时间简史

大脑还能工作
would still be operating, and his brain…
他们告诉他
and that they’d told him that…
最终基本上全部瘫痪
eventually he would essentially have the body of a cabbage…
但是他仍然能够很好思考
but his mind would still be in perfect working order…
他将无法和别人交流
and he would be unable to communicate with the rest of the world.
那时候我很迷茫
My dreams at that time were rather disturbed.
在我被确诊之前
Before my condition had been diagnosed…
我对生活非常厌倦
I had been very bored with life.
好像没有什么可以值得做的
There had not seemed to be anything worth doing.
但是当我从医院出来的一瞬间
But shortly after I came out of hospital…
我想我快要完蛋了
I dreamt that I was going to be executed.
我突然意识到我还有很多值得做的事
I suddenly realized there were a lot of worthwhile things…
如果还有时间的话
I could do if I were reprieved.
我完全理解 他失去了信念
I knew perfectly well that he had no faith…
然后
and…
对我而言 那让我心里更加难受
to me, that made it the more difficult…
因为一般人遭遇这种悲剧都会问自己
because you must ask yourself,
“为什么偏偏是我”
“Why me?
“偏偏是这种病 偏偏在我正值青春的时候”
Why this? Why now?”
但他不同 他就那么完全坦然地接受了
But he just totally, flatly accepted…
接受了即将发生的事情
that this was what was going to happen to him.
据我推测 那时候他开始了一些工作
As far as I can gather, at that point he started to do some work.
一开始 我并不觉得我的研究
At first, there did not seem much point…
能有什么意义
in working at my research…
因为我根本没指望活到能够
because I didn’t expect to live long enough…
完成我的博士学位
to finish my PhD.
然而 时间一天天过去
However, as time went by…
看上去 似乎病情进展延缓了
the disease seemed to slow down.
我开始能理解广义相对论
I began to understand general relativity…
还在工作中取得了一些进展
and made progress with my work.
不过 一直以来真正支撑着我的是
But what really made a difference was…
我那时已经与一位叫简·王尔德的姑娘订了婚
I had got engaged to a girl called Jane Wilde.
她是我生命的支柱
This gave me something to live for…
同时 这也意味着我得找份工作
but it’ also meant I had to get a job…
如果我真心想和她结婚
if we were to get married.
史蒂芬那时已经确诊 简也清楚地知道
Stephen was already ill. Jane knew it.
这是史蒂芬又一个幸运之处
And it was another instance of Stephen’s luck, you know
在对的时间遇见对的人
meeting the right person at the right time…
你想想 史蒂芬那时无比沮丧
because Stephen was very, very badly depressed…
并不怎么情愿继续他的工作
and he wasn’t very much inclined to go on with his work.
他被告知生命只剩两年半的时间
He’d been told he’s only got 2 and a half years.
在那种境况下你能做什么
What can you do in that time?
然而与简的相遇给他注入了勇气
But meeting Jane really put him on his mettle…
接下来 他又开始了工作
and he started to work.
我曾想探寻
I wanted to understand…
宇宙是如何起源的
how the universe began.
爱因斯坦的广义相对论
Einstein’s theory of general relativity…
表明宇宙正在膨胀
showed that the universe was expanding.
但并没有一个答案来直接回答最关键的问题
But there was no answer to the crucial question…
“一定要有一个大爆♥炸♥”
“Must there have been a Big Bang…
“来开启时间的进程吗”
a beginning to time?”
然后 当我在剑桥上三年级时
Then, in my third year at Cambridge…
罗杰·彭罗斯有了关于
Roger Penrose made his discovery…
恒星死亡的发现
about the death of stars.
我记得和一位朋友 艾弗·罗宾逊的讨论
I remember talking to this friend, Ivor Robinson…
那次讨论真是一场思想的碰撞
and we were having this animated conversation…
后来我们得过一条马路
and then we had to cross a road…
当然 我们过马路的时候 谈话中断了
and as we crossed the road, of course, the conversation stopped…
然后我们到了路的另一边
and then we got to the other side.
很碰巧的是 我在过马路的时候想出一个点子
Evidently, I had some idea crossing the road…
但接下来我们了捡起之前的话题
but then the conversation started up,
那个点子就从我脑子里不翼而飞了
and it got completely blotted out of my mind.
直到晚些时候 在朋友回家之后
It was only later, after my friend had gone home…
我突然感到一阵奇妙的兴奋
and I began to have this strange feeling of elation
那感觉妙极了
feeling wonderful.
我不知道自己当时为何那样
And I couldn’t figure out why I should feel like that,
于是我向前梳理这一天的思绪
so I went back over the day…
回想究竟是什么事情
thinking all possible things
让我产生了这种感觉
which might have contributed to such a feeling…
后来我慢慢挖掘出这个想法
and then gradually I unearthed this thought…
就是在大街上的那个
which I’d had while crossing the street.
当时彭罗斯告诉我这个结论
Penrose announced this result…
当恒星无限坍缩时
that when stars collapse indefinitely…
他们会变得奇异
they will become singular…
只需要满足一些很宽松的条件就会这样
as long as some very broad conditions are satisfied…
很多人都同意这一点
that everybody would have regarded as reasonable.
我记得史蒂芬·霍金当时快要三年级了
And I remember Stephen Hawking, who was then approaching…
他还是研究生 他说
his third year as a research student, saying…
“多有趣的结果”
“What very interesting results.
“我很好奇是否能应用它们”
I wonder whether they could be adapted…
“来理解宇宙的起源”
to understanding the origin of the universe.”
他脑子里想的是 如果你像这样想像
And what he had in mind, you see, was that if, just mentally…
让时光倒流
you reverse the sense of time…
那么这个正在膨胀的宇宙就会变成一个坍缩中的系统
you can think of the expanding universe as a collapsing system.
这就像一个异常巨大的恒星正在坍缩
It’s a bit like a very giant star collapsing.
罗杰·彭罗斯证明了
Roger Penrose proved…
一个垂死的恒星会在其自身重力的作用下坍缩
that a dying star, collapsing under its own gravity…
最后变成一个奇点
eventually shrinks to a singularity
一个拥有无穷大密度而没有体积的点
a point of infinite density and zero size.
我意识到 如果我颠倒时间进行的方向
I realized that if I reversed the direction of time…
那么这个坍缩的过程就变成膨胀
so that the collapse became an expansion…
于是我就能证明
I could prove that…
宇宙确实是有起源的
the universe had a beginning.
然而 我的证明
But my proof…
是建立在爱因斯坦广义相对论的基础上
based on Einstein’s theory of general relativity…
这同时也表明我们无法理解
also showed that we cannot understand…
宇宙究竟是如何起源的
how the universe began…
因为它表明 所有的科学理论
because it showed that all scientific theories…
包括广义相对论本身
including general relativity itself…
都会在宇宙起源时分崩离析
break down at the beginning of the universe.
我们在纽约的空间物理研究院
We had this meeting…
召开了一次会议
at the Institute of Space Physics in New York.
我说 “在我们得到最终结果前”
I said, “Before we reach a final conclusion…
“我们得把另一样东西扔进”
we ought to throw into the pot…
“这个大熔炉”
still another object
“一个因重力而完全坍缩的物体”
a gravitationally completely collapsed object.
“当你使用了这么一个说法”
Well, after you’ve used the phrase…
“一个因重力而完全坍缩的物体” 十遍之后
“a gravitationally completely collapsed object” ten times…
你会意识到最好给它起个名字
you conclude you’ve got to get a better name.
正是那时候我想到了这么一个词
So that’s when I switched…
“黑洞”
to the word “black hole.”
“黑洞” 这个约翰·惠勒灵光一闪想到的词 应运而生
The word “black hole,” which John Wheeler coined, suddenly caught on.
从此以后 每个人都接受了它
Everybody adopted it, and from then on…
全世界所有的人 不论身处莫斯科
people around the world in Moscow…
美国
in America…
英国 还是什么地方
in England and elsewhere
都知道了他们一直以来谈论的都是同一个东西
could know they were speaking about the same thing.
情况远不止如此 突然之间
And not only that, but suddenly…
所有这些奇思妙想都传达给了公众
the whole range of concepts got through to the general public…
而且科幻小说家们一下子都能谈论
and even science-fiction writers all of a sudden…
有关黑洞的一切
could talk about it.
今晚 我的朋友们
Tonight, my friends…
我们一同站在宇宙探索中
we stand on the brink of a feat unparalleled…
一个无与伦比的胜利旁
in space exploration.
如果我的穿梭机所取回的数据
If the data on my returning probe ship…
与理论计算结果相符
matches my computerized calculations…
我就要亲身探索从未有人胆敢到达的地方
I will travel where no man has dared to go.
进入黑洞吗
Into the black hole?
进入
In…
穿过
through…