人类大历史（2013）

Big History S01E17

Part 8 March 29, 2021, 2:04 p.m.

通过对水的加热人类制♥造♥蒸汽压力
By heating water, you create this steam pressure.
然后使活塞运动
It can force a piston, for example, to start moving up and down.
使机器带动纺纱机
Machines to drive spinning machines
更快的制♥造♥出纺织品
that will create textiles much, much faster.
然后你可以把它应用到带有轮子的平台上
And then you can put it onto a platform with wheels...
在景色之间铺上铁轨
and lay iron rails across the landscape.
这些都是利用
All of this is a product of
被加热的水的非凡特性
utilizing this extraordinary property of heated water again.
蒸汽机推动汽油机的产生
The steam engine leads to the gasoline engine...
点燃人类大历史的新时期--
and ignites a new threshold in big history-
现代革命
the modern revolution.
自古以来我们几乎一直被人力动物力量
For all of history, We have been limited almost completely...
风力和水力
to power from human and animal muscles-
完全限制住了
Wind and flowing Water.
现在的机械发动机有了太阳能
NoW mechanical engines...
再加入从古植物中获取的燃料
fueled by the power of the sun captured in ancient plants...
使我们变得更高效多产
make us far more productive and powerful.
到1900年世界上的蒸汽机
By 1900, the World's steam engines
已经相当于50亿人的劳动力了
Will equal the power of five billion men.
现代改革加快了一切的速度
The modern revolution accelerates everything-
我们生产种植的方式
how We produce and grow things...
我们出行和交流的方法
how We travel and communicate.
它把人类抬升到前所未有的地位
And it elevates man to a unique status in the story of our planet
四十亿年来第一次有一种物种
A single species for the first time in almost four billion years
如此强大甚至可以控制整个生物圈
has become so powerful that it dominates the biosphere.
这是历史上难以想象的时期
And that's a fantastically interesting period in history,
而我们就生活在这个时期
and we're living in it right now.
这是个全新的时代
It is an era unlike any before.
但力量不是打开这个入口的唯一因素
But power is not the only key to open this portal.
另一个是信息
The other is information.
"冰山就在前方"
"Iceberg straight ahead".
从前我们我们的声音被束缚住
Throughout all previous history, We Were tethered to our voices
最远只能到达声波可以传到的地方
Which could only travel as far as a sound Wave could carry them-
最大只有600英尺
a maximum of 600 feet.
但现在我们的声音和想法可以通过
But noW our voices and ideas can ride on radio Waves...
在大爆♥炸♥中诞生的电磁力
made possible by the electromagnetic force
而发明的无线电波来实现
born in the big bang.
当今世界上有七十亿只移♥动♥电♥话♥
Today, there are seven billion cellphones in the World-
平均下来人手一只
one for every person on Earth.
我们都被全球网络联♥系♥着
We are each connected to a global network...
以光速传播信息
that transmits information at the speed of light.
我觉得我想不出比瞬间传送
I mean, short of teleportation,
更神奇的事情了
I really can't think of anything more magical than that.
在当代信息爆♥炸♥的进展速度
In our modern era, the pace of progress explodes...
产生令人惊愕的事实
leading to a staggering fact.
在蒸汽时代
During the era of the steam engine...
人类加倍学习他们的集体知识
it took 150 years
花了150年时间
for man's collective knowledge to double.
如今只需要两年
Today, it takes two years.
到2020年也许只要72小时
By2020, it Will take 72 hours.
人类大历史把我们从宇宙大爆♥炸♥时期
Big history brings us from the big bang...
带到一系列令人惊叹的突破点
through a series of amazing thresholds...
再到我们当下的世界
to the World around us today.
但谁可以预见下个重大转折点呢
But can it foresee mankind's next momentous turning points?
他们能保证下一次是继续加速改革
And do they promise even faster progress...
还是世界末日?
or the end of everything?
人类大历史把宇宙的开端
Big history tells the story of everything...
到现在的情况
from the beginning of the universe...
都告诉我们了
to the World around us today...
这些过程就被叫做 "跨越性时刻"
in What big historians call threshold moments.
但把万物联♥系♥在一起的
But What is the secret key, the fundamental mystery...
根本秘诀到底是什么呢
that links them all together?
为了揭示这个秘密
To reveal that secret...
我们得先了解
We first have to understand a basic law
统治宇宙的基本法则
that governs everything in the universe.
自然主义倾向使万物
The natural tendency of all things is to move from order...
从规则变成不规则形状
to disorder.
从有结构的变得慢慢瓦解
From structure to disintegration.
从复杂到简单
From the complex to the simple.
鸡蛋可以被打碎
An egg can break...
但碎片不能再组成一个新鸡蛋了
but its pieces can't form a new egg.
报纸可以被烧成灰
A newspaper can burn to ashes...
灰烬却拼不成完整的报纸
but the ashes can't become a newspaper.
科学家们称之为熵之定律
Scientists call it the law of entropy.
贯穿整个时空
Throughout all time and space,
宇宙都遵守这个法则
the universe has been ruled by this law.
但考虑到140亿年的人类大历史
But When We consider the nearly 14 billion years of big history
我们还是发现了稀少但是明显的例外
We discover What appear to be rare and remarkable exceptions.
当万物以一种适当的方法排列起来的时刻
Moments When everything lines up in just the right Way...
似乎就违背了这个定律
and seems to defy this natural law of entropy.
从宇宙大爆♥炸♥
To go from the massive explosion of the big bang...
到星体的结构
to the structure of a star.
再从古代海水的化学漩涡
From the swirl of chemicals in ancient seas...
到一系列鲜活的脱氧核糖核酸
to a strand of living D.N.A.
从简单的宇宙到复杂的世界
From a simple universe to a complex World.
对人类大历史来说
For big history,
这都是藏在每个核心时刻背后的秘密
that is the secret hidden in the heart of every threshold...
一种在时空间把我们联♥系♥起来的模式
a pattern that links us through all of time and space.
但有8个瞬间宇宙似乎违背了基本定律
Eight moments When the universe seems to defy its most basic law
反而从简单变为了复杂
and instead moves from the simple to the complex.
从混乱
Eight moments when we move from chaos...
变得有规则了
to order.
但谜团依旧
But a mystery remains.
在这样的情况下
How and Why in these instances...
宇宙为何又是如何看起来
did the universe
使它本身违背了混沌定律的
seemingly defy its own law of chaos?
答案在于宇宙大爆♥炸♥产生的宇宙力--
The answer lies in a cosmic force that emerged from the big bang-
重力
gravity.
由于重力我们的宇宙不是均匀分布的
Because of gravity, our universe is not evenly distributed.
相反的有中心银河
Instead, there are hubs, galaxies...
星体和太阳系
stars and solar systems...
他们被巨大的空洞分隔开
divided by massive voids.
而在中心能量和物质凝聚在一起
In those hubs, energy and matter converge.
大量的互动发生了
Trillions of interactions occur...
在次中心不可能的就变得可能了
and in a swarming hub, the improbable becomes possible.
重力可以组成能量
Gravity can form stars that form energy...
围绕在也由重力组成的星体旁边
that bathes the planets surrounding them...
这样就产生了生命
which gives rise to life...
生命本身就有了会产生复杂性
and life itself then has all these interactions...
的交互作用
that lead to increasing complexity.
宇宙大部分还是很简单的
Most of the universe is still very simple.
所以事物只在特定是宇宙环境中变的复杂
So things get complex only in particular pockets of the universe
比如种金凤花要在
where we have the Goldilocks conditions
适合种它的地方才行
where conditions are just perfect.
这些中心似乎贯穿了时空
These hubs appear throughout space and time...
在星体中建立元素
in stars that forge elements...
在古海洋中创造生命
ancient seas that produce life...
甚至存在于地球的城市中
and even in cities on Earth.
大城市是以大批活动的形成建立的
Giant cities form with huge amounts of activity.
然后会自然而然的
And then there are of course
出现扩张和不那么多的活动
these great expanses and not much activity.
这些事物都是微粒在遵循物理定律
All these things come about as a result...
它们反复互动的
of just repeated interactions of particles
结果
obeying the laws of physics.
然而世上只有几个物理定律
And there's just a few laws of physics.
那么下一个时刻是什么呢
So What is the next threshold?
生命复杂性和这样的突破
Will life, complexity and thresholds
会永恒的持续下去吗
go on forever?
人类大历史能够预见新时刻吗
Or does big history foresee new moments...
人类生命
Where mankind, life itself...