Name: 未來是否已經發生？- 時間的悖論 (Did The Future Already Happen? - The Paradox of Time)
Uploaded: 2025-05-23T07:37:59.000Z
Duration: 12 min 35 s

Do your past, present, and future all exist right now?

你的過去、現在和未來現在都存在嗎？

Are you watching this video, being born, and lying on your deathbed at this very moment?

此時此刻，你是否正在觀看這段視頻，正在出生，正在躺在病床上？

情態副詞

Surprisingly, the answer could be yes, but how can that be?

令人驚訝的是，答案可能是肯定的，但怎麼可能呢？

Imagine the universe like a child painting pictures on paper.

想象一下，宇宙就像一個在紙上畫畫的孩子。

Each picture shows everything that's happening in the universe in a single moment.

每張圖片都展示了宇宙中瞬間發生的一切。

With each new moment, all kinds of things occur everywhere.

每一個新的時刻，都會有各種各樣的事情發生。

People are born and die, galactic civilizations expand, you miss the bus, and our universe kid makes a new picture that replaces the old one.

人們出生、死亡，銀河系文明擴張，你錯過了公車，我們的宇宙孩子創造了新的圖景，取代了舊的圖景。

In this way, you get something like a movie.

這樣，你就能得到類似電影的效果。

Only the moment we're in right now is real.

只有我們現在所處的時刻才是真實的。

The past is what happened before, now it's gone.

過去是過去的事，現在已經過去了。

The future is still to come and hasn't been drawn yet.

Each moment being replaced by the next one.

每一個瞬間都被下一個瞬間所取代。

The past is far behind us, the future doesn't exist.

過去已經遠去，未來並不存在。

What if the universe kid has already finished all its drawings and stacks them on top of each other?

如果 "宇宙小孩 "已經畫完了所有的圖畫，並將它們堆疊在一起，那該怎麼辦？

This way, we get a block, a block of time that contains the whole history of the universe, all moments that have ever existed or will ever exist.

這樣，我們就得到了一個時間塊，這個時間塊包含了整個宇宙的歷史，包含了所有已經存在或將要存在的時刻。

But in this block, in this stack of moments, the past, the present, and the future are equally real and exist at the same time.

但是，在這個區塊中，在這一堆瞬間中，過去、現在和未來同樣真實，同時存在。

The only things that we perceive as real are those things happening now.

我們唯一能感知到的真實事物就是那些正在發生的事情。

How can the past and future be real right now?

現在，過去和未來怎麼可能是真實的呢？

The problem is that according to the theory of relativity, they kind of have to be.

問題是，根據相對論，它們必須如此。

Heavily simplified, relativity says that time and space are not separated, but one connected space-time.

簡單地說，相對論認為時間和空間不是分離的，而是一個相連的時空。

When you move through space, you're also moving through the block.

當你在空間中移動時，你也是在塊體中移動。

This means time passes differently for different people depending on how they move through space relative to each other.

這意味著不同的人在空間中的移動方式不同，時間的流逝也不同。

And this also means that what someone perceives as now is a certain cut along the block, a cut that will depend on how fast they're moving.

這也意味著，某人現在所感知到的是沿街區的某個切口，而這個切口將取決於他們移動的速度。

So what you think is now is really only your now.

所以，你所認為的現在，其實只是你的現在。

There are many different nows in the universe, and all of them are equally real.

宇宙中有許多不同的 "現在"，它們都同樣真實。

This also means there's no universal past or future.

這也意味著不存在普遍的過去或未來。

Imagine three alien spaceships a million light years away.

想象一下，在一百萬光年之外有三艘外星飛船。

The first one just hovers in space, not moving relative to you.

第一個只是在太空中徘徊，不會相對於你移動。

You both experience the same now, the same present.

你們都經歷著同樣的現在，同樣的現在。

If you had a magical instantaneous internet connection, you could do a video call right now and chat about alien things.

如果你們有一個神奇的即時網絡連接，你們現在就可以進行視頻通話，聊一聊外星人的事情。

The second spaceship is flying away from us at 30 kilometers a second, about three times faster than a human rocket.

第二艘飛船正以每秒 30 公里的速度飛離我們，速度大約是人類火箭的三倍。

It's moving differently through the block of time than you are, which means its now is different from yours.

它在時間塊中的移動方式與你不同，這意味著它的現在與你不同。

With the magical internet, the aliens can talk to your ancestors in 1924, when humanity was discovering the first galaxies outside the Milky Way.

有了神奇的互聯網，外星人可以和你 1924 年的祖先對話，那時人類正在發現銀河系以外的第一批星系。

The third spaceship wants to visit Earth, and is flying towards you at 30 kilometers a second, moving at the opposite angle of the second ship through the block of time.

第三艘飛船想訪問地球，正以每秒 30 公里的速度向你飛來，在時間塊中以第二艘飛船的相反角度移動。

With the magical internet, the aliens can talk to your descendants in the year 2124, when humanity has already built cities on Mars and Venus.

有了神奇的互聯網，外星人可以在 2124 年與你的後代通話，那時人類已經在火星和金星上建造了城市。

好吧，我們有三個不同的現在。

Relativity is based on one powerful principle, cosmic democracy.

相對論基於一個強大的原則，即宇宙民主。

The fact that the point of view of all observers in the universe is equally valid.

事實上，宇宙中所有觀察者的觀點都同樣有效。

所有這些 "現在 "都必須同樣真實。

But if this is the case, your past, present, and your future all have to exist at the same time, right now.

但如果是這樣的話，你的過去、現在和未來都必須同時存在，就在此時此刻。

Because for the different aliens, they all happen in their present.

因為對於不同的外星人來說，它們都發生在自己的當下。

This means that the distinction between the past, the present, and the future is an illusion.

這意味著，過去、現在和未來之間的區別只是一種幻覺。

The universe is not a bunch of things evolving through time, like in a movie, but a static block in which the past, the present, and the future all coexist and are real.

宇宙並不像電影中那樣，是一堆在時間中不斷演變的事物，而是一個靜止的塊體，在這個塊體中，過去、現在和未來都是共存的，都是真實的。

Well, think about a galaxy outside the observable universe, too far away to ever visit or see.

那麼，想想可觀測宇宙之外的星系吧，它太遙遠了，我們永遠無法訪問或看到。

But even if you can't get there and don't see it, it's still real.

但即使你無法到達那裡，看不到它，它仍然是真實的。

But if the past is not far behind us and the future actually exists, then there is no movie.

但是，如果過去並不遙遠，未來確實存在，那麼就沒有電影。

The universe just is like a frozen block of dead cosmic ice with everything that will ever happen already written and decided.

宇宙就像一塊冰凍的宇宙死冰，一切將要發生的事情都已經寫好並決定了。

If all times coexist and are equally real, then the future has to be already written.

如果所有的時代都共存，都同樣真實，那麼未來就一定是已經寫好的。

But that's not how you experience things.

It feels like you can mold your future with your decisions.

感覺你可以用自己的決定塑造未來。

It really feels like you're free to choose to stop watching YouTube to not miss the bus.

這真的讓人感覺，你可以自由選擇停止觀看 YouTube，以免錯過公車。

But if the future is set in stone, you can't decide anything.

但如果未來已成定局，你就無法決定任何事情。

也許你的自由意志只是海市蜃樓。

And maybe you missing the bus was already predetermined at the Big Bang.

也許在宇宙大爆炸時，你就已經錯過了巴士。

Except quantum stuff is ruining everything again.

只是量子的東西又在毀掉一切。

Quantum processes can't be predicted, not even in principle.

量子過程無法預測，甚至原則上也無法預測。

Not because we're silly and don't know how to do it.

不是因為我們傻，不知道怎麼做。

According to quantum physics, quantum particles are intrinsically random.

根據量子物理學，量子粒子本質上是隨機的。

For example, if you have a radioactive atom, it could decay at any moment, in the next second or in the next million years.

例如，如果你有一個放射性原子，它隨時可能衰變，可能在下一秒，也可能在下一百萬年。

We can calculate the probability that it will decay tomorrow, but no oracle in the universe will ever be able to tell you with absolute certainty if it will do so or not.

我們可以計算出它明天衰變的概率，但宇宙中沒有任何神諭能夠絕對肯定地告訴你它是否會衰變。

But quantum particles can change the world.

Imagine a radioactive element randomly decays and causes a genetic mutation in a nearby mammal.

想象一下，一種放射性元素隨機衰變，導致附近的哺乳動物發生基因突變。

And then many generations later, that mutation has led to a weird mix of duck and mammal that makes no sense.

許多代之後，這種變異導致了鴨子和哺乳動物的怪異混合，這毫無意義。

Or the atom decays a day later, and the weird creature will never exist.

或者原子在一天後衰變，這個奇怪的生物將永遠不存在。

If quantum stuff is really uncertain, the future can't be set in stone.

如果量子的東西真的不確定，那麼未來就不可能一成不變。

But if the future is an untold story, it can't be real in the same way as the past is.

但如果未來是一個不為人知的故事，它就不可能像過去那樣真實。

So what happens when uncertain things, like the decay of our atom, become real?

那麼，當不確定的事情，比如我們原子的衰變，變成現實時，會發生什麼呢？

But before we saw that cosmic democracy makes it impossible to define an absolute now, what's going on here?

但是，在我們看到宇宙民主使我們無法定義絕對的現在之前，這裡到底發生了什麼？

It turns out that for every individual object, you, an alien, an atom, the past, the present and the future are always well defined.

事實證明，對於每一個單獨的物體，無論是你、外星人還是原子，過去、現在和未來總是清晰明瞭的。

Your death will always happen after your birth, never before and never at the same time.

你的死亡總是發生在你出生之後，而不是之前，也不是同時。

Now you are clearly between your birth and your death.

現在，你顯然處於出生和死亡之間。

So for you at least, now makes perfect sense.

所以，至少對你來說，現在完全說得通了。

If we don't play tricks like going to the other side of the universe and using aliens in funny ways to find out what now means, things again start to look ordered and nice, and individual nows seem to exist.

如果我們不玩一些小把戲，比如去到宇宙的另一端，用一些有趣的方式利用外星人來找出 "現在 "的含義，事情就會重新變得有序而美好，單個的 "現在 "似乎是存在的。

Maybe the block does not contain the future, and maybe we just imagined it wrong.

也許街區並不包含未來，也許我們只是想象錯了。

Maybe the block is just the past, and a thin layer on the surface is the present.

也許這塊磚只是過去，表面的薄薄一層才是現在。

That surface is not smooth, but bumpy and uneven.

那表面並不光滑，而是凹凸不平。

It's been made by joining countless individual nows, each experienced by someone or something in the universe, each equally real and valid.

它是由無數個 "現在 "組合而成的，每個 "現在 "都由宇宙中的某人或某物經歷過，每個 "現在 "都同樣真實有效。

And all observers do their bit, so cosmic democracy is still true.

所有觀測者都在儘自己的一份力量，所以宇宙民主依然存在。