生命的奇迹（2013）

Wonders of Life S01E02

Part 7 Sept. 6, 2021, 3:11 p.m.

这一想法非常有趣
all the information from those big, complex eyes.
章鱼的智慧之所以引人注意
What's so compelling about the octopus' intelligence
是因为其进化与我们的毫无关系
is that it evolved completely separately to ours.
我们最近的共同祖先生活于六亿年前
We last shared a common ancestor 600 million years ago.
而这个祖先既没有眼睛也没有大脑
An ancestor that had neither eyes nor a brain.
但我们都进化出了复杂的摄像机眼
But we've both evolved sophisticated camera eyes,
以及大容量且高度智慧的大脑
and large, intelligent brains.
这暗示着处理感知的方式
It suggests a tantalising link
和智力的进化很可能相关
between sensory processing and the evolution of intelligence.
感知对地球生命的进化异常重要
Sensing has played a key role in the evolution of life on Earth.
最原始的生物
The first organisms
能探测它们所处的环境并作出反应
were able to detect and respond to their immediate environment,
就像如今的草履虫
as paramecia do today.
但随着动物的进化
But as animals evolved,
它们所处的环境也越发复杂
and their environments became more complex,
它们的感官随之进化
their senses evolved with them.
进化出感觉震动和感知光线
Developing the mechanisms to let them decode vibrations
的机制
and detect light.
使它们得以建立
Allowing them to build
周围环境的三维图像
three-dimensional pictures of their environments,
并促进大脑的发展
and stimulating the growth of brains
使其能够处理所有数据
that could handle all that data.
但对一种生物而言
But for one species,
获得更多的感官信息
the desire to gather more and more sensory information
变成了它们梦寐以求的愿望
has become overwhelming.
这种生物便是我们人类
That species is us.
虽然天文学并不信神
This is the closest thing to hallowed ground
但这里却犹如圣地
that exists in a subject that has no saints,
因为爱德温·哈勃正是用这台望远镜
because that telescope is the one that Edwin Hubble used
扩展了人类的视野他的成就
to expand our horizons, I would argue,
前无古人后无来者
more than anyone else before or since.
1923年爱德温·哈勃拍下了
In 1923, Edwin Hubble took this photograph
这张仙女座星系的照片
of the Andromeda galaxy.
你能看到他在照片上留下的笔迹
You can see his handwriting on the photograph.
一个多星期的日子里他每夜坐在此处
He did it by sitting here night after night for over a week,
连续在相片底版上曝光
exposing this photographic plate.
在当时
Now, at the time,
人们认为这个夜空中朦胧的斑点
it was thought that this misty patch you see in the night sky
不过是星云也许是银河系内的气体云
was just a cloud, maybe a gas cloud in our own galaxy,
但是哈勃借助这台强大的望远镜
but Hubble, because of the power of this telescope,
分辨出了单独的恒星最重要的是
identified individual stars, and crucially,
他发现这个星系远在银河系之外
he found that it was way outside our own galaxy.
换句话说
In other words,
哈勃发现
Hubble had discovered
这是遥远的恒星之岛
this is a distant island of stars.
我们现在知道它远在两百万光年之外
We now know it's over two million light years away,
包含万亿颗如太阳般的恒星
composed of a trillion suns like ours.
哈勃证明了除了我们所在的银河系
Hubble demonstrated that there's more to the universe
宇宙中还有万千世界
than our own galaxy.
他将我们的视野扩展到了
He extended the reach of our senses further
我们不曾想过的地方
than we could have imagined.
借助望远镜
With the help of the telescope,
我们可以探测并了解
we could perceive and comprehend
几十亿光年外的世界
worlds billions of light years away.
一个美妙的正反馈正在起作用
There's a wonderful feedback at work here,
我们感知的数据越来越多
because the increasing amounts of data delivered by our senses
驱动着大脑的进化
drove the evolution of our brains,
大脑愈发复杂对事物更加好奇
and those increasingly sophisticated brains became curious
渴望着更多的数据
and demanded more and more data.
因此我们建造望远镜
And so we built telescopes
借此拓展我们的视野
that were able to extend our senses beyond the horizon
向我们展现了已有几十亿年历史
and showed us a universe that's billions of years old
拥有数以万亿的恒星和星系的宇宙
and contains trillions of stars and galaxies.
正是我们对信息永不满足的渴望
Our insatiable quest for information
塑造了我们人类
is the making of us.