Name: TED】史蒂芬-韋伯：外星人都在哪裡？(外星人都在哪裡？|Stephen Webb) (【TED】Stephen Webb: Where are all the aliens? (Where are all the aliens? | Stephen Webb))
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T07:50:45.000Z
Duration: 13 min 19 s

譯者: Lilian Chiu 審譯者: 易帆 余

playing in the street with a friend who was a couple of years older,

and we saw a featureless silver disc hovering over the houses.

和一位朋友在街上玩耍， 他比我大幾歲，

我們看到了一個毫無特色的 銀色碟形物在房子上方盤旋。

and then it shot away incredibly quickly.

接著，它以非常快的 速度瞬間飛走。

I got angry it was ignoring the laws of physics.

我很氣它竟然可以不遵守物理定律。

I was coming out of the pub after a few drinks."

I stopped him there. I said, "I can explain that sighting."

我在酒吧喝了幾杯， 當時正要離開。」

我在那時打斷他。我說： 「我能解釋你的目擊。」

Psychologists have shown we can't trust our brains

心理學家已經證明了 我們不能相信我們的大腦

or that my brain misinterpreted the data my eyes were giving it?

或是我的大腦錯誤詮釋了 我的眼睛給它的資料？

Why don't we see flying saucers flitting around?

為什麼我們不會到處看到飛碟？

why don't we see life out there in the cosmos?

為什麼我們不會看到 在宇宙中有生命？

and I've discussed it with dozens of experts

from different disciplines over the past three decades.

和數十位不同領域的專家討論過。

Frank Drake began searching for alien signals back in 1960 --

1960 年，法蘭克德雷克 就開始尋找外星人的線索——

this lack of evidence for any alien activity gets more puzzling

because we should see them, shouldn't we?

且缺乏外星人活動的證據， 讓這一切更令人迷惑不解，

因為我們應該會看見他們，對吧？

If we represent the age of the universe by one year,

then our species came into being about 12 minutes before midnight,

若我們把宇宙的年齡比喻為一年，

那麼我們這個物種大約是在 午夜前 12 分鐘才出現的，

Western civilization has existed for a few seconds.

Extraterrestrial civilizations could have started in the summer months.

外星文明可能在夏季就已經出現。

developing a level of technology more advanced than ours,

but tech based on accepted physics though,

發展出了比我們更先進的科技水平，

I'm not talking wormholes or warp drives -- whatever --

不過，我是指以已經 被接受的物理為基礎，

just an extrapolation of the sort of tech that TED celebrates.

不是指蟲洞或曲速引擎—— 諸如此類——

That civilization could program self-replicating probes

只是 TED 所頌掦的 那種科技的推斷而已。

to visit every planetary system in the galaxy.

該文明有可能可以設計出 會自我複製的探測飛船，

If they launched the first probes just after midnight one August day,

去探訪銀河系中的每一個星系。

如果他們在八月某一天的午夜之後 發射了第一艘探測飛船，

那麼在同一天的早餐時間之前，

Intergalactic colonization isn't much more difficult,

他們就已經殖民了整個銀河系。

跨銀河系的殖民並不會困難太多，

A civilization from any one of millions of galaxies

數百萬銀河系中的任何一個文明

but wouldn't aliens engage in some recognizable activity --

put worldlets around a star to capture free sunlight,

但外星人不會從事一些 可辨識的活動嗎？——

比如在一顆恆星的周圍建立 小世界來捕捉免費的陽光、

or just shout out to the universe, "We're here"?

或是對著宇宙大叫： 「我們在這裡！」

It's a puzzle because we do expect these civilizations to exist, don't we?

After all, there could be a trillion planets in the galaxy --

這是個謎，因為我們確實預期 會有這類文明存在，對吧？

畢竟，銀河系中 可能有一兆個星球——

You don't need any special knowledge to consider this question,

and I've explored it with lots of people over the years.

不需要任何特殊知識， 你也會去思考這個問題，

And I've found they often frame their thinking

這些年來，我已經和許多人 一起探索了這個問題。

in terms of the barriers that would need to be cleared

我發現，他們通常 在表述他們的想法時，

if a planet is to host a communicative civilization.

And they usually identify four key barriers.

來思考一個星球是否會有 能夠溝通的文明存在。

他們通常會去確認四項關鍵障礙。

We need a terrestrial planet in that just right "Goldilocks zone,"

我們需要有一個剛好屬於 「適居帶」的外星星球，

也就是說，水要以液體形式流動。

In 2016, astronomers confirmed there's a planet in the habitable zone

2016 年，太空人確認了 在最近的恆星適居帶上

so close that Breakthrough Starshot project plans to send probes there.

它非常近，近到「突破攝星」 計畫打算要送探測飛船過去。

Some will be too close to a star and they'll fry,

some will be too far away and they'll freeze.

有些會太靠近恆星，會被烤熟，

The basic building blocks of life aren't unique to Earth:

生命的基礎建材並非地球獨有：

complex organic molecules in interstellar dust clouds,

行星際塵雲中有複雜的有機分子，

we just don't know how they combine to create life,

and presumably there will be worlds on which life doesn't start.

我們只是不知道它們 要如何結合起來創造生命，

The development of technological civilization is a third barrier.

很有可能，這些世界的 生命跡象尚未開始。

Some say we already share our planet with alien intelligences.

第三個障礙是科技文明的發展。

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TED】史蒂芬-韋伯：外星人都在哪裡？(外星人都在哪裡？|Stephen Webb) (【TED】Stephen Webb: Where are all the aliens? (Where are all the aliens? | Stephen Webb))

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