1.So, my question: are we alone?
我的问题是： 我们是唯一的吗？
2.The story of humans is the story of ideas — scientific ideas that shine light into dark corners, ideas that we embrace rationally and irrationally,
人类的历史就是“理念“的历史 — 将启蒙之光照亮黑暗角落的科学理念， 被我们冷静或狂热拥护的理念，
3.ideas for which we’ve lived and died and killed and been killed, ideas that have vanished in history, and ideas that have been set in dogma.
有我们为之而生存、死亡、杀戮，甚至牺牲的理念， 有在历史长河中消逝的理念， 也有被列入教条的理念。
4.It’s a story of nations, of ideologies, of territories, and of conflicts among them.
这是关于国家 关于意识形态， 关于领域， 以及其中种种冲突的历史。
5.But, every moment of human history, from the Stone Age to the Information Age, from Sumer and Babylon to the iPod and celebrity gossip,
但是，人类历史的任何片刻， 从石器时代到信息时代， 从苏美尔到巴比伦再从iPod到名流八卦，
6.they’ve all been carried out — every book that you’ve read, every poem, every laugh, every tear, they’ve all happened here.
全部都是实现在.. 所有你所阅读的书卷中， 诗歌中，所有的欢笑和泪水中， 全部都发生在这里，
7.Here.
这里，
8.Here.
这里，
9.Here.
这里。
10.(Laughter) Perspective is a very powerful thing.
(笑声) 视角是一种非常强大的东西。
11.Perspectives can change.
视角会变。
12.Perspectives can be altered.
视角也可以被改变。
13.From my perspective, we live on a fragile island of life, in a universe of possibilities.
从我的视角看来，我们是生存在这个充满可能性的宇宙中 一个纤微的生命之岛上。
14.For many millennia, humans have been on a journey to find answers, answers to questions about naturalism and transcendence, about who we are and why we are,
数千年来，人类始终汲汲于追寻答案中， 关于自然主义与超验存在之疑问的答案， 关于我们是谁及为什么我们会出现在这里，
15.and of course, who else might be out there.
当然还包括，是否在别的地方可能还存在着生命之类的问题的答案。
16.Is it really just us?
真的是只有我们吗？
17.Are we alone in this vast universe of energy and matter and chemistry and physics?
是否我们孤单地存在于这充满能量与物质， 化学元素与物理规律的浩瀚宇宙之中。
18.Well, if we are, it’s an awful waste of space.
如果真的是这样，那真是太浪费空间了。
19.(Laughter) But, what if we’re not?
（笑声） 但是，如果这不是真的呢？
20.What if, out there, others are asking and answering similar questions?
如果在其他地方，有其他人在追问，并试图回答类似的问题？
21.What if they look up at the night sky, at the same stars, but from the opposite side?
如果他们也仰望星空，凝视同一颗星辰， 但是他们是在宇宙的另一边呢？
22.Would the discovery of an older cultural civilization out there inspire us to find ways to survive our increasingly uncertain technological adolescence?
对更久远文明的观察是否 会启发我们寻找到让我们能顺利渡过 越发不安定的科技启蒙阶段的方法？
23.Might it be the discovery of a distant civilization and our common cosmic origins that finally drives home the message of the bond among all humans?
有没有可能因发现遥远文明 和我们的共同的起源 而最终带回了揭示全人类内在联系的讯息？
24.Whether we’re born in San Francisco, or Sudan, or close to the heart of the Milky Way galaxy, we are the products of a billion year lineage of wandering star dust.
无论是出生在旧金山，还是苏丹， 或者是靠近银河系中心， 我们都是弥漫在宇宙中的星尘十亿年发展的产物。
25.We, all of us, are what happens when a primordial mixture of hydrogen and helium evolves for so long that it begins to ask where it came from.
我们所有人 就是由最初的氢氦混合物进化而来。 经过了如此漫长的进化之后，我们开始思考自己是从何而来。
26.Fifty years ago, the journey to find answers took a different path and SETI, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, began.
五十年前， 寻找答案的旅程找到了另一条途径， SETI，寻找外太空星球智慧生命计划， 启动了。
27.So, what exactly is SETI?
SETI究竟是什么？
28.Well, SETI uses the tools of astronomy to try and find evidence of someone else’s technology out there.
SETI是尝试使用天文学工具 来寻找其他拥有科技的文明踪迹。
29.Our own technologies are visible over interstellar distances, and theirs might be as well.
我们自己的科技在星际间是可以被察觉的， 别人的也同样如此。
30.It might be that some massive network of communications, or some shield against asteroidal impact, or some huge astroengineering project that we can’t even begin to conceive of,
它可能是巨大的通信网络， 或者是防御天体碰撞的护罩， 甚至超出我们想像力的宏伟的空间机械工程，
31.could generate signals at radio or optical frequencies that a determined program of searching might detect.
产生出可能被持久的搜索计划 侦测到的无线电信号或光学频率。
32.For millennia, we’ve actually turned to the priests and the philosophers for guidance and instruction on this question of whether there’s intelligent life out there.
数千年来，我们实际上都在依靠牧师和思想家 来指引和教导关于是否有地外文明的问题。
33.Now, we can use the tools of the 21st century to try and observe what is rather than ask what should be believed.
今天我们能够使用21世纪的工具来尝试观察 而不应是犹豫着该相信什么。
34.SETI doesn’t presume the existence of extra terrestrial intelligence, it merely notes the possibility, if not the probability in this vast universe, which seems fairly uniform.
SETI并不预估地外文明的存在。 它仅仅是提出可能性， 或其存在在这个广阔宇宙中的概率，应该是非常相当平均的。
35.The numbers suggest a universe of possibilities.
这些数字展示出一个充满可能性的宇宙。
36.Our sun is one of 400 billion stars in our galaxy, and we know that many other stars have planetary systems, we’ve discovered over 350 in the last 14 years,
我们的太阳是银河系中4000亿颗恒星中的一颗， 并且我们知道许多其它星球都有行星系， 在过去的14年里我们已经发现了超过350个这样的星系，
37.including the small planet, announced earlier this week, which has a radius just twice the size of the Earth.
包括上周所宣布的小型的行星， 大小只有地球的两倍。
38.And, if even all of the planetary systems in our galaxy were devoid of life, there’s still 100 billion other galaxies out there, altogether 10 to the 22 stars.
即使所有的行星系在我们的星系中都不存在生命， 另外还有1000多亿个星系， 总共有10的22次方颗恒星。
39.Now, I’m going to try a trick, and recreate an experiment from this morning.
现在，我来耍个小把戏，我将再现今天早上做的实验。
40.Remember, one billion?
还记得吗，十亿？
41.But, this time not one billion dollars, one billion stars.
但是，这次不是十亿美元，而是十亿颗恒星。
42.Alright, one billion stars.
对，就十亿颗恒星。
43.Now, up there, 20 feet above the stage, that’s 10 trillion.
现在从这里到离地面20尺高的高度， 就是是十万亿的数量。
44.Well, what about 10 to the 22?
那10的22次方是怎样？
45.Where’s the line that marks that?
这条边界线会是在哪里？
46.That line would have to be 3.8 million miles above this stage.
那条线一直要到离这个演讲台380万公里远地方。
47.(Laughter) 16 times farther away than the moon, or four percent of the distance to the sun.
（笑声） 16倍于从这里到月球的距离， 或者4％从这里到太阳的距离。
48.So, there are many possibilities.
所以一定是有很多可能性的。
49.(Laughter) And much of this vast universe, much more may be habitable than we once thought, as we study extremophiles on Earth — organisms that can live in conditions totally inhospitable for us,
（笑声） 在这个广袤无垠的宇宙中很多地方， 比我们从前想像的更可能存在着生命， 根据我们对地球上嗜极菌进行的研究 一些有机体能在我们完全不能栖息的环境中生存，
50.in the hot, high pressure thermal vents at the bottom of the ocean, frozen in ice, in boiling battery acid, in the cooling waters of nuclear reactors.
比如处在深海底炽热高压的热水流火山口， 在封冻的冰层间，在沸腾的电酸中， 甚至在核子反应堆的冷却剂里，
51.These extremophiles tell us that life may exist in many other environments.
这些嗜极菌的存在表明生命或许会出现在许多其他环境中。
52.But those environments are going to be widely spaced in this universe.
但是这些环境在宇宙中非常的分散。
53.Even our nearest star, the Sun, it’s emissions suffer the tyranny of light speed.
即使离我们最近的恒星，太阳 ， 它的辐射也不得不经受光速的限制，
54.It takes a full eight minutes for its radiation to reach us.
需要整整8分钟才能到达这里。
55.And the nearest star is 4.2 light years away, which means its light takes 4.2 years to get here.
最近的恒星距离我们有4.2光年距离， 这就意味着它所发出的光需要4.2年才能到这。
56.And the edge of our galaxy is 75,000 light years away, and the nearest galaxy to us, 2.5 million light years.
而我们星系的边缘则有75000光年之远， 离我们最近的星系要250万光年。
57.That means any signal we detect would have started its journey a long time ago.
这就是说任何我们能侦测到的信号都是很久很久之前就已经被发射出了。
58.And a signal would give us a glimpse of their past, not their present.
这样的一个信号或许能让我们一窥他们的过去， 而不是现在。
59.Which is why Phil Morrison calls SETI, “the archaeology of the future.”
这就是为什么Phil Morrison称SETI为“未来考古学”。
60.It tells us about their past, but detection of a signal tells us it’s possible for us to have a long future.
它为我们讲述了他们的过去 侦测到的信号也给予了我们对一个长远未来之可能性的信心。
61.I think this is what David Deutsch meant in 2005, when he ended his Oxford TEDTalk by saying he had two principles he’d like to share for living,
我想这是David Deutsch在2005年所想表达的， 当时他以自己的 两条生活原则来结束在牛津TED大会的演讲，
62.and he would like to carve them on stone tablets.
他认为是非常经典的。
63.The first is that problems are inevitable.
第一条是问题是不可避免的。
64.The second is that problems are soluble.
第二条是问题是可以解决的。
65.So, ultimately what’s going to determine the success or failure of SETI is the longevity of technologies, and the mean distance between technologies in the cosmos —
最终能决定SETI成功与否的 是科技的长存， 以及科技在宇宙中的平均距离 —
66.distance over space and distance over time.
在时间与空间中的距离。
67.If technologies don’t last and persist, we will not succeed.
如果科技不能持续， 我们就成功不了。
68.And we’re a very young technology in an old galaxy, and we don’t yet know whether it’s possible for technologies to persist.
在这个古老星系 中我们的科技实属稚嫩， 我们也不知道科技是否能够长存。
69.So, up until now I’ve been talking to you about really large numbers, let me talk about a relatively small number.
到现在为止我跟你们讲的都是非常大的数字， 让我来讲些相对小的数字。
70.And that’s the length of time that the Earth was lifeless.
就是地球上没有生命存在的时间的长度。
71.If we look at zircons that are mined in the Jack Hills of western Australia, zircons taken from the Jack Hills of western Australia
如果我们考察下澳洲西部的杰克山所开掘出的锆石， 从对杰克山取出的锆石的分析中
72.tell us that within a few hundred million years of the origin of the planet there was abundant water and perhaps even life.
发现自地球起源之后的几百万年间 有着丰富的水甚至生命。
73.So, our planet has spent the vast majority of its 4.56 billion year history developing life, not anticipating its emergence.
所以在我们的星球上45.6亿年中的大部分时间 都在培养生命 而不只是在期待生命的出现。
74.Life happened very quickly, and that bodes well for the potential of life elsewhere in the cosmos.
生命出现的非常地快， 这也预示了宇宙中其他星球上出现生命的潜力。
75.And the other thing that one should take away from this chart is the very narrow range of time over which humans can claim to be the dominant intelligence on the planet.
还有一点应该从这图表中去掉的 就是所谓人类在这个星球 能称得上是拥有支配权的智能生物是非常短暂的。
76.It’s only the last few hundred thousand years modern humans have been pursuing technology and civilization.
仅仅在最近的几千年中 现代人类才有出现对科技和文明的追求。
77.So, one needs a very deep appreciation of the diversity and incredible scale of life on this planet as the first step in preparing to make contact with life elsewhere in the cosmos.
一个种族需要对这个星球上 生物的多样性以及惊人数量有非常深刻的认知 方能准备与宇宙中其他的生命进行接触。
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