TED演讲:宏观历史(1)(在线收听

   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. 首先,来段录像。对,这是个被搅拌的鸡蛋。但是,当你看它的时候,我希望你能开始感受到有一点点的怪异。

  Because you may notice that what's actually happening is that the egg is unscrambling itself. 因为你可能注意到了正在发生的是这个鸡蛋搅拌的反序过程。
  And you'll now see the yolk and the white have separated. And now they're going to be poured back into the egg. 并且你可以看到蛋黄和蛋白分开了。现在它们将返回到蛋壳中。
  And we all know in our heart of hearts that this is not the way the universe works. 并且我们内心深处都知道这不是宇宙的运行方式。
  A scrambled egg is mush -- tasty mush -- but it's mush. 一个被搅拌的鸡蛋是糊状的,好吃的糊状,但是它是糊状的。
  An egg is a beautiful, sophisticated thing that can create even more sophisticated things, such as chickens. 鸡蛋是一个美丽而复杂的东西,它能创造出更加复杂的东西,比如说小鸡。
  And we know in our heart of hearts that the universe does not travel from mush to complexity. 并且我们内心深处知道宇宙形成并不仅仅是从混沌到复杂的跨度。
  In fact, this gut instinct is reflected in one of the most fundamental laws of physics, 实际上,这宇宙形成感觉上是受一种最基本的物理学原理的影响,
  the second law of thermodynamics, or the law of entropy. 热力学第二定律,又称熵定律。
  What that says basically is that the general tendency of the universe is to move from order and structure 它主要阐述了宇宙的总体趋势是从有序的、有架构的
  to lack of order, lack of structure -- in fact, to mush. And that's why that video feels a bit strange. 到无序的,无架构的,事实上,是混沌的。这也是为什么这段录像感觉有一点点奇怪。
  And yet, look around us. What we see around us is staggering complexity. 然而,看看我们周遭。我们周遭所见的是那么惊人的复杂。
  Eric Beinhocker estimates that in New York City alone, there are some 10 billion SKUs, or distinct commodities, being traded. 艾瑞克·比因霍克估计光纽约一个城市就有100亿的不同货物正在被交易。
  That's hundreds of times as many species as there are on Earth. 这比现存于地球上的物种数量要多成百倍。
  And they're being traded by a species of almost seven billion individuals, 而他们是由一个数量接近70亿的物种个体进行交易,
  who are linked by trade, travel, and the Internet into a global system of stupendous complexity. 这些个体通过交易、旅行、互联网关联到一个极其庞大复杂的全球体系。
  原文地址:http://www.tingroom.com/lesson/TEDyj/jyp/455344.html