人类大历史（2013）

Big History S01E17

Part 5 March 29, 2021, 2:04 p.m.

同时一些传统仍在我们身上留下印记
and its legacy is still imprinted in our minds.
由于需要水我们不停的搜寻着
In need of water, we constantly search...
河面和水流反射出的光亮
for the shiny sparkle of sunlight on rivers and streams...
这是现在我们会被金子这样闪耀的物品
one reason why today we are attracted to
所吸引的其中一个原因
shiny substances like gold.
在非洲进化的350,000年后
After 350,000 years of evolution in Africa...
我们的祖先已经跟
our ancestors have separated themselves from
其他物种截然不同
every other species on Earth.
我们已经跨过了一个
We have crossed a threshold
让我们与众不同的关键点
that makes us uniquely human.
但那是什么是什么让我们不同
But what is it? What sets us apart?
这是打开第六个关键时刻大门的钥匙
It's the key that unlocks the sixth big history threshold...
这要从人类的发现开始说起
and it begins when one person makes a discovery...
例如一种新的取火方式或是一个新的工具
like a new way to kindle fire or a new kind of tool...
并且将它们分享给部落的人
and shares it with his clan.
这些知识在人群中散播
The idea spreads through the population,
接着被代代相传
then across generations.
人类基于数千年的经验
Humans begin to build a database of knowledge...
开始建立起知识库
built on millennia of shared experience.
像烹煮生肉和更大的大脑
What starts with changes like
这种成长的改变
cooking meat and growing larger brains...
推动着我们进入下一个关键时刻
propels us across the next great threshold in big history...
这是一个对人类来说重要性堪比
a threshold as important for humanity...
地球的形成
as the formation of Earth...
或是生命的出现
or the birth of life.
人类大历史把它称为集体学习
Big history calls it collective learning.
现在我们有了地球历史上第一个能够做到
Here now we have the first species in the history of our planet...
将信息代代积累相传的种族
in which information can accumulate from generation to generation.
我认为这也是为什么人类与其他生物不同
And that, I think, tells us everything about what makes humans different.
6万年前
60, 000 years ago.
地球把我们祖先塑造成
The planet has molded our ancestors into modern humans...
大脑和骨骼都和我们现在一样的现代人
With brains and skeletons identical to our own.
集体学习为我们支配这个星球
Collective learning has given us the tools and skills
提供了必要的工具和技术
We need to dominate the planet.
即使有技术上的进展
But despite all our advances,
人类故事也可能
the human story could have ended here...
在与世隔绝的非洲大♥陆♥上终止
isolated in Africa.
被限制在这一块大♥陆♥上的生物
Species that are confined to only one continent
很容易濒临灭绝
can easily go extinct.
但人类大历史揭示了
But big history reveals how the Earth shifts in a Way
地球如何转变成在它的大♥陆♥上
that Will spread man...
散布人类和所有人类学习的东西
and all the things he's learning, all around the planet.
冰河时代
The Ice Age lowers the sea level
使非洲和阿♥拉♥伯半岛之间的海平面降低了
between Africa and Arabia...
为另一个无人居住世界的进入创造了条件
creating a gateway to an otherwise unpopulated World.
只有一小群人也许只有几百人
A tiny group, perhaps just a few hundred...
乘上木筏穿越了这个狭小的海峡
get on a handful of rafts and cross these narrow straits.
像这样大批人迁徙出非洲只发生过一次
This African exodus only happens once.
后来非洲大♥陆♥外面的人
In the future, all humans outside Africa
都是这个小氏族的后代
Will be descended from this one tiny clan.
在这片新土地上
In these new lands,
冰河时代将对人类集体学习的局限性进行考验
the Ice Age Will test the limits of collective human learning.
面对极端天气人类决定创新
Faced With extreme cold, people innovate.
他们用新发明遮盖住自己
They cover themselves in a new invention-
是一种用针线缝制的
head-to-toe clothes...
能从头裹到脚的衣服
tailored With needles and thread.
这样他们黝黑的皮肤就几乎不会被阳光直射了
Their dark skin gets almost no direct sunlight...
这对维他命D的发明起到至关重要的作用
Which is critical in creating vitamin D.
作用之一就是演化成
One way of dealing with that was to evolve lighter skin...
没有阻挡住很多太阳光照射的浅色肌肤
that didn't block the rays of the sun as much.
这种改变创造了
This change begins to create the fundamental divisions
我们当今认为的
We think of today...
人种不同的根本区别
as race.
人们没有被冰河时代拖慢脚步
Instead of being slowed by the Ice Age,
反而适应了这种环境并很快散布到其他地区
humans adapt and spread.
一群人成功抵达西伯利亚
One group makes it to Siberia
并且跨越路桥到达北美地区
and crosses a bridge of land to North America.
公元前一万年冰川开始融化
10, 000 B. C., glaciers start to melt.
海平面上升
Seas rise.
通往西伯利亚的路桥被淹没了
The bridge to Siberia is submerged.
美洲大♥陆♥被阻断了
The Americas are cut off.
顷刻之间海水涌入白令海峡
Suddenly, water enters the Bering Straits...
人们被困在了
so populations now get sort of locked in to the regions
他们移居过去的地方
they've migrated to.
从那时开始几千年以来
From noW on, for thousands of years...
人类似乎开始居住在不同的地方
it Will be as if humanity lives on different planets.
但地域隔离最终还是会证明人类的相似性
But that separation Will ultimately prove our similarities...
正如不同地方的人类都做非常相似的事情
as humans everywhere do remarkably similar things-
例如建造帝国铸造金字塔
launch empires, build pyramids...
掌握新技术跨越到新时期
master new technologies, cross new thresholds...
有力推动人类大历史进入现代世界
and begin big history's fateful march to the modern World.
人类大历史显示了
Big history reveals...
第六个临界状态 "集体学习"
how collective learning- threshold number six in big history-
是如何给人类需要的工具以在冰河时代存活的
gives man the tools We need to survive the Ice Age.
当下由于冰川持续融化
NoW as the glaciers retreat...
人类持续快速
the very success that allows humanity
向各大♥陆♥迁移的成功
to spread to the farthest reaches of the planet...
也许也是我们衰败的信♥号♥♥
might also be our downfall.
当下地球上僧多粥少
There's too many people on planet Earth and not enough food.
解决办法就是人类大历史的第七个跨越性时刻
The solution is the seventh threshold of big history.
也许很难想像
It might be hard to imagine
它是如何适应这些史诗级活动的
how it fits in With such epic events as the big bang-
例如宇宙大爆♥炸♥和生命起源
and the origins of life...
但是人类可以改变任何事情
but for mankind, it Will change everything...
一个真实的转折点就是改革我们的生活方式
a true turning point that revolutionizes how We live.
第一次我们选择停止迁徙
For the first time, We stop moving...
并且定居下来
and settle down.
这对于建造可以控制整个地球的文明
It's a step toward building the civilizations
迈出重要一步
that Will dominate the entire planet.
第七个跨越性时刻
Threshold number seven.
"农业改革"
The farming revolution.
这可能是人类历史上
This is arguably the most important revolution
最重要的革命
in all of human history...
甚至可能在地球的历史中
perhaps even in the history of our planet.
它开始于一万年前
Beginning 10, 000 years ago...
从狩猎及采集到农耕的转变
the changeover from hunting and gathering food to farming...
象征集体学习的胜利
is a triumph of collective learning.
我们通过种植我们最重要的食物
We seize control of evolution
抓住对演化的控制
by breeding wild grasses into our most important foods...
像玉米小麦
like corn, Wheat...
大麦和水稻
barley and rice.
当然他们不知道基因
Of course, they didn't understand about genes...
他们不明白他们所做的事情的科学原理
they didn't understand the science of what they were doing...
但一旦人类开始集中研究
but once humans start
一种特别的物种
really concentrating on a particular species...
并照料它
and looking after it,
你会发现这些物种在几代之间
then you can find very quickly, within just a few generations...
就开始快速改变
the species itself starts changing.
自然界变成了我们的实验室
The natural World becomes our laboratory.
野兽不仅仅再是人类害怕或者猎杀的敌人
Wild beasts are no longer just enemies to be feared or hunted.
它们变成了被驯服和繁殖的生物
They are creatures to be tamed and bred,
成为重要的盟友
turned into vital allies.
人们把野狼驯服成了狗
We domesticate Wild Wolves into dogs...
野鸡变成了小鸡
Wild pheasants into chickens...
野猪变成了家养猪
Wild boars into pigs...
凶猛的野牛变成了现在的奶牛
the fierce aurochs into the modern cow.
当代所有的奶牛包括超过十亿的数量
All modern cows- more than one billion animals,
250种不同的品种
250 different breeds...
每年都提供
providing all of the 130 billion pounds of beef
我们需要食用的1300亿磅的牛肉
that we eat every year-