Unit 2 On our place in the cosmos. David Deutsch

URL:http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/david_deutsch_on_our_place_in_the_cosmos.html

Nowadays the idea of Spaceship Earth has a dramatic ring.And the idea there is that outside the spaceship,the universe is implacably hostile, and inside is all we have, all we depend on. And we only get the one chance: if we mess up our spaceship, we've got nowhere else to go.Now, the second thing that everyone already knows is thatcontrary to what was believed for most of human history,human beings are not, in fact, the hub of existence. As Stephen Hawking famously said, we're just a chemical scum on the surface of a typical planet that's in orbit around a typical star, which is on the outskirts of a typical galaxy, and so on.

Неумолимо; враждебный; испортить; центр; пена; существование; окраина.

Now the first of those two things that everyone knows is kind of saying that we're at a very un-typical place, uniquely suited and so on, andthe second one is saying that we're at a typical place.And especially if you regard these two as deep truths to live by and to inform your life decisions,then they seem a little bit to conflict with each other.But that doesn't prevent them from both being completely false.

Рассматривать; предотвращать; мешать.

So let's go out further, till we're outside the galaxy, and look back,and yeah, there's the huge galaxy with spiral arms laid out in front of us. And at this point we've come 100,000 light years from here.But we're still nowhere near a typical place in the universe.

And yet from intergalactic space, it's so far away you wouldn't even see it. It's also very cold out there – less than three degrees above absolute zero. And it's very empty. The vacuum there is one million times less dense than the highest vacuum that our best technology on Earth can currentlycreate. So that's how different a typical place is from this place.And that is how un-typical this place is.

Густой; плотный.

Now how do we know about an environment that's so far away, and so different, and so alien, from anything we're used to? Well, the Earth – our environment, in the form of us – is creating knowledge. Well, what does that mean? Well, look out even further than we've just been – I mean from here, with a telescope – and you'll see things that look like stars. They're called «quasars.» Quasars originally meant quasi-stellar object. Which means things that look a bit like stars. But they're not stars.And we know what they are. Billions of years ago, and billions of light years away, the material at the center of a galaxy collapsed towards a super-massive black hole.And then intense magnetic fields directed some of the energy ofthat gravitational collapse. And some of the matter, back out in the form of tremendous jets which illuminated lobes with the brilliance of – I think of trillion suns.

Чужой, чуждый; привыкнуть; рухнуть; огромный; доля; струя.

Now, the physics of the human brain could hardly be more unlike the physics of such a jet. We couldn't survive for an instant in it. Language breaks down when trying to describe what it would be like in one of those jets.It would be a bit like experiencing a supernova explosion,but at point-blank range and for millions of years at a time. And yet, that jet happened in precisely such a way that billions of years later,on the other side of the universe, some bit of chemical scum could accurately describe,and model, and predict, and explain, above all – there's your reference – what was happening there, in reality.The one physical system, the brain,contains an accurate working model of the other – the quasar.Not just a superficial image of it, though it contains that as well, but an explanatory model, embodying the same mathematical relationships and the same causal structure.

Едва, почти не; диапазон, размах; предсказывать; воплощать.

So we are a chemical scum that is different. This chemical scum has universality.Its structure contains, with ever-increasing precision, the structure of everything. This place, and not other places in the universe,is a hub which contains within itself the structural and causal essence of thewhole of the rest of physical reality. And so, far from being insignificant, the fact that the laws of physics allow this, or even mandate that this can happen, is one of the most important things about the physical world.

Точность; поручать, передавать.

Now how does the solar system – and our environment, in the form of us – acquire this special relationship with the rest of the universe? Well, one thing that's true about Stephen Hawking's remark – I mean, it is true, but it's the wrong emphasis. One thing that's true about it is thatit doesn't do it with any special physics. There's no special dispensation, no miracles involved. It does it simply with three things that we have here in abundance. One of them is matter, because the growth of knowledge is a form of information processing. Information processing is computation, computation requires a computer – there's no known way of making a computer without matter.We also need energy to make the computer, and most important,to make the media in effect onto which we record the knowledge that we discover.

Приобретать; распределение.

Our location is saturated with evidence, and also with matter and energy. Out in intergalactic space, those three prerequisites for the open-ended creation of knowledge are at their lowest possible supply. As I said, it's empty; it's cold; and it's dark out there. Or is it? Now actually, that's just anotherparochial misconception. Because imagine a cube out there in intergalactic space, the same size asour home, the solar system. Now that cube is very empty by human standards,but that still means that it contains over a million tons of matter.And a million tons is enough to make, say, a self-contained space station,on which there's a colony of scientists that are devoted to creating an open-ended stream of knowledge, and so on.

Насыщать; предпосылка; узкий, ограниченный; преданный.

Now, it's way beyond present technology to even gather the hydrogen from intergalactic space and form it into other elements and so on.But the thing is, in a comprehensible universe,if something isn't forbidden by the laws of physics, then what could possibly prevent us from doing it, other than knowing how?In other words, it's a matter of knowledge, not resources. And the same – well, if we could do that we'd automatically have an energy supply, because the transmutation would be a fusion reactor – and evidence?

Превращение; слияние, сращивание, сплав.

So in fact, intergalactic space does contain all the prerequisites for the open-endedcreation of knowledge. Any such cube, anywhere in the universe,could become the same kind of hub that we are, if the knowledge of how to do so were present there. So we're not in a uniquely hospitable place. If intergalactic space is capable of creating an open-ended stream of explanations, then so is almost every other environment. So is the Earth. So is a polluted Earth.And the limiting factor, there and here, is not resources, because they're plentiful, but knowledge, which is scarce.

Гостеприимный; способный; изобильный; редкий.

Now this cosmic knowledge-based view may – and I think ought to – make us feel very special. But it should also make us feel vulnerable, because it means that without the specific knowledge that's needed to survive the ongoing challenges of the universe, we won't survive them. All it takes is for a supernova to go off a few light years away, and we'll all be dead!

Уязвимый.

But it depends not on chance, but on whether we create the relevant knowledge in time.The danger is not at all unprecedented. Species go extinct all the time. Civilizations end. The overwhelming majority of all species and all civilizations that have ever existed are now history.And if we want to be the exception to that, then logically our only hopeis to make use of the one feature that distinguishes our species,and our civilization, from all the others – namely, our special relationship with the laws of physics, our ability to create new explanations, new knowledge – to be a hub of existence.

Вымирающий; подавляющий.

So let me now apply this to a current controversy, not because I want to advocate any particular solution, but just to illustrate the kind of thing I mean. And the controversy is global warming.Now, I'm a physicist, but I'm not the right kind of physicist. In regard to global warming, I'm just a layman. And the rational thing for a layman to do is to take seriouslythe prevailing scientific theory. And according to that theory,it's already too late to avoid a disaster. Because if it's true that our best option at the moment is to prevent CO2 emissions with something like the Kyoto Protocol, with its constraints on economic activity and its enormous cost of hundreds of billions of dollars or whatever it is, then that is already a disaster by any reasonable measure. And the actions that are advocated are not even purported to solve the problem, merely to postpone it by a little. So it's already too late to avoid it, and it probably has been too late to avoid it ever since before anyone realized the danger.

Преобладающий; ограничения; катастрофа; предназначать; откладывать.

Now the lesson of that seems clear to me, and I don't know why it isn't informing public debate.It is that we can't always know. When we know of an impending disaster, and how to solve it at a cost less than the cost of the disaster itself,then there's not going to be much argument, really. But no precautions, and no precautionary principle, can avoid problems that we do not yet foresee.Hence, we need a stance of problem-fixing, not just problem-avoidance.

Надвигающийся; меры предосторожности; позиция; (от глаг.) избегать.

If medical science stopped seeking cures and concentrated on prevention only, then it would achieve very little of either. The world is buzzing at the moment with plans to force reductions in gas emissions at all costs.It ought to be buzzing with plans to reduce the temperature,and with plans to live at the higher temperature – and not at all costs, but efficiently and cheaply. And some such plans exist, things like swarms of mirrors in space to deflect the sunlight away, and encouraging aquatic organisms to eat more carbon dioxide. At the moment, these things are fringe research. They're not central to the human effort to face this problem, or problems in general. And with problems that we are not aware of yet, the ability to put right – not the sheer good luck of avoiding indefinitely – is our only hope,not just of solving problems, but of survival.So take two stone tablets, and carve on them. On one of them, carve: «Problems are soluble.» And on the other one carve: «Problems are inevitable.»

Сокращение; множество; заставить, менять направление; подталкивать, способствовать; вырезать; периферийный; неизбежный.