时间简史

中间有个洞
and a hole in the middle.
朝着别人举着它
You hold it up between you and the other person.
他们看一个字母时 你能知道他们看的是哪个字母
They look at a letter, and you can see which letter they’re looking at…
绝大多数都行 有时也不能确定
most of the time. Sometimes you can’t be sure.
所以你要有耐心来拼出想要说的话
So you would get the patient to spell out what they wanted.
每一个字母 你必须看着挑选出A
So each letter… they have to look to pick out the A.
你说”A” 你明白了吗 就像个猜字游戏
You say, “A?” Did you get it right? It’s like a guessing game.
史蒂芬不愿意接受他不能说话了
Stephen wasn’t willing to accept that he wasn’t going to speak again…
他想他会做出让步
and he thought he would be giving in…
如果找到一种比说话更好的交流方式
by trying to find a method of communicating other than speech.
我记得有个晚上我过去
I remember I went in one evening…
这是第一次他想
and this was the first time that he asked…
起床用电脑
to be gotten out of bed to use the computer.
有时他们会让他坐着 因为他不能总是躺着
Sometimes they’d sit him up so he wasn’t lying in bed all the time…
就像你对待一个病人一样 但是这次当我出现的时候
as you do with a patient, but this time when I turned up…
他问护士 能不能让他起床
he asked the nurse, could he be gotten out of bed…
那样他可以用电脑 而且他做到了
so he could use the computer, and he did.
打完招呼之后 我记得他打在电脑上第一句话是
I remember the first thing he typed on there after saying hello…
史蒂芬总是那么地礼貌
Stephen’s always very polite about things like that…
“你愿意帮助我完成我的书吗”
was, “Will you help me finish my book?”
加州的一位电脑专家
A computer expert in California…
听说了我的近况
heard of my plight…
发给我一个电脑程序
and sent me a computer program…
叫做均衡器
called Equalizer.
它可以让我从屏幕上的一系列的选项中
This allowed me to select words…
选择单词
from a series of menus on a screen…
通过按我手中开关
by pressing a switch in my hand.
这些单词再发给一个
These words could then be sent to a speech synthesizer…
装在轮椅上的语♥音♥合成器
attached to my wheelchair.
令我惊喜的是
Much to my surprise…
我发现我能够
I found I was able to communicate…
比以前更好地进行交流了
much better than before.
当最后他从医院回到家
When eventually he went home from hospital…
他被告知他需要二十四小时监护 每一个人都说
he was told he needed 24-hour nursing, and everyone was saying…
“他要怎么继续工作”
“How is he going to go in and do work?
“工作时也要有护士陪着吗”
Is he going to trail around with nurses after him in the office?”
当然是那样
And of course he did.
他们最初讨论让他在家工作
They talked originally of him working at home…
他对此并不满意
which he wasn’t happy with.
所以 在家恢复了一段时间之后
And so, after a period of recuperation at home…
他就决定回到他的办公室
he just decided to go back into the office.
而他从家到办公室的途中
And he’d make the trip from his house to the office…
我不太清楚 用轮椅走了半英里
which is, I don’t know, half a mile in his wheelchair…
有一个护士跟着他
with a nurse walking along with him.
那时他依然到处转转
This is at the time when he was still driving around…
带着一个袋子和鼻滴
with the bag and the nasal drip…
工作 回家
going into the department, working, going back home.
我开始想象
I began to wonder what would happen…
当宇宙停止膨胀
when the universe stopped expanding…
开始收缩之后 会发生什么
and began to contract.
我们会看到破碎的杯子
Would we see broken cups…
自己合好
gather themselves together off the floor…
从地上跳回桌上
and jump back onto the table?
我们会记得明天的物价
Would we be able to remember tomorrow’s prices…
在股票市场大赚一笔
and make a fortune off the stock market?
对于我来说
It seemed to me…
宇宙一定会回到一个平滑有序的状态
the universe had to return to a smooth and ordered state…
当它再次坍缩的时候
when it recollapsed.
时间就开始倒♥退♥
If this were so, time would go backwards…
当宇宙开始坍缩的时候
when the universe began to collapse.
在收缩阶段人们会倒着活
People in the contracting phase would live their lives backward.
他们会死在出生之前
They would die before they were born…
当宇宙缩小 能再获青春
and get younger as the universe got small again.
最终回到子♥宫♥
Eventually, they would return to the womb.
头一次 他给我留了一个问题
He gave me my first problem to do.
他让我看看这个数学问题
He asked me to look at this mathematical problem.
通常当他给出一个问题 他的脑海里
Usually when he gives a problem, he has a good idea…
会有答案的大概样子
of what the answer should be.
我看了一下 花了我几个月
I went to look at it, and it took me a few months…
来理解这是什么东西
to understand what it was about,
然后回来说 “我知道答案了”
and I came back and said, “I get this answer.”
他对我说 “不 这不是我所期望的”
And he said to me, “No, that is not what I expected.”
我说 “这就是我得到的”
I said, “That’s what I get.”
所以我走向黑板 解释它是什么
So I went to the blackboard, explained what it was.
他说 “考虑特殊情况了吗” 我说 “没考虑”
He said, “Did you think about that particular case?” I said, “No, I didn’t.”
所以我又回去了
So I went back…
然后计算他告诉我的东西
and I calculated what he’d talked to me about.
在我回去的一个星期后 我说
I came back a few weeks after, and I said,
“史蒂芬 我得不到这些东西”
“Stephen, I don’t get this thing.
“我仍然得出了一开始的答案”
I still get the same answer I had originally.”
所以他对我说 “不不不”
So he said to me, “No, no, no, no.
“这没用 你想过那些东西吗”
This doesn’t work. Did you think about that?”
我说 “不 我忘了考虑特殊情况”
I said, “Oh, no. I’d forgotten about that particular case.”
所以我回去重新开始计算
So I went back to the drawing board and started calculating again…
再一次 我得到了相同的答案
and again I got the same answer.
所以我又回来见史蒂芬 这拖延了两三个月
So I went back to see Stephen, and this dragged on for two or three months.
最后他对我说
Finally he said to me…
“可能你的某一个近似是无效的”
“Maybe one of your approximations is not valid.”
所以我和我的同事决定用计算机做这件事
So me and a colleague decided to do the thing with computers.
这花了大把时间来写程序
This takes a lot of time to Write the programs…
还要确定程序是正确的
and to be sure the program was correct.
我们得到答案 仍然和我之前说的一样
We get the answer, and it was still the way I’d said before…
而不是史蒂芬说的那种 所以我们去见史蒂芬 说
and not the way Stephen said, so we went to see Stephen and said,
“看到了吗 还是这样”
“You see? Again.”
我犯了一个错误
I had made a mistake.
我使用的宇宙模型太过简单
I had been using too simple a model of the universe.
当宇宙开始收缩时
Time will not reverse direction…
时间不会反转
when the universe begins to contract.
人们还会继续变老
People will continue to get older…
所以等着宇宙再次坍缩 回到我们的青春
so it is no good waiting until the universe recollapses…
这不现实
to return to our youth.
爱因斯坦曾经问了一个问题
Einstein once asked the question…
“在构建宇宙的时候”
“How much choice did God have…
“上帝有多少种选择”
in constructing the universe?”
如果我的宇宙没有边界的假设是对的
If my proposal that the universe has no boundary is correct…
那么上帝在创世上
he had no freedom at all…
毫无选择的余地
to choose how the universe began.
他唯一可以选择的是
He would only have had the freedom…
宇宙所服从的法则
to choose the laws the universe obeyed.
然而 这可能
This, however, may not have been…
也没有太多选择
all that much of a choice.
可能只有一种统一理论
There may well be only one unified theory…
这种理论允许各种复杂结构的存在
that allows for the existence of structures…
像人类一样复杂
As complicated as human beings…
人类能研究宇宙法则
who can investigate the laws of the universe…
能够探究上帝的本质
and ask about the nature of God.
我不知道这些实验有多明确
I don’t know how clear-cut these experiments are…
但是有过关于
but there are experiments
意识时间的实验
that have been done on the timing of consciousness…
它们似乎都会得到一幅非常奇怪的图景
and they seem to lead to a very odd picture…
而这图像也没有什么确切的意义
which doesn’t even quite make consistent sense.
我不确定这些实验的精细
Whether refinement of these experiments…
是否能摆脱这种异常
might get rid of this kind of anomaly I’m not sure…
但是它看起来有点像
but it does look a little as though
与意识有关的奇怪的东西
there is something very odd about consciousness…
还像是未来在某种程度上影响了过去
and somehow almost as though the future affects the past in some way…
这种影响只在非常小且有限的尺度上
over a very tiny, limited scale, but something maybe of the order…
或者是什么只在一秒内有序的东西
of a reasonable fraction of a second.
没理由相信
And there’s no reason to believe…
一个人的意识体验
that one’s conscious experience…