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For most of that time of life on Earth, living organisms have been relatively simple -- single cells.
地球的大多數(shù)時間，生物體多是以簡單的單細(xì)胞存在的。
But they had great diversity, and, inside, great complexity.
但是它們是十分多樣的，而且，內(nèi)部結(jié)構(gòu)極其復(fù)雜。
Then from about 600 to 800 million years ago, multi-celled organisms appear.
然后6億年到8億年之前，多細(xì)胞生物出現(xiàn)。
You get fungi, you get fish, you get plants, you get amphibia, you get reptiles, and then, of course, you get the dinosaurs.
你會發(fā)現(xiàn)菌類，魚，植物，兩棲類，爬行類，然后，當(dāng)然，你會發(fā)現(xiàn)恐龍。
And occasionally, there are disasters. Sixty-five million years ago, an asteroid landed on Earth near the Yucatan Peninsula,
接著，偶然間，發(fā)生了災(zāi)難。6500萬年之前，一顆隕石撞擊地球，在猶卡坦半島附近，
creating conditions equivalent to those of a nuclear war, and the dinosaurs were wiped out.
引發(fā)的情況相當(dāng)于一場核戰(zhàn)爭，恐龍就被徹底滅絕了。
Terrible news for the dinosaurs, but great news for our mammalian ancestors, who flourished in the niches left empty by the dinosaurs.
對于恐龍來說是可怕的消息。但是對于在恐龍遺留下的空曠之地蓬勃發(fā)展的哺乳類祖先來說，這是好消息。
And we human beings are part of that creative evolutionary pulse that began 65 million years ago with the landing of an asteroid.
我們?nèi)祟惥褪沁@次始于6500萬年前隨著隕石撞擊后，生物進(jìn)化狂潮的一部分。
Humans appeared about 200,000 years ago. And I believe we count as a threshold in this great story. Let me explain why.
人類起源于20萬年前。我相信人類發(fā)展就是宇宙進(jìn)化的一個階段。讓我解釋一下為什么。
We've seen that DNA learns in a sense, it accumulates information. But it is so slow.
我們已經(jīng)看到DNA某種意義上的進(jìn)化，它積累信息。但是這十分緩慢。
DNA accumulates information through random errors, some of which just happen to work.
DNA累積信息伴隨著隨機(jī)的差錯，有些差錯也可以運(yùn)作。
But DNA had actually generated a faster way of learning:
但是DNA已經(jīng)發(fā)展成一種更快的進(jìn)化方式；
it had produced organisms with brains, and those organisms can learn in real time.
它產(chǎn)生了有大腦的生物，那些生物能及時的進(jìn)化。
They accumulate information, they learn. The sad thing is, when they die, the information dies with them.
它們積累信息，它們進(jìn)化。但是遺憾的是，當(dāng)它們死亡，信息也隨著它們死亡。
Now what makes humans different is human language. We are blessed with a language, a system of communication,
讓人類特別的是人類的語言。我們有幸能有語言，一種交流方式，
so powerful and so precise that we can share what we've learned with such precision that it can accumulate in the collective memory.
如此的強(qiáng)大和準(zhǔn)確，以至于我們可以準(zhǔn)確的分享我們學(xué)到的事，它就積累成為集體記憶。
And that means it can outlast the individuals who learned that information, and it can accumulate from generation to generation.
這就意味著它能比學(xué)到信息的個體存在的更長久，而且它也能一代一代的積累。
And that's why, as a species, we're so creative and so powerful, and that's why we have a history.
這就是為什么，作為一個物種，我們?nèi)绱说挠袆?chuàng)造力，如此強(qiáng)大，這就是為什么我們有歷史。
We seem to be the only species in four billion years to have this gift.
我們似乎是在40億年中唯一的擁有這種天賦的生物。
