宇宙（2007）

Even the nearest stars to earth seem impossibly far away.
距地球最近的星体甚至都是遥不可及的
Alpha Centauri is the closest.
半人马座是最近的恒星
But in this case, close amounts to 4.3 light-years away,
但就算是它 也有大概4.3光年遥远
25 trillion miles,100 million times farther than the moon.
即25万亿公里 地月距离的一百万倍
Today's speediest rockets would need 80,000 years to get there,
如今最快的火箭需要八万年才能到达那里
so the challenge is to get there faster.
因此速度是最大的瓶颈
But if we're going to use high-speed star missions
然而即使我们真的用高速星际火箭
as our way to get to the future,
作为去未来的工具
it still doesn't satisfy our dream of getting there in a flash.
仍然做不到人类所梦想的瞬时转移
Achieving time travel by moving fast,
利用高速移♥动♥来进行时间旅行
and so slowing your clock down relative to everyone else,
同时放慢你相对于其他人的时间流逝
is a way of achieving time travel.
的确是时间旅行的一种方法
It's a little bit like Rip Van Winkle did by going to sleep
这有点像瑞普·凡·温克尔
and then waking up later and it's the future.
一觉醒来已在未来
But some might think of that as cheating in a way.
但大概还是会有人不买♥♥账
It's not really the time travel that we think of,
这并不是我们想象的那种
where we perhaps go through a portal
进入走廊入口
or flick a lever on a machine
或者拉下某个机器的手柄
and then end up at a different time.
然后就到达了另外的时刻
Physicists did important theoretical work on
物理学家在20世纪80年代时
instantaneous time travel in the 1980s
做了很多关于瞬时时间旅行的理论工作
while helping Carl Sagan,
那也使得卡尔·萨根
who was writing his novel, Contact.
得以充实他的小说《超时空要塞》
The book imagined space travel faster than light
这部作品描述了在宇宙中通过一种
through a corridor in space called a wormhole.
叫做虫洞的通道而进行的超光速太空旅行
A wormhole is a kind of shortcut between two different parts of space,
虫洞是一种构架在两个不同宇宙间的捷径
which can be very far away or they can actually be close to each other.
使得天涯近在咫尺
But the key idea is that you can traverse the wormhole
但核心的理念是你必须能够轻易通过入口
by simply going in through the entrance,
以穿越虫洞
one side of it, and coming out the other side.
从一端进去 从另一端出来
In Contact and many other science fiction scenarios,
在《超时空要塞》和其他众多科幻情节中
wormholes are used as tunnels to travel huge distances
虫洞常常以一种跨越浩瀚的宇宙
across the universe to other stars.
连接其他星体的隧♥道♥形式出现
But a wormhole with openings close together
而事实上 若虫洞的两端相距不远
is a much better starting point for a time machine.
才是发展时间机器更好的基础
Suppose I have a wormhole right next to me.
假设我身旁有一个虫洞
If I put my arm into it like this,
如果我把手臂伸进其中
it would emerge over there.
便会从另一端伸出来
A wormhole is a great ingredient for constructing a time machine.
虫洞是制♥造♥时间机器的绝佳要素
A wormhole time machine would use the same
虫洞时光机和高速飞船一样
Rip Van Winkle trick as the very fast spaceship.
用的是瑞普·凡·温克尔的穿越方式
Super speed makes your clock slow down
当其他人的时间正常流逝
while everyone else keeps on going.
高速行进使你的时间放慢
It works because both ends of the wormhole
它之所以能够运作是因为
always have the same date and time,
虫洞的两端总是保持同步
no matter what happens to them.
绝无意外
You can take one end of the wormhole
你可以拿走其中一端
and put it on a rocket ship or something and send it off
把它放到火箭上或者什么上
at very high speed and then back.
以非常高的速度带一个来回
So what happens is that, when it returns,
结果是 返回的时候
it's in the future.
它已经置身未来
A traveling wormhole opening from the year 2010
出发于2010年的虫洞端口
might end up returning to earth in the year 2510.
返回地球时可能通往2510年
Because its clock was so slow,
因为它的时间被放慢
it aged very little
所以尽管世界经历了五百年
while the rest of the world aged 500 years.
它却几乎没什么变化
So now if I walk into the end of the wormhole that's in the past,
因此 若我走进虫洞置于过去的这一端
the end that didn't go on the rocket ship,
没有跟随火箭飞行的这一端
I can come out the other end and I'd be in the future.
从另一端出去的时候 就将置身未来
Although each step of this scenario
尽管以现在我们所能想象到的任何技术
might be really hard to achieve
去达到这种设想中的每一个步骤
with any technology we can imagine,
都很困难
it's all internally consistent in the laws of gravity
但它们本质上与我们所知的时间 空间
and space and time that we understand so far.
和万有引力的定律的原理都相吻合
So that wormhole time machine is, we would say,
因此可以说 虫洞时光机
a consistent solution of the equations of space and time.
是时空方程的有效解
The wormhole time machine would work in reverse too,
理论上讲 反过来虫洞时光机也应可行
making time travel theoretically possible from the future
让你从未来回到过去
back into the past, where you started.
也就是你出发的地方
Well, let's face it.
我们要承认
Most people are interested in the idea of going backwards in time
大部分的人对回到过去很感兴趣
Because they want to fix things.
是因为他们总想去弥补什么
The interesting thing is, though, that we can,
有趣的是 以我们力所能及
using the laws of physics, at least explore
利用物理原理 至少可以探索下
what it would be like to travel backwards in time.
穿越时间回到过去会是怎么样
and although we are preoccupied with time machines,
虽然我们总是想制♥造♥时间机器
it may be that time travel is possible through wormholes
但是也许已经存在着自然衍生的虫洞
that are natural in origin.
使时间旅行成为可能
Another possibility,
另一种可能性是
if we can't make time machines,
如果我们做不出时间机器
is that maybe nature has already made them
也许大自然已经造就
and we just have to discover them.
那么我们只要去发现不就行了
What could have happened is that in the very early universe,
早期的宇宙有可能发生过这种事情
the nature of space and time was already twisted up in such a way
时间和空间扭曲交织
that some of that got frozen in,
以至于有些时间循环被固化
leaving time loops that we might be able to use as time machines
使得有朝一日我们能够对其加以利用
sometime in the future.
进行时间旅行
So it's an interesting possibility
这种可能性非常有意思
that we don't actually have to create these things.
我们原来并不需要去制♥造♥这些东西
But what if we are left to our own resources?
但是如果我们只能自食其力呢
Can we build a time machine at all?
我们究竟能不能制♥造♥出时间机器
If theory says a wormhole is the way to go,
如果理论指出虫洞可行
then what does it take to make one?
那么拿什么去做出虫洞
Wormholes are speculative ideas.
虫洞是纯理论的想法
We can write down the equations that describe them.
我们无法写出描述虫洞的方程
We don't expect to bump into one
我们没指望在天文学上
in astronomy or anything like that,
发现一个虫洞
but we could be surprised.
但也没准儿会有惊喜
Where we do expect wormholes to exist
我们推测虫洞最有可能存在的地方
is at the submicroscopic level,
是超显微水平意义上的
where space and time are fluctuating wildly.
在这种水平上空间和时间波动不停
So what people imagine
因此人们能想到的办法
is somehow capturing
就是捉住一个超显微虫洞
a microscopic wormhole and growing it to a larger size.
然后将其扩展至宏观尺寸
We don't know if that's possible.
我们不知道这是否可行
We have no idea how to do that,
也不知道怎么去着手
but that's probably what it would take
但是想得到一个大号♥虫洞的话
if you wanted a big-sized wormhole.
这不失为一个好方法
The technology we need to manipulate a wormhole
操纵虫洞所需要的科技水平
may seem impossibly remote.
似乎遥不可及
But for those willing to let their imaginations roam,
但是对那些渴望思想翱翔的人来说
there's a glimmer of hope in at least one place.
至少有个地方还有一丝希望
It's where space, time and the nature of existence itself
那就是由人类制♥造♥出的有史以来
meet in head-on collisions inside the biggest,
最大最复杂的对撞机
most complex machine ever created by man.
让空间 时间和万物在其中对撞
Where does the universe hide the secrets that might tell us
时间旅行的秘密
how to travel in time?
究竟藏在宇宙何处
Our exploration has taken us through the world of wormholes
人类的探索已经带领我们理解了虫洞
and their possibilities as time machines,
及其能够担当时间机器的可能性
and now we're in search of the technology
现在我们要研究的是
that might make space travel and time travel
能够让时间旅行和空间旅行
two sides of the same coin.
合二为一的技术
If there's nothing on earth that comes close
虽说当今世上尚未存在任何
to being a time machine now,
东西近似时间机器
there is something that might one day lead us
但是有些东西或许有朝一日能引领我们
to new laws of physics that help us determine
发现全新的物理定律以确定
If it's at least possible.
是否可能进行时间旅行
It explores the universe,
它探索宇宙的领域
not in the realm of the cosmic web and its galaxies,
并不在于宇宙网及其星系
but in the domain of quantum physics,
而是由量子力学入手