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1、 TED英语演讲：我们从何而来以TED20xx的主题为出发点，史蒂芬霍金教授提出了一些关于我们宇宙的重要问题宇宙如何开始?生命何起源?宇宙中只有我们吗?与此同时，霍金教授也讨论了我们探究破解这些问题的途径。下面是为大家收集关于TED英语演讲：我们从何而来，欢迎借鉴参考。演说题目：Questioning the universe演说者：Stephen HawkingThere is nothing bigger or older than the universe. The questions I would like to talk about are: one, where did we c
2、ome from? How did the universe come into being? Are we alone in the universe? Is there alien life out there? What is the future of the human race?没什么比宇宙更广大更久远的了。你们的问题中我想聊一下的是：你我何从?宇宙何来?宇宙中就只有我们?有外星异生物么?人类的未来将会如何?Up until the 1920s, everyone thought the universe was essentially static and unchanging
3、in time. Then it was discovered that the universe was expanding. Distant galaxies were moving away from us. This meant they must have been closer together in the past. If we extrapolate back, we find we must have all been on top of each other about 15 billion years ago. This was the Big Bang, the be
4、ginning of the universe.上世纪20xx年代之前，所有人都以为宇宙基本上是处于稳态，流金岁月，持恒不变。之后我们发现原来宇宙正在膨胀中。辽远星系一直飞离我们，这意味着它们必定曾相靠近。我们若往后推算，就会发现我们必都曾於约150亿年前，互相堆叠在一起。正是这 霹雳大爆炸 宇宙之起始。But was there anything before the Big Bang? If not, what created the universe? Why did the universe emerge from the Big Bang the way it did? We use
5、d to think that the theory of the universe could be divided into two parts. First, there were the laws like Maxwells equations and general relativity that determined the evolution of the universe, given its state over all of space at one time. And second, there was no question of the initial state o
6、f the universe.然而大爆炸前可有什么吗?若是没有，又是什么创造宇宙呢?宇宙缘何要从大霹雳中冒出呢?过往我们都认为宇宙论可分成两部分，首先，是定律。像麦克斯韦方程组和 广义相对论以其于同一刻设定整个时空之状态，而决定了宇宙之演化进程。次之，是对宇宙雏形的疑问。We have made good progress on the first part, and now have the knowledge of the laws of evolution in all but the most extreme conditions. But until recently, we hav
7、e had little idea about the initial conditions for the universe. However, this division into laws of evolution and initial conditions depends on time and space being separate and distinct.第一部分我们取得良好进展，除了至极端境况以外。现在已对演化规律于所有境况下之进程有所掌握。可直至最近，我们仍对宇宙初生当时之周围条件不甚了了。然而，这演化律及初始条件之界分，乃囿于时 空分明之概念内。Under extrem
8、e conditions, general relativity and quantum theoryallow time to behave like another dimension of space. This removes the distinction between time and space, and means the laws of evolution can also determine the initial state. The universe can spontaneously create itself out of nothing.而於极端条件下，广义相对
9、论及量子论容许时间如同空间的另一维度般运作。这就将时.空之间区别移除了，即是说演化律 亦可决定初始状态。宇宙可以由无变有自我创生!Moreover, we can calculate a probability that the universe was created in different states. These predictions are in excellent agreement with observations by the WMAP satellite of the cosmic microwave background, which is an imprint of
10、 the very early universe. We think we have solved the mystery of creation. Maybe we should patent the universe and charge everyone royalties for their existence.我们甚至可以计算出宇宙在不同情况下诞生的可能性。这些推论与WMAP卫星所观测到的宇宙微波背景辐射(即大爆炸之痕迹)相当一致。我们相信已勘破了创造奥秘或许我们应将宇宙给注册，然后向每个生存于世的人收生活费。I now turn to the second big question
11、: are we alone, or is there other life in the universe? We believe that life arose spontaneously on the Earth, so it must be possible for life to appear on other suitable planets, of which there seem to be a large number in the galaxy.现在我转到第二个大问题去，宇宙中就只有我们，还是另有其它生物?我们相信生命从地球自我衍生，故此生命确有可能出现於其它合适星球星河中
12、看来可有不少呢。But we dont know how life first appeared. We have two pieces of observational evidence on the probability of life appearing. The first is that we have fossils of algae from 3.5 billion years ago. The Earth was formed 4.6 billion years ago and was probably too hot for about the first half bil
13、lion years. So life appeared on Earth within half a billion years of it being possible, which is short compared to the 10-billion-year lifetime of a planet of Earth type. This suggests that the probability of life appearing is reasonably high. If it was very low, one would have expected it to take m
14、ost of the ten billion years available.但我们仍未搅通生命是如何生成：对於生命诞生的可能契机，我们有两项观测得来的佐证。首先我们有来自35亿年前的海藻化石。地球于46亿年前形成，头约5亿年相信仍太热了。故此生命于其变得可能后的5亿年间方出现，这相对于像地球之类百亿年期的星体，只算是一段短时间。这意味着生命出现的概率是颇高的。若是低的话，就可预期要花尽百亿年的绝大部分才会出现。On the other hand, we dont seem to have been visited by aliens. I am discounting the reports
15、 of UFOs.Why would they appear only to cranks and weirdos? If there is a government conspiracy to suppress the reports and keep for itself the scientific knowledge the aliens bring, it seems to have been a singularly ineffective policy so far. Furthermore, despite an extensive search by the SETI pro
16、ject, we havent heard any alien television quiz shows. This probably indicates that there are no alien civilizations at our stage of development within a radius of a few hundred light years. Issuing an insurance policy against abduction by aliens seems a pretty safe bet.另一方面，我们似乎从未见有外星人到访。我不信那些什么不明物体的报导。它们干吗要单向那些古古怪怪的人现身呢?若真有一个甚
