时间简史

在我成为卢卡斯教授一年后
After I had been Lucasian Professor for about a year…
他们意识到我没签过
they realized I had never signed.
所以他们把书带到我办公室
So they brought the book to my office…
我签得非常困难
and I signed with some difficulty.
那是我最后一次签我名
That was the last time I signed my name.
我对宇宙起源和命运的兴趣
My interest in the origin and fate of the universe…
在我参加一个梵蒂冈的宇宙学会议的时候
was reawakened when I attended…
被重新唤醒
a conference on cosmology in the Vatican.
在那之后
Aftewards, we were granted…
我们被罗马教皇接见
an audience with the pope.
他告诉我们
He told us that it was all right…
研究大爆♥炸♥之后的宇宙演化
to study the evolution of the universe…
这挺好
after the Big Bang…
但是我们不应该研究大爆♥炸♥它本身
but we should not inquire into the Big Bang itself…
因为那是创造的一瞬间
because that was the moment of creation…
那是上帝的工作
and therefore the work of God.
我很高兴他不知道
I was glad that he did not know…
我刚给出的主题是
the subject of the talk I had just given…
宇宙没有起点的可能性
the possibility that the universe had no beginning…
没有开天辟地的那一瞬间
no moment of creation.
70年代早期有一些理论
There were theories in the early ’70s…
第一种类型的创造论
the first type of creation theories…
他们从一个
where the people concerned started off
固定的外部时空出发
with a fixed, external space and time…
这个外部时空永远都是空的
which for eternity was empty…
然后 突然 因为某种未知的原因
and then suddenly, for some unknown reason, the universe nucleates…
宇宙到某个特定的点成核 砰 它爆♥炸♥了
at a particular point and then, bang, it blows apart.
但问题是
But the trouble is that
当时间和空间出现在经典理论中
when space and time appear in the classical theory…
那个点本身是个数学上的奇点
that actual point itself is a singular point in the mathematics.
数学无法处理了 所以…
Mathematics breaks down, and so…
你不能用这个来得出创造论
you cannot use that to give you a creation theory.
如果一个人回到从前
If one goes back in time…
回到大爆♥炸♥的奇点
one comes to the Big Bang singularity…
那里的物理法则就不复存在
where the laws of physics break down.
但是有另一个时间线的方向
But there’s another direction of time…
可以顺着那个方向来避免奇点
that one can go in which avoids the singularity.
这被称作时间的虚方向
This is called the imaginary direction of time.
在虚时间里
In imaginary time…
不需要
there need not be any singularities…
形成任何时间上有开始或结束的奇点
which form a beginning or end to time.
当你进入虚时间
When you come to imaginary time,
你就有这种相当特殊的可能性
you have this rather peculiar possibility…
拥有”现在”
of having a “now,”as it were…
它不需要
without necessarily having a sort of a chain…
建立在过去的基础上
of past moments.
如果我从我们所处的瞬间开始
If we start where we are at the moment
跑向过去的时光
and start running backwards in time…
那么在很长的一段时间里 事物都会非常正常的运作
then for a long time, things work perfectly normally.
但是当你往前越走越远时
But as you begin to get further and further back towards…
当你愈发远离传统的实时间图像时
what would be the origin point in the conventional real-time picture…
你就能发现时间的性质改变了
you’d find that the nature of time changes…
虚的一部分越来越显著
that the imaginary component becomes more and more prominent…
直到进入经典理论的奇点
until what ought to have been the singular point in the classical theory…
才变得光滑 然后你就看到这个美丽的碗的画面
gets smoothed away, and you have this beautiful picture…
宇宙诞生的碗
of these bowls where the creation of the universe is pictures…
我们现在在这 光滑的碗是过去
of where we are now, and a smooth bowl of the past…
那里没有奇点 只是光滑的形状
where there’s no initial point, just a sort of smooth shape.
只要宇宙有一个起点
So long as the universe had a beginning…
我们就应该有一个创造者
We could suppose it had a creator.
但是如果宇宙是完全独♥立♥的
But if the universe is completely self-contained…
无限并且无♥界♥
having no boundary or edge…
它就不会被创造或者毁灭
it would neither be created nor destroyed.
它很简单地存在着
It would simply be.
那么 把创世者摆在什么位置
What place, then, for a creator?
你所能说的是创世者存在于宇宙之中
All you can really say is that the universe is…
因为它是一个独♥立♥的数学结构
because it’s a self-consistent mathematical structure.
它没有过去的
There’s no past because,
因为它不像一个点被创造出来这样的设想
unlike the creation-as-a-point scenario…
对于宇宙来说 没有什么被创造
there’s nothing for it to be created in.
所以说 创造于虚无之中的说法有点欠妥
So to say it’s created from nothing is a bit of a misnomer.
“虚无”这个词的用法♥会♥令人误解
It’s a misleading use of the word “nothing.”
宇宙表现出的并不是空间的虚无
it’s not just that there was empty space in which the universe appeared,
你可能把这称之为”虚无”
which you might call “nothing.”
宇宙里确实什么都没有
There was really nothing at all,
因为连创造都没有
because there wasn’t even a creation event.
动词过去式的用法在这些理论里不太合适
The use of a past tense in a verb becomes inappropriate in these theories.
不幸的是
Unfortunately,
当人们支持实时间 时态就被创造了
tenses were set up when people believed in real time, of course…
至今我们都没有一种语言形式
and we don’t yet have a linguistic form
来描述虚时间的时态
to describe tenses in imaginary time.
“时间”这个词 可不是作为
The word “time” was not handed down from heaven…
礼物从天堂那流传下来的
as a gift from on high.
时间的概念
The idea of time is a word…
只是个被人类发明的词
invented by man…
如果它让人产生疑惑
and if it has puzzlements connected with it…
这是谁的错 我们的错
whose fault is it? It’s our fault.
过去与未来
Where does the difference…
有着什么不同
between the past and the future come from?
科学法则
The laws of science do not distinguish…
没法区分过去与未来
between the past and the future.
但在日常生活中
Yet there is a big difference…
过去与未来有着巨大的差别
between the past and future in ordinary life.
你能看到茶杯
You may see a cup of tea fall off a table…
从桌子上跌到地上 摔成碎片
and break into pieces on the floor…
但你从没见过杯子能自己合好
but you will never see the cup gather itself back together…
然后跳回桌子上
and jump back on the table.
混乱或者熵的增加
The increase of disorder, or entropy…
可以区分过去和未来
is what distinguishes the past from the future…
给出时间的方向
giving a direction to time.
他在瑞士生病了
He fell ill in Switzerland.
他回来的时候戴着呼吸机
When he came back, he was on a ventilator.
因为他戴着呼吸机 要把管子插到喉咙里
Because he’s on a ventilator, you’ve got a tube down your throat…
所以就不能说话了
and therefore you can’t speak, just for that reason.
那段时期 可能是两个月
For that period, which may have been a couple of months…
我每两天或每三天会在医院里呆一夜
I spent probably one in two nights, one in three nights, at the hospital…
因为他在医院里
because when he was in hospital…
没法和护士交流
he couldn’t communicate with the nurses.
虽然不像是什么大病
It’s not just like being seriously ill…
但是护士不能理解
but you’re in a position where the nurses couldn’t understand
史蒂芬的需求
what Stephen wanted.
如果史蒂芬不舒服 他们不知道是为什么
If Stephen was uncomfortable, they couldn’t tell why.
在我得肺炎之前
Before I caught pneumonia…
我说话越来越含糊不清
my speech had been getting more slurred…
所以很少有人能很清楚地理解我
so that only a few people who knew me Well…
了解我
could understand me.
但是至少我能够交流
But at least I could communicate.
我以向秘书口述的方式
I wrote scientific papers…
来写论文
by dictating to a secretary…
并且通过翻译参加研讨会
and I gave seminars through an interpreter.
后来 一个气管改造手术
And then, a tracheostomy operation…
让我完全失去了说话的能力
removed my ability to speak altogether.
之后的很长一段时间 好吧 看起来是很长时间
After a long time… well, it seemed like a long time…
有人想出这个绝妙的小发明
somebody came up with this brilliant gadget.
剑桥医院里没有这东西
They didn’t have it at the Cambridge hospital.
他们从伦敦的什么地方拿到了
They got it from somewhere in London.
这是个高科技
This was high technology…
你不用出声就可以与人交流
how you can communicate with a person with no voice.
它是有机玻璃的 大概这么大
It’s a plastic piece of Perspex about so big…
你能看到字母像这样排列着
and you’ve got the letters of the alphabet arranged like that,