生命的进化（1979）

Life on Earth S01E13

Part 5 Sept. 6, 2021, 11:26 a.m.

With the help of electronics, we can recall information
不管它们在哪里
from data banks, no matter where they are,
我们可以直接地及时地与人交流
and we can communicate directly and instantaneously with one another
彻底地环绕地球
right round the globe.
我们可以预知我们的机器的行为
We can predict the behaviour of our machines
以及做计算那曾经完全超越人脑
and make calculations which were once quite beyond the human brain.
随着世界范围交流的存在
And with the existence of worldwide communications
和强大的电脑的应用
and the use of powerful computers,
我们可以准确地预测世界上最不可预知的事情
we can forecast with greater precision that most unpredictable of events on earth,
每天的天气
its daily weather.
2万年前，人们在洞穴里画下神的信息
20,000 years ago, man drew messages for the gods in caves.
现在他把它们发射给地球外的太空生命
Now he sends them to extraterrestrial beings in the sky.
在他的火箭上，他放上了图象来问候其他星系的生命
In his rockets, he puts images to greet other beings in other galaxies
万一们存在的话
in case they exist.
他打着欢迎手势的图象
Images of himself in the gesture of welcome.
他的发明的细节
Details of his discoveries.
一张他希望能给其他地方智慧的照片
And photographs that he hopes may give other intelligences elsewhere
一些对地球生活的描述
some impression of what life is like on earth.
这是自然历史节目的最后一集
This is the last programme in this natural history,
它和其他的很不同
and it's very different from the others
因为只献给一种动物：我们自己
because it's been devoted to just one animal: ourselves.
那可能是一种误导
And that may have been a misleading thing to have done.
给出了人类就是进化的最后胜利的印象
It may have given the impression that man was the ultimate triumph of evolution,
那所有的亿万年的发展
that all those thousands of millions of years of development
其目的是只是把人类带到地球上
had no purpose other than to put man on earth.
没有任何科学证据支持这种说法
There is no scientific evidence whatsoever for such a belief.
没有理由支持人类能比恐龙活得更久的说法
No reason to suppose that man's stay on earth should be any longer than that of the dinosaurs.
他可以学会控制环境
He may have learned to control his environment,
把信息一代传一代，
to pass on information from one generation to another,
但是带他到非洲草原上的那股进化的动力
but the forces of evolution that brought him into existence here on these African plains
仍然在世界上的其他地方作用着
are still at work elsewhere in the world
如果人类因为任何原因要消失
and if man were to disappear, for whatever reason,
毫无疑问，会在某个地方有一种小的不显眼的生物
there is doubtless somewhere some small, unobtrusive creature
抓住机会，通过一系列的进化取代人的位置
that would seize the opportunity and, with a spurt of evolution, take man's place.
虽然人们不承认在世界上的特殊地位是一种谦虚
But although denying a special place in the world may be becomingly modest,
但事实上，仍然是人类牢牢地控制着世界和世界上的一切
the fact remains that man has an unprecedented control over the world and everything in it.
所以，不管他喜不喜欢
And so, whether he likes it or not,
将会发生什么事很大程度上取决于他
what happens next is very largely up to him.