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String theorist Brian Greene wants to help you understand the cold, cruel universe
弦理論家布萊恩·格林幫你理解這個冰冷殘酷的宇宙
By Jeffrey Kluger
文/杰弗里·克魯格
If you're feeling all dreamy about the universe, here's a pro tip: don't tell Brian Greene.
如果你癡迷于思索有關(guān)宇宙的問題，有個專業(yè)建議你不妨聽一下：不要把你的想法告訴布萊恩·格林。
That guy can chill your cosmic buzz fast.
那哥們兒分分鐘就能澆滅你的興頭。
I recently swung by the office of the Columbia University theoretical physicist full of happy, giddy questions and came away pretty much empty.
前不久，我?guī)е鴿M腦子的疑問興致勃勃地走進了哥倫比亞大學(xué)理論物理學(xué)辦公室，結(jié)果，出來的時候大腦基本已經(jīng)一片空白了！
Is there such a thing as a natural moral order? I wondered.
我在想，世界上是否存在一種自然道德秩序？
Not in this universe, there isn't.
沒有，至少我們這個宇宙沒有。
What about a purpose to the universe, then—
那……宇宙有目的么？換句話說，
the reason the whole 13.8 billion-year-old shebang with its hundreds of billions of galaxies and trillions of planets happened in the first place?
有著138億年歷史，數(shù)千億個星系和數(shù)萬億顆行星的宇宙究竟為什么會產(chǎn)生？
Nope, Greene says, no such purpose, adding, "And that's O.K."
沒有，格林說，宇宙并不存在這種目的，他接著說道，“但也不妨事。”
Maybe for him it is.
或許，是對他來說不妨事。
Surely, though, Greene will grant the existence of free will—that first item on the wish list of every freshman-year philosophy student who ever lived.
盡管如此，格林還是會認可自由意志——有史以來的每個哲學(xué)一年級學(xué)生愿望清單上的第一條都是自由意志——的存在的吧？
Sorry, not a chance.
抱歉，想都別想。
"Your particles are just obeying their quantum-mechanical marching orders," Greene says.
“粒子只是在遵循量子力學(xué)的運動命令而已，”格林說。
"You have no ability to intercede in that quantum-mechanical unfolding.
“人是無法介入量子力學(xué)環(huán)境的。
None whatsoever."
沒戲。”
But here's the thing about Greene, founder of the World Science Festival; host of multiple TV series on PBS;
不過，說到格林——世界科學(xué)節(jié)創(chuàng)始人，PBS電視臺多檔節(jié)目的主持人，
and the author of five books, including the blockbuster The Elegant Universe and the just- released Until the End of Time:
還是五本書的作者，包括大火的《優(yōu)雅的宇宙》和剛剛發(fā)行的《直到時間盡頭》，有一點你得知道：
he says it all with such ebullience, such ingenuous enthusiasm,
他回答這些問題的時候回答得那么興致高昂，那么熱忱，
that if he told you the whole cold, amoral universe was ending tomorrow, you'd roll with it the way he would—
即便他說這個冰冷無情的宇宙明天就會終結(jié)，你也會買賬，會像他一樣認為這事不過是
as just one more dramatic chapter in an extraordinary tale in which we all have a precious if fleeting role.
一個不同凡響的故事中的又一個充滿戲劇性的篇章而已，而我們所有人在其中都扮演了一個匆匆照面卻又頗為寶貴的角色。
That's not to say everyone embraces his cosmic view so easily.
但這并不意味著所有人都能這么輕松地接受他的宇宙觀。
"I'll be frank," Greene says.
“老實說，”格林說。
"I have some students come in crying. And they say, 'This is kind of shaking my world up,'
“我有一些學(xué)生曾經(jīng)哭著跑來跟我說，‘我感覺我心態(tài)都崩了，’
and I say to them, 'That's not a bad thing. It's fine to have your world shook.
我跟他們說，‘沒啥大不了的。 偶爾崩一崩沒啥。
The pieces may fall back in the end to where you were, and they may not.'"
最終，（崩掉的）那些碎片可能還是會回到原來的位置，也可能不會。’”
On the day I saw him, the man who has made himself the master of some of the most abstruse aspects of physics—
見到他那天，原本已經(jīng)在物理學(xué)最深奧的領(lǐng)域——超弦理論，空間地貌學(xué)——頗有建樹的他
superstring theory, spatial topography —was instead being mastered by one of the more basic ones: gravity.
竟突然迷上了物理學(xué)的基礎(chǔ)領(lǐng)域——重力。
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