朱迪·丹奇女爵 | 朗读《地球太空船》

Like a grand and miraculous spaceship, our planet has sailed through the universe of time; and for a brief moment we have been among it’s passengers. But where are we going? And what kind of future will we discover there?

就像一艘宏伟神奇的宇宙飞船，我们的星球在时间的宇宙中航行；在这短暂的时刻，我们已经成为它的乘客之一。但我们要去哪里？我们将在那里发现怎样的未来？

Surprisingly, the answers lie in our past. Since the dawn of recorded history, we’ve been inventing the future one step at a time. So let’s travel back in time together. I’ll show you how our ancestors created the world we know today, and then it will be your turn to create the world of tomorrow.

令人感到惊讶的是，答案就在我们的过去。自有史以来，我们一直在一步步地创造未来。因此，让我们一起穿越时空回到过去。我将向你展示我们的祖先如何创造我们今天所知的世界，然后将由你来创造明天的世界。

Here in this hostile world is where our story begins. We are alone, struggling to survive until we learn to communicate with one another. Now we can hunt as a team and survive together.

我们的故事就从这个充满敌意的世界开始。我们是孤独的，为生存而努力，直到我们学会了相互沟通。现在我们可以团体狩猎，共同生活。

It takes 15,000 years to come up with the next bright idea: recording our knowledge on cave walls. There is only one small problem, when we move, the recorded knowledge stayed behind.

我们的祖先花了1.5万年想出了一个聪明的主意：把我们的知识刻在洞壁上。这会出现一个小问题，当我们迁徙时，这些知识就被留在了身后。

Now let’s move ahead to ancient Egypt, because something is about to happen here that will change the future forever. This unknown Egyptian pounding reeds flat is inventing papyrus, a sort of paper. Papyrus in turn creates better record keeping of plans, designs and unfortunately taxes. But it also brings with it the dawn of great civilizations.

现在让我们来到古埃及，因为这里发生的事情将永远改变未来。这个不知名的埃及人把芦苇捣碎，发明了纸莎草，一种纸。纸莎草纸反过来可以更好地记录计划、设计以及很不幸的税收。但它也带来了伟大文明的曙光。

At this point each civilization has its own form of writing which none of the other’s can understand. But the Phoenicians, who trade with all of them have a solution. They create a simple common alphabet adaptable to most languages. Remember how easy it was to learn your ABC’s? Thank the Phoenicians, they invented them.

每个文明都有属于自己的特性，在这一点上有着与其他文明无法理解的书写形式。但是与他们所有人进行贸易的腓尼基人想出了一个解决方案。他们创建了一个适用于大多数语言的简单通用字母表。还记得学习ABC是多么容易吗？得感谢腓尼基人发明了字母。

The ancient Greeks were great inventors of the future. First they established public schools, and then begin teaching an intriguing new subject called mathematics. And with math comes mechanical technology and the birth of a high tech life we enjoy today.

古希腊人是未来的伟大发明家。他们首创公立学校，然后开始教授一个引人入胜的新学科——数学。而随着数学的出现，机械技术和我们今天享受的高科技生活也随之诞生。

With lessons learned from the Greeks, the Romans create a powerful empire. To move their armies around, they build a system of roads all over the known world. Rome built the first world wide web, and it’s leading us into the future.

凭借从希腊人那里学到的经验，罗马人建立了一个强大的帝国。为了让他们的军队四处活动，他们在已知的世界上修建了一个道路系统。罗马建立了第一个世界性的网络，并引领我们走向未来。

But then we hit a road block: Rome falls, and the great Library of Alexandria in Egypt is burned. Much of our learning is destroyed… lost forever… or so we think.

但后来我们遭受挫折：罗马沦陷，埃及的亚历山大图书馆被付之一炬。我们的许多书籍被毁，永远消失了......至少我们是这样认为的。

It turns out there were copies of some of these books in the libraries of the Middle East, being watched over by Arab and Jewish scholars. Call it, the first back-up system. The books are saved, and with them: our dreams of the future.

事实证明，在中东的图书馆里有这些书籍的备份，由阿拉伯和犹太学者看管。可以称之为，第一个备份系统。这些书籍被保存下来了，随之而来的是我们对未来的梦想。

In the meantime, here in Europe monks toil endlessly recording these books by hand, but that is about to change.

与此同时，欧洲的僧侣们正不眠不休地用手工抄录这些书籍，但这种情况即将改变。

In 1450, Gutenberg invents the movable type printing press. Now knowledge can travel as fast as these new books, and travel they do.

1450年，古腾堡发明了活字印刷机。现在，知识可以像这些新书一样快速传播，而它们确实传播迅速。

Books make it easier to invent the future in every field, and the result is an incredible explosion of innovation that we call the Renaissance.

书籍让人们在各个领域创造未来变得更加容易，其结果就是我们称之为文艺复兴时期，出现了令人难以置信的爆炸式的发明创造。

Books it seems were just the beginning. Now communication technology races head long into the future, and soon people all over the world are sharing life’s most important moments faster than ever before.

书籍似乎只是个开始。现在，通信技术向未来迈进了一大步，很快，全世界的人们都在以前所未有的速度分享生活中最重要的时刻。

By now, we’re all communicating from anywhere on Earth and in 1969 from somewhere else.

如今，我们可以在地球上任何地方交流，1969年（美国登月）之后，甚至可以在地球以外的地方交流。

To send a man to the moon, we had to invent a new language, spoken not by man, but by computers. At first very large, very expensive computers, but we see the potential.

为了将人类送上月球，我们不得不发明一种新的语言，这种语言的说话者不是人类，而是计算机。初代计算机体积是非常大、价格非常昂贵，但我们看到了它的潜力。

What if everyone could have one of these amazing machines in their own house? There’s just one problem: They’re as big as a house. The solution comes in of all places, a garage in California.

如果每个人都可以在自己的家里拥有这样一台神奇的机器呢？但有一个问题：它们和房子一样大。解决方案无处不在，加利福尼亚的一个车库。

Young people with a passion for shaping the future put the power of the computer in everyone’s hands. Together we form a super network that goes with billions of interactions, and once again we stand on the brink of a new Renaissance.

对塑造未来充满热情的年轻人将计算机的力量交到每个人的手中。我们共同组成了一个超级网络，与数十亿人互动，我们再一次站在了新文艺复兴的边缘。

After 30,000 years of time travel, here we are, a truly global community, poised to shape the future of this, our Spaceship Earth.

经过三万年的时间旅行，我们来到了一个真正的全球社会，准备建造我们自己的宇宙飞船，地球的未来。

For the first time in history, all of us can have a say about the kind of world we want to live in. The choices we have made for the past 30,000 years have been inventing the future one day at a time. And now, it’s your turn.

人们有史以来第一次，可以对自己想生活在什么样的世界上拥有了发言权。过去三万年来，我们所做的选择每天都在创造着未来。而现在，轮到你们了。

Let’s have some fun creating the future, shall we? On your computer screen, answer a few questions for us. Then, we’ll show you a new world, custom made just for you. Ready?

让我们享受一下创造未来的乐趣，好吗？在你的电脑屏幕上，回答我们几个问题。然后，我们将向你展示一个专门为你定制的新世界。准备好了吗？

Well done! Now along with your answers let’s add in some amazing new technology that we happen to know about.

非常好! 现在带着你的答案，加入一些我们恰好了解的惊人新技术。

And now I believe your future is just about ready. Let’s take a look, shall we?

我相信你的未来已经准备就绪了。让我们一起来看看吧。

So here’s to the next 30,000 years on Spaceship Earth. While no one knows for sure what we’ll see or do. I do know it will be quite an adventure, an adventure that we’ll take and make together. See you in the future!

这就是未来三万年的宇宙飞船地球。虽然没有人确切知道我们会看到什么或做什么，我知道这将是一场冒险，一场我们将共同完成的冒险。未来见！