TED演讲:用玩具创造世界(7)

 　　Now as we pull away from this world -- we're going to keep pulling away from the star now.  现在，我们将视线从这个世界里移出来--我们从这个星球移出来了

　　One of the things that always frustrated¹ me a little bit about astronomy  天文学中有一点曾让儿时的我时常感到困扰：

　　when I was a kid is how it was always presented so two-dimensionally and so static. 为什么它总是二维的、静态的呢？

　　As we pull away from the star here,  当我们从行星中移开视线，

　　we're actually going now out into interstellar space, 我们就进入了星际空间。

　　and we're getting a sense of the space around our home star.  我们对家园行星周边的空间有了直观感觉。

　　Now what I really wanted to do is to present this,  现在我真正想做的就是让大家看看这个，

　　basically as wonderfully 3D as it is actually is.  这和它的实际存在一样的立体。

　　And not only that, but also show the dynamics²,  不仅如此，还有一些变化，

　　and a lot of the interesting objects that you might find, maybe like in the Hubble,  你还会发现许多有趣的物体，比如哈勃望远镜。

　　at pretty much realistic frequencies and scales.  这和实际的频率和规模几乎是一样的。

　　So most people have no idea of the difference between like, an emission³ nebula⁴ and a planetary nebula. 大多数人都分不清发射星云和环状星云之间的区别。

　　But these are the things that we can kind of put in this little galaxy⁵ here.  但是我们可以把这些放进这个小星系里。

　　So we're flying over here to what looks like a black hole.  我们可以飞到这里看看黑洞。

　　I want to basically have the entire zoo of Hubble objects  我想要将哈勃望远镜能看到的一切展示给人们，

　　that people can kind of interact with and play with, again, as toys.  让他们可以与之互动，当做玩具来玩。

　　So here's a little black hole that we probably don't want to get too close to.  这是一个黑洞，我们可不想离它太近。

　　But we also have stars and things as well.  我们还有星星和其他的东西。

　　If we pull all the way back, we start seeing the entire galaxy here, kind of slowly in motion. 如果我们继续将视线移远，我们可以看见这一整个星系，缓缓移动。

　　And this is another thing where, typically when people present galaxies⁶, 普遍来说，当人们展现星系的时候，

　　it's always been these very beautiful photos, but they're always static. 总是用美丽却静态的照片。

　　And when you actually bring it forward in time and start animating⁷ it, 当你让它随着时间动起来，

　　it's actually kind of amazing, what a galaxy would look like, fast forwarded. 加快它的运转速度，它看起来就会十分惊艳。

　　This would be about one million years a second,  这大约是每秒一百万年，

　　because you have about roughly one supernova every century or so.  因为大概每个世纪会出现一颗超新星。

　　And so you'd have this wonderful sparkling thing, with the disk slowly rotating,  这样你就会看见如此美丽而闪耀的物体缓慢旋转，

　　and this is roughly what it would look like.  这就是它大概的样子。

　　And so really, part of this is about bringing the beauty of this, of the natural world, 这个游戏的目的之一就是用一种充满想象的方式，

　　to somebody in a very imaginative way,  让人们看见自然世界的美，

　　so that they can start calibrating⁸ their instinct across these vast scales of space and time. 让他们开始大规模地跨越空间和时间，重构自己的直觉。

　　Chris was wondering what kind of gods that the players would become.  一个天主教徒有一天问我游戏的玩家会变成怎样的上帝。

　　Because if you think about it, you're going to have 15-year-olds,  你想想，十五岁、二十岁的年轻人

　　20-year-olds, whatever, flying around this universe.  将会飞入这个宇宙。

　　And they might be a nurturing⁹ god.  他们会成为一个一个无微不至的上帝。

　　They might be boot-strapping life on planets, trying to terra-form and spread civilization. 也许会成为星球上自力更生的生命，努力地占领地盘，散布文明。

　　You might be a vengeful god and going out and conquesting,  你可能会成为一个复仇心切的上帝，四处侵略征服，

　　because you actually can do that, you can go in and attack other intelligent races.  你真的可以，你能闯进别的智慧的种族攻击他们。

　　You might be a networking god, building alliances,  你可能会成为一个左右逢源的上帝，建立盟友，

　　which you can also do in the game, or just curious,  你也可以这么做。或者你只是出于好奇，

　　going around and wanting to explore as much as you possibly can.  尽你所能，四处游历。

　　But basically, the reason why I make toys like this is because  我想要创作这个玩具的原因，

　　I think if there's one difference I could possibly make in the world,  是我觉得我可能可以、也想要，为这个世界带来的变化

　　that I would choose to make, it's that I would like to somehow give people  就是，我想要让人们能更好地

　　just a little bit better calibration on long-term thinking.  从长远看问题。

　　Because I think most of the problems that our world is facing right now is the result of short-term thinking, 因为我觉得我们的世界现在所面临的诸多问题大多归咎于人们目光短浅。

　　and the fact that it is so hard for us to think 50, 100, or 1,000 years out.  让我们去畅想五十年、一百年甚至一千年以后的变化实在太难。

　　And I think by giving kids toys like this and letting them replay dynamics, 而我认为给孩子们一个这样的玩具，让他们重现动态变化，

　　very long-term dynamics over the short term,  用很短的时间看长期的变化，

　　and getting some sense of what we're doing now, what it's going to be like in 100 years,  让他们了解我们现在在做的事情，了解一百年后会发生的事情，

　　I think probably is the most effective thing I can be doing to help the world. 就是我现在能为帮助这个世界所做的最有效率的事。

　　And so that's why I think, personally, that toys can change the world. Thank you. 这就是为什么，我自认为，玩具可以改变世界。谢谢。

1 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 dynamics   

n.力学，动力学，动力，原动力；动态

参考例句：

• In order to succeed,you must master complicated knowledge of dynamics.要取得胜利，你必须掌握很复杂的动力学知识。
• Dynamics is a discipline that cannot be mastered without extensive practice.动力学是一门不做大量习题就不能掌握的学科。

3 emission   

n.发出物，散发物；发出，散发

参考例句：

• Rigorous measures will be taken to reduce the total pollutant emission.采取严格有力措施，降低污染物排放总量。
• Finally,the way to effectively control particulate emission is pointed out.最后，指出有效降低颗粒排放的方向。

4 nebula   

n.星云，喷雾剂

参考例句：

• A powerful telescope can resolve a nebula into stars.一架高性能的望远镜能从星云中分辨出星球来。
• A nebula is really a discrete mass of innumerous stars.一团星云实际上是无数星体不连续的集合体。

5 galaxy   

n.星系；银河系；一群(杰出或著名的人物)

参考例句：

• The earth is one of the planets in the Galaxy.地球是银河系中的星球之一。
• The company has a galaxy of talent.该公司拥有一批优秀的人才。

6 galaxies   

星系( galaxy的名词复数 )； 银河系； 一群（杰出或著名的人物）

参考例句：

• Quasars are the highly energetic cores of distant galaxies. 类星体是遥远星系的极为活跃的核心体。
• We still don't know how many galaxies there are in the universe. 我们还不知道宇宙中有多少个星系。

7 animating   

v.使有生气( animate的现在分词 )；驱动；使栩栩如生地动作；赋予…以生命

参考例句：

• Nature has her animating spirit as well as man who is nature's child. 大自然就象它的孩子――人类一样，有活生生的灵魂。 来自辞典例句
• They were doubtlessly the animating principle of many hours that superficially seemed vacant. 在表面看来无所事事的许多时刻中，它们无疑是活跃的因素。 来自辞典例句

8 calibrating   

v.校准( calibrate的现在分词 )；使标准化；使合标准；测量（枪的）口径

参考例句：

• The value of the threshold strain is determined by calibrating the coating. 阈值应变的数值是靠对涂层进行标定测出来的。 来自辞典例句
• Dewpoint hygrometers provide an absolute measurement of humidity and therefore are essentially self-calibrating. 露点湿度计可提供湿度的绝对量测值，因此它基本上是自动标定的。 来自辞典例句

9 nurturing   

养育( nurture的现在分词 )； 培育； 滋长； 助长

参考例句：

• These delicate plants need careful nurturing. 这些幼嫩的植物需要精心培育。
• The modern conservatory is not an environment for nurturing plants. 这个现代化温室的环境不适合培育植物。