定制学L8-U3-P3TheHistoryofOurWorld
写在前⾯
原视频来⾃ TED 讲座 David Christian: The history of our world in 18 minutes, March 2011，字幕 (subtitle) 参考⾃官⽅⽹站。
注：本⽂在字幕基础上会有⼀些笔者个⼈的笔记，⽽且字幕会根据笔者听记和具体课程内容进⾏修改，如有错误敬请告知。
Introduction: Backed by stunning illustrations, David Christian narrates a complete history of the univer, from the Big Bang to the Internet, in a riveting 18 minutes. This is "Big History": an enlightening, wide-angle look at complexity, life and humanity, t against our slim share of the cosmic timeline.
导⾔: 通过⼀段令⼈惊叹的演⽰，David Christian 在引⼈⼊胜的 18 分钟⾥向我们讲述了从宇宙⼤爆炸到互联⽹时代的完整宇宙史，这就是 “⼤历史”。演讲者尝试从宏观的⾓度看待复杂性、⽣命、⼈性，以及⼈类在宇宙时间线上那点微不⾜道的跨度，试图给我们带来启发。
Video 1
本节共 1 ⼩节，时长 01:52。
First, a video.
Yes, it is a scrambled egg.
But as you look at it, I hope you'll begin to feel just slightly uneasy.
Becau you may notice that what's actually happening is that the egg is unscrambling itlf.
And you'll now e the yolk and the white have parated.
And now they're going to be poured back into the egg.
And we all know in our heart of hearts that this is not the way the univer works.
scrambled egg 炒蛋
uneasy adj. (对某事正确与否) 不确信的，(对做某事) 没有把握的；不安的，⼼神不宁的；(状态或关系) 不稳定的
unscramble v. 使 (信息、信号等) 恢复原状，解码；整理，使 ... 条理化，理清
in one's heart of hearts 在某⼈内⼼深处
A scrambled egg is mush -- tasty mush -- but it's mush.
An egg is a beautiful, sophisticated thing that can create even more sophisticated things, such as
chickens.
And we know in our heart of hearts that the univer does not travel from mush to complexity.
And, in fact, this gut instinct is reflected in one of the most fundamental laws of physics, the cond law of thermodynamics, or the law of entropy.
What that says basically is that the general tendency of the univer
is to move from order and structure to lack of order, lack of structure -- in fact, to mush.
And that's why that video feels a bit strange.
mush n. 糊状物；多愁善感的作品 v. 把 ... 碾碎
gut instinct 直觉 instinct n. 本能；天性，天分；直觉 gut adj. 直觉的，感性的，⾮理性的 n. 肠；内脏；(⾮正式、常⽤复数) 胆量；(⾮正式)肚腩 v. 摧毁 (建筑物的) 内部；取出 ... 的内脏 (以便烹饪)
law /lɔː/ n. (科学) 定律，(⾃然) 规律；(⾏为) 准则，(组织的) 戒律；法律，法规；法学；法律⾏业
thermodynamics /ˌθɜːrmoʊdaɪˈnæmɪks/ n. 热⼒学
entropy /ˈentrəpi/ n. (热⼒学) 熵，体系混乱程度的度量；混乱⽆序的状态
And yet, look around us.
What we e around us is staggering complexity.
Eric Beinhocker estimates that in New York City alone, there are some 10 billion SKUs, or distinct
commodities, being traded.
That's hundreds of times as many species as there are on Earth.
And they're being traded by a species of almost ven billion individuals,
who are linked by trade, travel, and the Internet into a global system of stupendous complexity.
staggering adj. ⾮常惊⼈的 (very surprising)
commodity /kəˈmɑːdəti/ n. 商品；⽇⽤品
stupendous /stuːˈpendəs/ adj. 令⼈震惊的；惊⼈般巨⼤的 (surprisingly impressive or large)
此处第三条中的 Eric Beinhocker 是⼀名来⾃英国的经济学家，著有 The Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics (简称《财富的起源》) ⼀书，并在该书中阐述了复杂经济学这⼀经济学框架。
此处第三条中的 SKU 指 Stock Keeping Unit (库存单位)，每⼀款商品或服务都要对应唯⼀的 SKU。
Video 2
本节共 2 ⼩节，时长 06:05。
So here's a great puzzle:
In a univer ruled by the cond law of thermodynamics,
how is it possible to generate the sort of complexity I've described,
the sort of complexity reprented by you and me and the convention center?
Well, the answer ems to be, the univer can create complexity, but with great difficulty.
In pockets, there appear what my colleague, Fred Spier, calls "Goldilocks conditions":
not too hot, not too cold, just right for the creation of complexity.
convention n. ⼤会；习俗，惯例；公约
in (one's) pocket 在 (某⼈的) 控制下，在 (某⼈的) 影响范围内；在⼝袋⾥
goldilocks /ˈɡoʊldɪlɑːks/ n. ⾦凤花
此处第六条中的 goldilocks 源于⼀名美国传统童话⾓⾊ “⾦凤花姑娘”，由于她喜欢⼀些不好不坏、不多不少的东西，所以常常被⽤来⽐喻“刚刚好” 的事物。
And slightly more complex things appear.
And where you have slightly more complex things, you can get slightly more complex things.
And in this way, complexity builds stage by stage.
Each stage is magical becau it creates the impression of something utterly new appearing almost out of nowhere in the univer.
We refer in big history to the moments as threshold moments.
And at each threshold, the going gets tougher.
The complex things get more fragile, more vulnerable;
the Goldilocks conditions get more stringent,
土木工程施工
and it's more difficult to create complexity.
炖肉怎么做
utterly adv. (表强调) 完全地，彻底地
out of nowhere 凭空出现
fragile /ˈfrædʒl/ adj. 脆弱的；易碎的 fragility /frəˈdʒɪləti/ n. 脆弱；易碎性；虚弱的状态
stringent /ˈstrɪndʒənt/ adj. (法律、规定或条件) 严格的；银根紧缩的
Now, we, as extremely complex creatures, desperately need to know this story of how the univer
creates complexity despite the cond law,
and why complexity means vulnerability and fragility.
And that's the story that we tell in big history.
But to do it, you have to do something that may, at first sight, em completely impossible.
You have to survey the whole history of the univer.
So let's do it.
Let's begin by winding the timeline back 13.7 billion years, to the beginning of time.
survey /sərˈveɪ/ v. 调查，审视，勘测，房屋鉴定 /ˈsɜːrveɪ/ n. 调查，勘测，房屋鉴定
wind back 卷回，倒回，倒 (带)，倒转回
Around us, there's nothing.
There's not even time or space.
Imagine the darkest, emptiest thing you can
网购团购网and cube it a gazillion times and that's where we are.
And then suddenly, bam! A univer appears, an entire univer. And we've crosd our first threshold.
The univer is tiny; it's smaller than an atom. It's incredibly hot.
虫儿飞谱子
It contains everything that's in today's univer, so you can imagine, it's busting.
And it's expanding at incredible speed.
cube v. 使变成原来的三次⽅；将 (⾷物) 切成⽅块 n. ⽴⽅体；⽴⽅，三次⽅
gazillion n. 极巨⼤的数量
bust v. 突然分解，突然破裂，突然受损；打破，猛烈打击，破坏；突袭 n. 突袭⾏动；半⾝像 adj. 破产的
And at first, it's just a blur, but very quickly distinct things begin to appear in that blur.
Within the first cond, energy itlf shatters into distinct forces including electromagnetism and gravity.
And energy does something el quite magical: it congeals to form matter,
quarks that'll create protons and leptons that include electrons.
And all of that happens in the first cond.
blur n. 模糊不清的轮廓，模糊不清的区域 v. (使) 变模糊
electromagnetism /ɪˌlektroʊˈmæɡnətɪzəm/ n. 电磁；电磁学
congeal v. 凝固，凝结
lepton n. 轻⼦，轻粒⼦，⼀种不参与强相互作⽤、⾃旋为 1/2 的基本粒⼦；(希腊货币单位) 雷普顿 (等同于 1/100 德拉克马)
Now we move forward 380,000 years.
That's twice as long as humans have been on this planet.
And now simple atoms appear of hydrogen and helium.
驴是什么繁殖出来的
planet n. ⾏星；地球 (尤指⽣存环境)
hydrogen /ˈhaɪdrədʒən/ n. 氢 helium /ˈhiːliəm/ n. 氦
Now I want to pau for a moment,
380,000 years after the origins of the univer, becau we actually know quite a lot about the univer at this stage.
We know above all that it was extremely simple.随性而为
It consisted of huge clouds of hydrogen and helium atoms, and they have no structure.
They're really a sort of cosmic mush.
But that's not completely true.
Recent studies by satellites such as the WMAP satellite have shown that, in fact, there are just tiny
differences in that background.
What you e here, the blue areas are about a thousandth of a degree cooler than the red areas.
The are tiny differences, but it was enough for the univer to move on to the next stage of building complexity. And this is how it works.
此处第⼀条中的 WMAP 指 Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (威尔⾦森微波各向异性探测器)，它是 NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 美国国家航空航天局) 的⼈造卫星，⽤于观测宇宙微波背景辐射的微⼩变化。
Gravity is more powerful where there's more stuff.
So where you get slightly denr areas, gravity starts compacting clouds of hydrogen and helium atoms.
So we can imagine the early univer breaking up into a billion clouds.
And each cloud is compacted, gravity gets more powerful as density increas,
the temperature begins to ri at the center of each cloud,
and then, at the center, the temperature cross the threshold temperature of 10 million degrees,
protons start to fu, there's a huge relea of energy, and -- bam! We have our first stars.
From about 200 million years after the Big Bang, stars begin to appear all through the univer, billions of them.
And the univer is now significantly more interesting and more complex.历史典故
compact v. 把 ... 紧紧压在⼀起；使紧密，使压缩，使简洁 adj. (东西) ⼩巧的；(⼈) 矮⼩结实的
break up 分开，分解，分散；分⼿；解散，散会，放假 break down 出现故障，垮掉，中⽌；失败，破裂，分解；捣毁，破除
fu v. 熔合，融合，结合 n. 导⽕线；保险丝
star n. 恒星；星星，星状物；星号；星级 v. (使) 担任主演；标注星号
Stars will create the Goldilocks conditions for crossing two new thresholds.
When very large stars die, they create temperatures so high
that protons begin to fu in all sorts of exotic combinations, to form all the elements of the periodic t
able.
If, like me, you're wearing a gold ring, it was forged in a supernova explosion.
exotic adj. 奇异的；异国的，外来的；异国情调的
forge v. 锻造；努⼒地缔造；伪造；稳步移动 n. 可以锻造的地点
So now the univer is chemically more complex.
And in a chemically more complex univer, it's possible to make more things.
And what starts happening is that, around young suns, young stars,
all the elements combine, they swirl around, the energy of the stars stirs them around,
they form particles, they form snowflakes, they form little dust motes, they form rocks,
they form asteroids, and eventually, they form planets and moons.
And that is how our solar system was formed, four and a half billion years ago.
Rocky planets like our Earth are significantly more complex than stars becau they contain a much greater diversity of materials.
So we've crosd a fourth threshold of complexity.
sun n. 恒星；太阳；阳光，⽇光，太阳的光和热 asteroid n. ⼩⾏星 moon n. ⾏星的天然卫星；⽉亮
mote n. 尘埃，微粒
梅花有关的诗句Video 3
本节共 2 ⼩节，时长 04:21。
Now, the going gets tougher.
The next stage introduces entities that are significantly more fragile, significantly more vulnerable, but they're also much more creative and much more capable of generating further complexity.
I'm talking, of cour, about living organisms.
Living organisms are created by chemistry. We are huge packages of chemicals.
So, chemistry is dominated by the electromagnetic force.
That operates over smaller scales than gravity, which explains why you and I are smaller than stars or planets.
Now, what are the ideal conditions for chemistry?
