But when you look at huge stretches of time,

但當你思索超長尺度的時間，

it’s almost impossible to wrap your head around things.

理解事物則變得近乎不可能。

So let’s start small

讓我們從小開始，

with minutes, hours, days.

由分鐘到小時，再到日。

You probably spent the last 24 hours mostly sleeping and working,

你過去的24小時很可能都用在睡覺和工作，

with some coffee in there somewhere.

間中享受一下咖啡。

Please watch less TV.

請少看一點電視。

Now let’s look at 2013: relatively unnoticed,

現在讓我們看看2013年：

Hitler’s bodyguard died at the age of 96

不很受注目地，

while in June, Edward Snowden started the NSA scandal.

希特拉的保鏢去世，終年96歲；

Moving back a bit, the 21st century is still pretty young and largely shaped

愛德華·斯諾登於六月踢爆美國國安局的監聽醜聞。

by the attacks on 9/11 that ultimately led to the third Iraq war.

再過去一點，21世紀還是相當年輕，而主導它的則是

Oh, and Facebook and smartphones took over our lives.

九一一襲擊和其引致的伊拉克戰爭。

But we’re just getting started:

Facebook和智能手機則大舉進佔我們的生活。

Let’s back up further!

但這只是開頭，讓我們再往後退！

The 20th century has seen its share of conflicts too.

20世紀也有它自己的衝突。

After two devastating World Wars,

在兩次毀滅性的世界大戰後，

the Cold War lasted for almost the whole second half of it.

20世紀的後半差不多都在冷戰中度過。

An average human lifespan covers most of this stuff

普通人的壽命也足夠長去見證這些事。

as well as the birth of the internet and the beginning of the information age.

當然還有互聯網的誕生，以及資訊時代的開始。

The oldest living person on Earth is currently Misao Okawa,

現時世上最年長的人瑞是生於1898年的大川美佐緒；

who was born in 1898, which means that her birth was closer to

這代表拿破崙統治歐洲比起今天 更接近她的出生。

Napoleon ruling Europe than to the current day.

人類的生活方式在過去500年

The last 500 years of human history

發生了翻天覆地的變化。

brought enormous changes to our lifestyles:

工業革命帶來諸如共產主義等新意念，

Industrialisation gave rise to new ideas like communism,

農民變成工人，而傳播知識變得更容易了。

farmers became workers and knowledge became easier to distribute.

進化論改變了我們對自己以至這個世界的看法。

The theory of evolution changed how we saw ourselves and the world we live in.

這都是在數百年間的事！

All in a few hundred years!

15世紀經歷了不少大事：

The 15th century was very eventful:

哥倫布「發現」新大陸和君士坦丁堡的淪陷

Columbus’s “discovery” of America and the fall of Constantinople

標誌著中世紀的結束。

mark the end of the Middle Ages.

中世紀的人熱衷於領土和宗教戰爭；

People in the Middle Ages where super into war over territory and religion

但論殺人，戰爭遠及不上黑死病：

but the Black Plague was far more efficient than war,

瘟疫在六年間就抹去了歐洲三分之一的人口。

killing every third European in six years.

讓我們在整個公元之下，再看看現代：

Arriving in the Common Era, let’s take a look where we came from!

21世紀看起來非常狹小，

Our current century is tiny, and 2013 is barely visible.

而2013年則近乎看不見。

This is recorded human history.

這就是人類信史。

The pyramids were constructed 4,500 years ago,

金字塔是在4500年前建成的；

the peak of the Roman Empire was 2,000 years ago,

2000年前，羅馬帝國正如日中天。

so to the Romans the pyramids were as old as the Romans are to us today.

所以我們看羅馬人有多久遠， 羅馬人看金字塔就有多久遠。

History starts with writing. But what happened before that?

歷史始於文字記載，但在有文字之前呢？

About 12,000 years ago, the agricultural revolution took place.

大約12000年前，農業革命發生了。

Mankind began farming, which gave rise to

人類開始耕作，促成了城市和大型社會的誕生。

the existence of cities and larger communities.

而這正是人類稱霸地球的開始。

The dominance of the human species over planet Earth really started here.

9萬年前，人類和尼安德特人在歐洲共存。

90,000 years ago, neanderthals and humans coexist in Europe.

小知識：這大概是一架現代太空船

Fun fact: this is roughly the time period a modern spacecraft

要到達最接近的恆星所需的時間。

would need to reach the nearest star.

智人，也就是現代人類，早於20萬年前進化出來。

Homo sapiens, the modern human, evolved 200,000 years ago.

看著整個人類歷史，所謂公元也顯得相當渺小。

Looking at all of human history, what we call AD seems pretty small, doesn’t it?

人類和黑猩猩的共同祖先

6,000,000 years ago, our ancestors

最後出現於600萬年前，

and the modern chimpanzee shared a common ancestor for the last time,

而石器的潮流足足持續了275萬年。

and for 2,750,000 years, stone tools were all the rage.

6500萬年前，恐龍時代結束於一場巨大的爆炸。 （*隕石很可能只是恐龍滅絕的其中一個原因）

A mere 65,000,000 years ago, the age of the dinosaurs ended in

留給哺乳類崛起的機會。

an enormous explosion, which paved the way for the rise of mammals.

但其實恐龍統治了地球一段極長的時間：

But the dinosaurs ruled the Earth for an incredibly long time:

超過1億6500萬年！

over 165,000,000 years!

這段時間長得讓一隻生活的6500萬年前的暴龍，

That’s so long that it means a T. rex that lived 65,000,000 years ago

距離一場麥莉·希拉(Miley Cyrus)的演唱會

is closer to seeing a live Miley Cirus concert

更接近於一隻劍龍！

than to seeing a live stegosaurus!

動物早於6億年前出現：

Animal life on this planet started 600,000,000 years ago:

最早的動物是魚和其他簡單的海洋生物；

the earliest animals were fish and other small simple sea creatures,

然後是昆蟲，再來是爬蟲類；

then came insects, then reptiles,

最後，大概2億年前，

and finally, around 200,000,000 years ago,

哺乳類也加入了動物界！

mammals join the party!

生命的起源則要早很多，在36億年前。

Life itself began much further back:

在動物還沒出現的24億年間，

3,600,000,000 years ago.

「生命」就意味著微生物：

Before any animals appeared, there were 2,400,000,000 years

無數的單細胞細菌。

when life consisted only of tiny microbes,

在30億年間，地球上的生物都是肉眼看不到的。

countless single-cell bacteria.

單細胞生物能夠進化為 諸如魚和樹懶等複雜生物

For 3,000,000,000 years, all life on Earth was invisible to the naked eye.

是一件很難理解的事；

It’s hard to understand how single-cell organisms

但其原因只是時間。很長的時間：

could develop into complex life forms like fish or sloths.

生命有足足24億年去用！

The answer is time, a whole lot of time:

46億年前，太陽在一場巨大爆炸的遺骸中誕生；

2,400,000,000 years is lot of time to work with!

地球則形成於6千萬年後。

4,600,000,000 years ago, the Sun was born from the remnants of a giant explosion,

年少的地球經常被彗星和隕石撞擊；這帶來了海洋，

60,000,000 years later, Earth formed.

還有一個我們可以送太空船去的月球。

In those early years, frequent bombardment by comets and asteroids

可是對比起整個宇宙，

supplied the Earth with large oceans and a moon to send spaceships to.

太陽系還算是新事物。

But as far as the whole universe goes, our Solar system is pretty new.

宇宙誕生於137億5千萬年前，

13,750,000,000 years ago, the universe was born, and

6億年後，數十億顆恆星組成了我們的銀河系。

600,000,000 years later, our own galaxy formed from billions of stars,

但在大爆炸之前呢？

but what was before the Big Bang?

事實上，我們還不知道，可能永遠也不會知道。

The truth is, we don’t know that yet, and maybe we never will.

所以這裡寫著「古怪的無時間地帶」。 （「奇異點」只是「我們沒有頭緒」的縮寫）

But we gave it some colours so at least we have that.

各位觀眾，這就是「過去」。

And there you have it:

現在看看我們對未來知道些什麼。

the past.

大約10億年後，

Now let’s take a look at what we know about the future.

太陽會變得太熱，導致地球不再適合生命；

In roughly 1,000,000,000 years,

再過40億年，太陽系會隨 太陽死亡而步向終結。

the Sun will be so hot that life on Earth becomes impossible.

OK，沒有太陽系了。

The death of the Sun 4,000,000,000 years later marks the end of the Solar system.

但之後呢？

OK, so no more Solar system.

數萬億年後，新的恆星不再誕生。

And what happens after that?

終有一日，最後一顆恆星會迎來終結。

A few trillions years from now, star production will cease

宇宙會變得黑暗，只剩下黑洞。

and one day the last star in the universe will die.

到最後一個黑洞也蒸散了，然後再過很久很久，

The universe will turn dark,

宇宙也來到其最終階段：「熱寂」。

inhabited only by black holes.

事物不會再轉變，於是

Long after the last black hole has evaporated,

宇宙

our universe reaches its final stage,

死了

something called heat death.

永遠地。

Nothing changes anymore,

你現在感覺怪怪的，覺得不是味兒，對不對？

the universe

我們也是。

is dead

這也很正常。

forever.

而好消息是：

Now you’re feeling some pretty weird feelings right now, aren’t you?

這一切都很遙遠，很遙遠。

We are too.

重要的只有當下！

It’s only natural.

你喜歡的那個女孩，

The good news is:

去約她吧！

this is all far, far away.

時間很寶貴，

The only time that actually matters is now!

要用得其所！

That cute girl you like,

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ask her out!

Time is precious,

make it count!

Subtitles by the Amara.org community