与摩根·弗里曼一起穿越虫洞（2010）

You're taking chemicals from your environment,
消化它们，你的身体需要搞明白
and you're ingesting them, and your body has to actually
如何利用这些物质
be able to figure out how to use those chemicals
进行正确的化学反应
for the right kind of chemical reactions.
萨拉相信科温
Sara believes that corwin
所有人类的存在都是因为
and all of us humans came to be because evolution
进化指引生命变成更好的信息处理者
guided life to become better information processors.
我认为进化是有一个箭头的
I do think evolution has an arrow.
朝着更加复杂、更好的信息处理系统
I do think it actually evolves toward more complex systems
的方向进化
and better information processing systems.
进化的箭头把生命体
Evolution's arrow locked living organisms
锁在了信息收集的军备竞赛中
into an information-gathering arms race.
视觉和听觉变得更敏锐
Vision and hearing get sharper.
牙齿和爪子变得更擅长逮猎物
Teeth and claws get better at grabbing prey
采集肉中的信息
and sampling the information in its meat.
萨拉相信我们所做的一切都受到进化的驱使
Sara believes everything we do follows this evolutionary drive
去收集并解码更多的信息
to gather and decode more information.
耶，干得漂亮，科温！
Yay, good job, corwin!
事实上
In fact,
即使是我们创造出来的技术
even the technology that we create
也遵循着同样的模式
follows the same pattern.
你可能觉得我们人类想要
So one thing that you might think we humans want to do
记住我们的孩子小时候的样子
is remember what our kids look like when they're little.
所以起初
So originally,
人们捕捉这种记忆或者图像的方式是
people used to capture that kind of memory or image
把它们画下来，对吧？
by actually painting it, right?
然后，我们找出了更聪明的方法
And then, we figured out something very clever,
也就是我们可以捕捉光
which is that we can actually just capture the light and store
并根据捕捉到的光去存储图像
that image from the light we capture.
这就是照相机
And those are cameras.
照相机的信息收集算法
The information-gathering algorithms of cameras
也在进化
are evolving, too.
数码相机进化得可以处理更多信息
Digital cameras evolved to process more information.
它们记录全彩色
They record full color
甚至识别出人脸的出现
and even recognize when a face is present.
然后智能手♥机♥中的相机出现了
Then came the smartphone camera,
甚至可以识别出人脸是谁
which can even figure out who that person is.
我们把技术进化得
And we've now evolved technology
可以帮助我们更好地处理信息
which is helping us process information even better.
不只是人类适用于以上框架
Not only humans fit in this framework,
甚至我们的现代社交系统
but even our modern social systems
技术系统也都是宇宙运行之道
and our technological systems are sort of a natural outcome
的某种自然输出
of the way the universe operates.
生物学和技术都被锁在了一起
Biology and technology are locked together
共同追寻更多的信息
in a joint quest for more information.
事实上，这可能是生命终极的意义
In fact, this could be the ultimate purpose of life.
进化其实是关于
Evolution is really about capturing
捕捉环境中更多的信息
more information about the environment.
通过这个过程
And through that process,
环境变得更加复杂
the environment becomes more complex.
生命系统根本上改变了
Living systems fundamentally change
它们所生活的宇宙
the universe that they're in and use that
以此做出很棒的事情
to do the kind of amazing things
我们作为生物系统做的事情
that we, as biological systems, do.
也许这就是生命系统的目的
Perhaps that actually is the purpose of living systems,
搞清楚宇宙是如何运作的
is to figure out how the universe actually works.
所以在这种框架下
So living systems, in this kind of framework,
生命系统是宇宙的根本
are somewhat fundamental to the universe
因为它们是宇宙搞清楚自己的方式
because they're the way the universe figures itself out.
生命是追寻知识的漫漫征途
Life is an epic quest for knowledge.
愿人类能够到达这条长路的终点
I'd love to think we humans will reach the end of this long road
了解关于宇宙的一切
and know everything there is to know about the universe.
但是进化或许有别的打算
But evolution may have other plans.
我们对信息的渴求
Our thirst for information
可能很快就会将我们从地球的表面扫除
could soon wipe us from the face of the planet.
通常认为
It is common to think of evolution
进化是进步
as progress,
物种努力地
species locked in a struggle
变得更快、更强
to become the fastest, the strongest,
更高
and the tallest,
在复杂性和技能上达到越来越高的层次
reach ever-higher levels of complexity and skill.
但生命不是生物精炼的
But life is not an ever-growing edifice
日益增高的大厦
of biological refinement.
它是一系列的显著的崩溃
It's a series of dramatic collapses.
吉姆·塞特纳是康奈尔大学的一名物理学家
Jim Sethna is a physicist at Cornell.
他研究的是
He researches the fine line
成功和灾难性的失败之间的界线
separating success from catastrophic failure.
这些卜卜米可以在架子上放好几年
These rice krispies could sit on the shelf for years.
一旦和牛奶搅拌在一起
But expose them to milk,
它们就劈劈啪啪地成了一团糊
and they crackle as they collapse into mush.
多数产生这种劈哩啪啦声响的系统
Most of the systems we see crackling noise,
都处在两种不同状态之间的过渡之中
it's at a transition between two different states.
对卜卜米来说
So in the rice krispies,
就是从干燥状态
it's a transition between the dry state
到浸湿状态的过渡
and the soaked state.
吉姆感兴趣的是
Jim is interested in how any system behaves
处在稳定状态和分崩离析间的刀刃上
when it sits on the knife's edge
也就是所谓的临界点
between stability and crackling apart,
系统会如何运行
a so-called critical point.
燃烧的柴火发出劈啪的声响
A burning log crackles
像是或大或小的气囊
as pockets of air, small and large,
不断地迅速膨胀
expand in rapid succession.
雪山上的雪越积越高
Mountain snow builds up
直到一个微小的移♥动♥引发雪崩
until a tiny movement escalates into a crackling avalanche.
吉姆和一组科学家
Jim and a growing group of scientists
相信我们的身体
believe that our own bodies
也处在坍塌的边缘
are also poised at the edge of collapse.
讽刺的是，百万年来正是这
Ironically, it's what has kept us out of harm's way
使我们免遭危险
for millions of years.
考虑一下我们的听觉
Think about our sense of hearing.
进化使听觉如此灵敏
Evolution pushed it so close to a tipping point
以至于周围空气的一点变化
that a tiny change in the air around us
都会引发一连串的联想、
causes a cascade of thoughts,
感觉，以及脑中的图像
senses, and images in your brain.
你的听力被调谐地如此精准
Your hearing is so finely tuned
如果它变得再灵敏一点
that, if it were any more sensitive,
你就会对空气中撞击你耳膜的分子
you would be sensitive to the random motions
的随机运动变得敏感
of air molecules hitting your eardrum.
如果我们的眼睛变得更加灵敏
Our eyes are even more sensitive.
一个光子就可以使几十亿个神经原
A single photon can send billions of neurons
陷入过载
crackling into overdrive
并在脑海中显现一个实际并不存在的幽灵
and conjure up a phantom that isn't there.
各物种都发展出了各种感觉
Species have developed all kinds of senses,
其中的每一种，都在过去的数十亿年里
and each of them has been, over billions of years,
磨链到了绝对极限
honed to the absolute limits.
事实上，在正常运作和坍塌之间保持平衡
In fact, being poised between function and collapse
是你体内
is the normal state
每一个细胞的正常状态
of every functioning cell in your body.
吉姆和他的同事
Jim and his colleagues,
埃汉·米特拉以及莎拉·谢尔比，正在调查为什么会这样
eshan mitra and Sarah Shelby, are investigating why.
人的细胞膜处在刀刃之上
The membrane of a human cell exists on a knife's edge.
当外界的环境有一点小变化
When there's a tiny change in the outside environment,
细胞膜结构中的脂肪和蛋白质就会坍塌
the structure of its fats and proteins instantly collapses
并重建
and rearranges itself.
细胞必须被精细地调制好
Its cells have to be very finely tuned
才能辨别出它想驱逐的东西
to distinguish the things it wants to expel.
它们位于这个临界点附近
They sit near this critical point
为了让细胞
in order to make it easy
更容易敏感而快速地
for the cell to respond sensitively and quickly
对外界的信息作出反应
to new information about its outside.
细胞膜存在于混乱的边缘