万物简史 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.

欢迎，欢迎。恭喜，恭喜。我很高兴，你居然成功了。我知道，来到这个世界很不容易。事实上，我认为比你知道的还要难一些。首先，你现在来到这个世界，几万亿个游离的原子不得不以某种方式聚集在一起，以复杂而又奇特的方式创造了你。这种安排非常专门，非常特别，过去从未有过，存在仅此一回。在此后的许多年里，(我希望)这些小粒子将任劳任怨地进行几十亿次的巧妙合作，把你保持完好，让你经历一次极其惬意而又赏心悦目的旅程，那就是生存。为什么原子这样自找麻烦，这还搞不大清楚。形成你，对原子来说并不是一件心旷神怡的事情。尽管它们如此全神贯注，组成你的原子其实对你并不在乎--实际上甚至不知道你在哪里。它们实际上也不知道自己在哪里。它们毕竟是没有头脑的粒子，连自己也没有生命。(要是你拿起一把镊子，把原子一个一个从你的身上夹下来，你就会变成一大堆细微的原子尘土，其中哪个原子也从未有过生命，而它们又都曾是你的组成部分，这是个挺有意思的想法。)然而，在你的生存期间，它们都担负着同一个任务：使你成为你。