

that allows us to indicate the presence of life."

生命的存在的現象。」

And I said, "Really?

我說:「真的嗎?

Because isn't that easy?

真的有這麼簡單嗎?

I mean, we have life.

我是說，我們有生命。

Can't you apply a definition,

但你能為生命下一個

for example, a Supreme Court-like definition of life?"

類似最高法院般的終極定義嗎?」

我再想了想, 然後說,

And then I thought about it a little bit, and I said,

「就只有這樣而已嗎?

"Well, is it really that easy?

沒錯，如果你看到這個,

Because, yes, if you see something like this,

then all right, fine, I'm going to call it life --

毫無疑問，我會稱它為生命--

no doubt about it.

這是無庸置疑的。

But here's something."

但如果換成這個。」

And he goes, "Right, that's life too. I know that."

他說:「沒錯，這個也是生命。我很確定。」

Except, if you think that life is also defined by things that die,

可是倘若你認為得生命

是由會死亡的物體來定義,

you're not in luck with this thing,

那你就無法解釋這個東西,

because that's actually a very strange organism.

因為這是一個相當奇怪的有機體。

It grows up into the adult stage like that

當它進入成年期的時候就像這樣,

然後就像班傑明的奇幻旅程一樣

and then goes through a Benjamin Button phase,

and actually goes backwards and backwards until it's like a little embryo again,

不斷退化,

直到胚胎為止,

接著又長回來，再長大 -- 像溜溜球一樣過程循環 --

and then actually grows back up, and back down and back up --

而永生不死。

sort of yo-yo -- and it never dies.

So it's actually life,

這也算是生命的一種,

只不過它不是

but it's actually not as we thought life would be.

我們一般所認知的型態。

And then you see something like that.

再來你如果看到這個。

And he was like, "My God, what kind of a life form is that?"

他問:「天啊，這到底是什麼樣的生命形態呢?」

有人知道嗎?

Anyone know?

其實這不算是生命，這是一種結晶體。

It's actually not life, it's a crystal.

所以當你觀察的東西

So once you start looking and looking at smaller and smaller things --

越來越小時--

so this particular person wrote a whole article and said,

有位老兄

花了整篇文章的篇幅 只為傳達一件事:「嗨, 這是細菌。」

"Hey, these are bacteria."

Except, if you look a little bit closer,

但如果你靠近一點觀察

you see, in fact, that this thing is way too small to be anything like that.

你會發現，事實上這個物體 已經比細菌還要小。

於是他被說服了,

So he was convinced, but, in fact, most people aren't.

可是大部分的人還是不相信。

當然,

And then, of course, NASA also had a big announcement,

NASA做了一個重大的宣布,

and President Clinton gave a press conference,

此外前總統柯林頓也召開記者會,

宣布在火星的隕石裡

about this amazing discovery of life in a Martian meteorite.

發現有生命的存在。

但是現今這個說法受到嚴重的質疑。

Except that nowadays, it's heavily disputed.

如果你仔細地研究這些照片,

If you take the lesson of all these pictures,

then you realize, well, actually, maybe it's not that easy.

就會發覺區別生命並沒有那麼簡單。

也許我需要

Maybe I do need a definition of life

一個生命的定義

in order to make that kind of distinction.

才能夠來做區別。

生命能被定義嗎?

So can life be defined?

你會如何著手?

Well how would you go about it?

當然

Well of course, you'd go to Encyclopedia Britannica and open at L.

你會從大英百科的L開始查起。

不，你當然不會那樣做; 你會用Google搜尋。

No, of course you don't do that; you put it somewhere in Google.

然後你或會得到一些資料。

And then you might get something.

(Laughter)

And what you might get --

接著把你搜尋到的 --

and anything that actually refers to things that we are used to,

所有我們習以為常的觀念

拋諸腦後。

you throw away.

然後你可能會得到這段

And then you might come up with something like this.

複雜的解釋,

And it says something complicated with lots and lots of concepts.

裡頭包括許許多多的概念。

到底有誰會寫出

Who on Earth would write something as convoluted and complex and inane?

這麼人費解,複雜

又空洞的東西?

但是這段定義確實涵蓋了 一堆非常重要的概念。

Oh, it's actually a really, really, important set of concepts.

我標出了幾個關鍵字眼,

So I'm highlighting just a few words

and saying definitions like that rely on things

這類的定義

不是基於

that are not based on amino acids or leaves or anything that we are used to,

胺基酸或葉子

或者我們熟悉的東西,

而是只基於過程。

but in fact on processes only.

如果你仔細看這段話的出處,

And if you take a look at that,

就知道是從我寫的一本 有關人造生命的書而來。

this was actually in a book that I wrote that deals with artificial life.

這說明了

And that explains why that NASA manager was actually in my office to begin with.

那位NASA主管來辦公室找我的原因。

Because the idea was that, with concepts like that,

因為用這樣的想法與概念,

maybe we can actually manufacture a form of life.

我們也許能創造

一個生命的形式。

And so if you go and ask yourself, "What on Earth is artificial life?",

如果你反問自己

「到底什麼是人工生命?」

let me give you a whirlwind tour of how all this stuff came about.

就讓我快速地帶你認識

人工生命的由來。

And it started out quite a while ago,

這是好幾年前發生的,

when someone wrote one of the first successful computer viruses.

有人寫了早期史上

上最具破壞力的電腦病毒。

對年紀較輕的觀眾來說,

And for those of you who aren't old enough,

you have no idea how this infection was working --

你們可能不清楚這種病毒是從哪裡散播開來的...

namely, through these floppy disks.

就是從這種磁碟片傳染的。

But the interesting thing about these computer virus infections

不過這種電腦中毒有趣的地方

可以從電腦的

was that, if you look at the rate at which the infection worked,

感染速率來看,

they show this spiky behavior that you're used to from a flu virus.

這張圖表反映出的上下波動

跟一般的流感病毒沒有兩樣。

And it is in fact due to this arms race

事實上因為駭客

between hackers and operating system designers

和作業系統開發人員之間發生的爭奪戰,

that things go back and forth.

而使結果反反復複。

And the result is kind of a tree of life of these viruses,

這張電腦病毒的關係圖

便成樹狀展開,

a phylogeny that looks very much like the type of life

一個看似我們熟悉的生命發展史,

至少從病毒的層面來看是如此。

that we're used to, at least on the viral level.

So is that life?

病毒能算是生命嗎? 我可不這麼認為。

Not as far as I'm concerned.

怎麼說呢? 因為它們無法自行演化。

Why? Because these things don't evolve by themselves.

事實上，電腦病毒是駭客寫出來的。

In fact, they have hackers writing them.

但是這個想法不久就有了一點進展,

But the idea was taken very quickly a little bit further,

when a scientist working at the Santa Fe Institute decided,

有一個在新墨西哥州的科學家決定,

"Why don't we try to package these little viruses

「我們為何不把這些電腦病毒

in artificial worlds inside of the computer

放進電腦的虛擬世界,

讓它們自行演化?」

and let them evolve?"

And this was Steen Rasmussen.

這位科學家就是斯蒂恩•拉斯穆森。

And he designed this system, but it really didn't work,

他設計了這套系統，不過沒效,

because his viruses were constantly destroying each other.

因為他的病毒會不斷自相殘殺。

But there was another scientist who had been watching this, an ecologist.

但當時還有一位科學家對這件事情很關心，是一名生態學者。

他回了家說:「我知道怎麼解決。」

And he went home and says, "I know how to fix this."

And he wrote the Tierra system,

他寫出Tierra系統,

and, in my book,

根據我書裡寫的，Tierra正是最早出現的

is in fact one of the first truly artificial living systems --

人造生命系統之一--

except for the fact that these programs didn't really grow in complexity.

只不過這些程式沒有真正複雜性的成長。

So having seen this work, worked a little bit on this,

看過這個成果之後，我自己也做了一點研究,

this is where I came in.

而我的研究就從此展開。

And I decided to create a system that has all the properties

我決定創造一個系統,

該系統必須滿足

that are necessary to see, in fact, the evolution of complexity,

複雜演化的所有必要條件,

有越來越多複雜的問題持續在演變。

more and more complex problems constantly evolving.

當然，由於我不會編碼，所以我找了槍手。

And of course, since I really don't know how to write code, I had help in this.

我請到了兩位

I had two undergraduate students

在加州理工學院與我共事的大學生。

at California Institute of Technology that worked with me.

左邊的是查爾斯•奧佛瑞亞，右邊這位是提多•布朗。

That's Charles Ofria on the left, Titus Brown on the right.

他們如今都是在密西根州立大學

They are now, actually, respectable professors

at Michigan State University,

備受尊崇的教授了,

but I can assure you, back in the day, we were not a respectable team.

但我可以向你保證, 在當時

我們並不是可受尊敬的團隊。

我很慶幸我們三人形影不離的合照,

And I'm really happy that no photo survives

一張都沒有留下。

of the three of us anywhere close together.

這個系統是什麼樣子?

But what is this system like?

我不方便探討細節,

Well I can't really go into the details,

but what you see here is some of the entrails.

不過我可以給你們看一點內部的構造。

我著重的是

But what I wanted to focus on is this type of population structure.

這種族群結構圖。

這裡大約有一萬個程式。

There's about 10,000 programs sitting here.

And all different strains are colored in different colors.

每個種類都用不同顏色來分類。

And as you see here, there are groups that are growing on top of each other,

你會發現族群間會相互掩蓋,

因為它們散播開來了。

because they are spreading.

Any time there is a program that's better at surviving in this world,

不論何時都有一個程式

較能夠在虛擬世界中存活下來,

due to whatever mutation it has acquired,

因為經過突變的過程,

it is going to spread over the others and drive the others to extinction.

這個程式將會蓋過其它群體甚至把它們趕盡殺絕。

在我接下來要放的影片裡你們可以觀察到這樣的變化。

So I'm going to show you a movie

where you're going to see that kind of dynamic.

這個實驗是從我們

And these kinds of experiments are started with programs that we wrote ourselves.

自行開發的程式進行的。

我們寫了程式, 然後進行複製,

We write our own stuff, replicate it, and are very proud of ourselves.

我們對此感到非常驕傲。

And we put them in, and what you see immediately

我們把程式放到系統裡,

is that there are waves and waves of innovation.

就成了你現在看到不斷變動的波形。

By the way, this is highly accelerated,

順便提一下，這段影片是加快播放,

so it's like a 1000 generations a second.

所以變化的速度大約是一秒衍生一千次。

But immediately, the system goes like, "What kind of dumb piece of code was this?

很快系統就有了改變,

「這究竟是什麼蠢代碼呢?

This can be improved upon in so many ways, so quickly."

這可以藉由很多種方法

快速獲得改善。」

So you see waves of new types taking over the other types.

你可以看到新種類

取代其它種類的過程。

And this type of activity goes on for quite a while,

這樣子的過程會持續一段時間,

until the main easy things have been acquired by these programs.

直到這些程式把大多數單純的結構納入為止。

And then, you see sort of like a stasis coming on

接下來系統會面臨停滯期,

where the system essentially waits

系統在等待一個

for a new type of innovation, like this one,

全新的轉變，就像這樣。

which is going to spread over all the other innovations that were before

它將會覆蓋

先前所有的變化

and is erasing the genes that it had before,

並且消滅之前所有的基因,

until a new type of higher level of complexity has been achieved.

直到系統演化到更具複雜性的層面。

And this process goes on and on and on.

這個過程會不斷重複上演。

So what we see here

所以我們在這看到的

is a system that lives in very much the way we're used to how life goes.

就是一個與我們熟悉的

生命形式雷同的系統。

But what the NASA people had asked me really was,

但NASA官員問我的是

「這些玩意兒

"Do these guys have a biosignature?

有生命跡象嗎?」

Can we measure this type of life?

我們可不可以衡量這樣的生命形式?

Because if we can,

因為如果我們可以,

maybe we have a chance of actually discovering life somewhere else

也許我們就能以客觀角度

without being biased by things like amino acids."

證實其它星球有生命存在,

而不需靠胺基酸來判別。」

So I said, "Well, perhaps we should construct a biosignature

我說:「我們必須建立一個

生命跡象,

based on life as a universal process.

並假設所有生命都會經歷一個共通的過程。

In fact, it should perhaps make use of the concepts that I developed

實際上，這必須應用我

開發的概念來達成,

得以了解

just in order to sort of capture what a simple living system might be."

一個簡單的生命體系如何運作。」

為了解釋我想到的方法--

And the thing I came up with --

I have to first give you an introduction about the idea,

首先我得介紹一個概念,

and maybe that would be a meaning detector,

或許這概念是個存在探測器,

而不是生命探測器。

rather than a life detector.

And the way we would do that --

我們的做法就是--

I would like to find out how I can distinguish text

先辨認出一段文字,

that was written by a million monkeys, as opposed to text that is in our books.

是由一百萬隻猴子聯合寫出來的,

還是從我們平常看的書籍中節錄出來的。

And I would like to do it in such a way

我會這樣處理,

that I don't actually have to be able to read the language,

我不需要看懂這段文字的語言,

因為我知道我根本辦不到。

because I'm sure I won't be able to.

但只要我可以認出其中有的是字母。

As long as I know that there's some sort of alphabet.

這是一張次數分配圖,

So here would be a frequency plot

告訴你在這段

of how often you find each of the 26 letters of the alphabet

由猴群隨機寫出來的文字裡

in a text written by random monkeys.

其中26個字母出現的次數。

And obviously, each of these letters comes off about roughly equally frequent.

顯然這些字母

出現的頻率大約相等。

但是如果你看到的是一段英文段落的字母次數分配,

But if you now look at the same distribution in English texts,

it looks like that.

就會長成這樣。

And I'm telling you, this is very robust across English texts.

而且這種現象在英文裡非常明顯。

如果是法語就會不太一樣,

And if I look at French texts, it looks a little bit different,

甚至是義大利文或德文。

or Italian or German.

各種語言都有獨特的次數分配模式,

They all have their own type of frequency distribution,

但是結果都很一致。

but it's robust.

不管內容是有關政治或科學。

It doesn't matter whether it writes about politics or about science.

還是一首詩,

It doesn't matter whether it's a poem or whether it's a mathematical text.

甚至是一段數學式子。

都有一個明顯的特徵,

It's a robust signature,

而且非常穩定。

and it's very stable.

As long as our books are written in English --

只要我們的書籍是用英文寫的--

因為人們會不斷重寫並抄寫書籍--

because people are rewriting them and recopying them --

it's going to be there.

就會產生這個特徵。

So that inspired me to think about, well, what if I try to use this idea

這讓我想到

如果我用這個概念,

不是為了要從有意義的文章中

in order, not to detect random texts from texts with meaning,

挑出雜亂無章的文字,

but rather detect the fact that there is meaning

而是探測

in the biomolecules that make up life.

形成生命體的生物分子特徵。

但首先我有個問題:

But first I have to ask:

what are these building blocks,

這些組成的基本單位是什麼? 就像我剛給你們看的字母。

like the alphabet, elements that I showed you?

事實證明，我們有很多種選擇

Well it turns out, we have many different alternatives

可用來做為構成的基礎。

for such a set of building blocks.

我們能利用胺基酸,

We could use amino acids,

we could use nucleic acids, carboxylic acids, fatty acids.

核酸、羧酸或不飽和脂肪酸。

In fact, chemistry's extremely rich, and our body uses a lot of them.

事實上化學物質存在相當廣泛，我們人體就充滿許多化學物質。

所以,為了試驗這個想法,

So that we actually, to test this idea,

first took a look at amino acids and some other carboxylic acids.

我們研究了胺基酸和其他的羧酸。

這就是結果。

And here's the result.

Here is, in fact, what you get

事實上,

if you, for example, look at the distribution of amino acids

譬如, 如果你觀察一個彗星或星際空間,

on a comet or in interstellar space or, in fact, in a laboratory,

或者一個實驗室裡

所充斥的胺基酸,

where you made very sure that in your primordial soup,

但必須保證在原生湯裡

沒有任何生命存在。

there is no living stuff in there.

你能找到的大部分是甘氨酸和丙氨酸,

What you find is mostly glycine and then alanine

還有一些其它的元素。

and there's some trace elements of the other ones.

That is also very robust --

這個結果也相當明顯--

what you find in systems like Earth

你可以在地球的生態系統裡

where there are amino acids, but there is no life.

找到胺基酸

但是沒有生命。

But suppose you take some dirt and dig through it

但假設你採集一些土壤

在裡面找尋一番

and then put it into these spectrometers,

放到光譜儀下,

because there's bacteria all over the place;

因為土壤佈滿了細菌;

or you take water anywhere on Earth,

或者是你取地球上任何一處的水,

因為水裡富含生命,

because it's teaming with life,

and you make the same analysis;

然後你做一樣的分析;

the spectrum looks completely different.

光譜結果會截然不同。

當然結果仍然含有甘氨酸和丙氨酸,

Of course, there is still glycine and alanine,

but in fact, there are these heavy elements, these heavy amino acids,

但是更重要的因素是大量的胺基酸,

that are being produced because they are valuable to the organism.

因而大量產生,

因為胺基酸對有機體而言非常重要。

而那些二十個以外

And some other ones that are not used in the set of 20,

的沒被用的,

在任何情況下，

they will not appear at all in any type of concentration.

則毫無出現的可能。

So this also turns out to be extremely robust.

這個結果極為顯著。

It doesn't matter what kind of sediment you're using to grind up,

不管你是要研磨哪種沙土,

不管是細菌或是動植物。

whether it's bacteria or any other plants or animals.

到處都有生命存在,

Anywhere there's life,

you're going to have this distribution,

你會得到這個分配圖,

as opposed to that distribution.

而不是無生物的分配圖。

And it is detectable not just in amino acids.

不光是胺基酸可被探测。

Now you could ask:

這時你可能會問:

Well, what about these Avidians?

那Avidians呢?

Avidians是存在電腦世界裡的產物,

The Avidians being the denizens of this computer world

where they are perfectly happy replicating and growing in complexity.

它們在那快樂地繁殖成長。

So this is the distribution that you get if, in fact, there is no life.

這就是Avida的分配圖,

假設Avida裡沒有生命存在。

They have about 28 of these instructions.

圖裡有28種指令。

And if you have a system where they're being replaced one by the other,

而且你如果可以創造一個供這些指令相互取代的系統,

彷彿是猴群在打字機上亂打字。

it's like the monkeys writing on a typewriter.

則每一種指令

Each of these instructions appears with roughly the equal frequency.

所出現的頻率會大約相等。

But if you now take a set of replicating guys

但是如果是剛在影片裡出現的

會複製的玩意兒,

like in the video that you saw,

看起來會像這樣。

it looks like this.

有部分的指令

So there are some instructions

that are extremely valuable to these organisms,

對於有機體相當重要,

所以這些指令的出現頻率相對會很高。

and their frequency is going to be high.

And there's actually some instructions that you only use once, if ever.

不過也有一些指令

只出現過一次。

So they are either poisonous

它們不是有毒

or really should be used at less of a level than random.

不然就是使用上必須低於隨機的水平。

In this case, the frequency is lower.

這種情況下出現頻率會比較低。

那麼我們現在所看到的算是一個明顯的指標嗎?

And so now we can see, is that really a robust signature?

I can tell you indeed it is,

我可以告訴你的確是，

because this type of spectrum, just like what you've seen in books,

因為這種分配型態，如同你剛看到的書,

and just like what you've seen in amino acids,

還有胺基酸的例子,

it doesn't really matter how you change the environment,

不管你怎麼改變環境，特徵就是這麼明顯;

it's very robust, it's going to reflect the environment.

並且會反映出環境的特色。

我現在要給你們看一個我們做的實驗。

So I'm going to show you now a little experiment that we did.

我得解釋一下,

And I have to explain to you,

這張圖表的上方

the top of this graph

shows you that frequency distribution that I talked about.

指的是我剛講到的頻率分配。

Here, that's the lifeless environment

事實上，這是個無生命的環境,

每種指令出現的頻率

where each instruction occurs at an equal frequency.

都相等。

下面的圖表

And below there, I show, in fact, the mutation rate in the environment.

代表環境的突變率。

And I'm starting this at a mutation rate that is so high

我把一開始的突變率調得很高,

that even if you would drop a replicating program

高到就算你

放入一個會

that would otherwise happily grow up to fill the entire world,

快速成長的複製程式,

然後佈滿整個空間,

當你把程式放進去時，它會立刻突變至死。

if you drop it in, it gets mutated to death immediately.

So there is no life possible at that type of mutation rate.

在這種突變率之下

沒有任何生命能夠存活。

But then I'm going to slowly turn down the heat, so to speak,

但是接下來我要把突變率降低,

and then there's this viability threshold

到一個適當的程度,

where now it would be possible for a replicator to actually live.

如此一來就有一個複製體

能夠存活。

And indeed, we're going to be dropping these guys into that soup all the time.

然後我們要把這些玩意兒

放到原生湯裡。

看看會發生什麼事。

So let's see what that looks like.

一開始沒有事情發生。一點都沒有。

So first, nothing, nothing, nothing.

然後發生劇烈的變化。

Too hot, too hot.

Now the viability threshold is reached,

現在已經達到可行數值

and the frequency distribution has dramatically changed

以及頻率分配。

一開始發生劇烈變化, 然後, 事實上, 緩和下來。

and, in fact, stabilizes.

接著我就很邪惡的

And now what I did there

is, I was being nasty, I just turned up the heat again and again.

把溫度一再再調高。

當然它就能達到可行數值。

And of course, it reaches the viability threshold.

And I'm just showing this to you again because it's so nice.

這實在是太讚了,所以我要再放一次給你們看。

You hit the viability threshold.

一旦降到可行數值

The distribution changes to "alive!"

分配就變成「有生命的, 萬歲!」。

And then, once you hit the threshold

當點突變率

where the mutation rate is so high that you cannot self-reproduce,

回升到可行數值

就不能自我複製,

也不能將信息

you cannot copy the information forward to your offspring

毫無錯誤地

without making so many mistakes that your ability to replicate vanishes.

傳給後代,

因此複製能力就消失了。

And then, that signature is lost.

代表生命指標也消失了。

我們從中學到了什麼?

What do we learn from that?

Well, I think we learn a number of things from that.

我認為我們學到了幾個重點。

One of them is,

第一,

if we are able to think about life in abstract terms --

如果我們能夠

以抽象的定義來思考生命--

and we're not talking about things like plants,

我們不提植物,

不提胺基酸,

and we're not talking about amino acids,

也不提細菌,

and we're not talking about bacteria,

but we think in terms of processes --

而我們思考的是過程--

如此一來就能探討生命

then we could start to think about life

not as something that is so special to Earth,

不限於地球特有的生命,

but that, in fact, could exist anywhere.

而是, 任何地方都可能有生物的存在。

Because it really only has to do with these concepts of information,

因為它只跟這些

儲存訊息的

of storing information within physical substrates --

概念有關,

在物質基底之內--

anything: bits, nucleic acids, anything that's an alphabet --

可以是任何東西: 位元組、核酸,

任何可當成跟字母一樣的單位--

and make sure that there's some process

並且確保能有一個

so that this information can be stored for much longer than you would expect --

遠比你預期的時間還要長,

不被時間比例影響信息衰退,

可讓信息儲存起來的程序。

the time scales for the deterioration of information.

如果條件都滿足,

And if you can do that, then you have life.

就算是生命。

So the first thing that we learn

所以我們學到的第一件事就是

is that it is possible to define life in terms of processes alone,

生命可以單獨

依照程序來定義,

without referring at all to the type of things that we hold dear,

無須借助

其它我們重視的東西,

例如地球的生命型式。

as far as the type of life on Earth is.

And that, in a sense, removes us again,

這個結論又一次

like all of our scientific discoveries, or many of them --

就像所有的科學發現一樣--

it's this continuous dethroning of man --

再度證明了

我們的存在並沒有那麼獨特。

of how we think we're special because we're alive.

Well, we can make life; we can make life in the computer.

我們能夠製造生命，在電腦裡頭製造生命。

Granted, it's limited,

當然, 這的確是有限的,

but we have learned what it takes in order to actually construct it.

不過我們藉此了解到

架構生命的要素。

And once we have that,

一旦我們有了這些要素,

then it is not such a difficult task anymore

創造生命便不再是難事,

to say, if we understand the fundamental processes

如果我們能掌握基本的過程

that do not refer to any particular substrate,

而不透過任何特殊基底,

then we can go out and try other worlds,

我們就能走出現有的框架

探索地球以外的世界,

figure out what kind of chemical alphabets might there be,

了解那裏會有什麼樣的化學元素符號,

認識普遍的化學物質,

figure enough about the normal chemistry, the geochemistry of the planet,

還有該星球的地球科學,

如此一來我們便能了解

so that we know what this distribution would look like in the absence of life,

沒有生命存在的分配型態會如何呈現,

and then look for large deviations from this --

然後利用分配型態找到一些特例--

this thing sticking out, which says, "This chemical really shouldn't be there."

因為偏離值能凸顯出:

「這個化學物質不應該在那裏出現」。

Now we don't know that there's life then,

我們現在不確定那裏是否有生命存在,

but we could say,

但至少,

"Well at least I'm going to have to take a look very precisely at this chemical

「我會仔細研究這個化學物質

and see where it comes from."

辨識出它是從哪而來」。

這也許會成為

And that might be our chance of actually discovering life

我們發現新生命的機會,

when we cannot visibly see it.

即使我們不能看見生命的形體。

And so that's really the only take-home message that I have for you.

這便是我要給你們唯一的

重要結論。

Life can be less mysterious than we make it out to be

當我們知道其他星球也存在生命,

生命就沒有

when we try to think about how it would be on other planets.

我們想像中的那般神祕了。

And if we remove the mystery of life,

如果我們能夠揭開生命神祕的面紗,

then I think it is a little bit easier for us to think about how we live,

那對我來說,

要思考我們如何生存,

and how perhaps we're not as special as we always think we are.

以及我們不是那麼獨特這類的議題，就不再是難事。

And I'm going to leave you with that.

我要把這部分留給你們去想。

謝謝大家。

And thank you very much.

(Applause)

(鼓掌聲)