萬物簡史 第1期:引言(1)

Welcome. And congratulations. I am delighted that you could make it. Getting here wasn'teasy, I know. To begin with, for you to be here now trillions of drifting atoms had somehow toassemble in an intricate and intriguingly obliging manner to create you. It's an arrangementso specialized and particular that it has never been tried before and will only exist this once.Why atoms take this trouble is a bit of a puzzle. Being you is not a gratifying experience at theatomic level. They don't even know that they are there. They are mindless particles, after all,and not even themselves alive. Yet somehow for the period of your existence they will answer toa single overarching impulse: to keep you. In fact, I suspect it was a little tougher than yourealize.For the next many years, we hope, these tiny particles will uncomplainingly engage inall the billions of deft, cooperative efforts necessary to keep you intact and let you experiencethe supremely agreeable but generally underappreciated state known as existence. For all theirdevoted attention, your atoms don't actually care about you - indeed, don't even know thatyou are there. It is a slightly arresting notion that if you were to pick yourself apart withtweezers, one atom at a time, you would produce a mound of fine atomic dust, none of whichhad ever been alive but all of which had once been you.

歡迎，歡迎。恭喜，恭喜。我很高興，你居然成功了。我知道，來到這個世界很不容易。事實上，我認(rèn)為比你知道的還要難一些。首先，你現(xiàn)在來到這個世界，幾萬億個游離的原子不得不以某種方式聚集在一起，以復(fù)雜而又奇特的方式創(chuàng)造了你。這種安排非常專門，非常特別，過去從未有過，存在僅此一回。在此后的許多年里，(我希望)這些小粒子將任勞任怨地進(jìn)行幾十億次的巧妙合作，把你保持完好，讓你經(jīng)歷一次極其愜意而又賞心悅目的旅程，那就是生存。為什么原子這樣自找麻煩，這還搞不大清楚。形成你，對原子來說并不是一件心曠神怡的事情。盡管它們?nèi)绱巳褙炞?，組成你的原子其實對你并不在乎--實際上甚至不知道你在哪里。它們實際上也不知道自己在哪里。它們畢竟是沒有頭腦的粒子，連自己也沒有生命。(要是你拿起一把鑷子，把原子一個一個從你的身上夾下來，你就會變成一大堆細(xì)微的原子塵土，其中哪個原子也從未有過生命，而它們又都曾是你的組成部分，這是個挺有意思的想法。)然而，在你的生存期間，它們都擔(dān)負(fù)著同一個任務(wù)：使你成為你。