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AlexMacDonald_2017X-_科幻小说是如何激励我们登上月球的_
I want to tell you a story about stories. 今天我想讲一个关于小说的故事。
And I want to tell you this story because I think we need to remember that sometimes the stories we tell each other are more than just tales or entertainment or narratives . 我之所以想分享这个故事 是因为我认为我们需要记住, 有时我们向别人讲述的故事 并不仅仅是传说,或只为博君一笑 或为了记叙的故事。
narratives:n.叙述,故事;叙述的手法(narrative复数);
They're also vehicles for sowing inspiration and ideas across our societies and across time. 它们也承载着 我们传播跨越社会和 时间的奇思妙想。
vehicles:n.车辆;飞行器;运行工具;(vehicles是vehicle的复数) sowing:n.播种;v.播种(sow的现在分词);
The story I'm about to tell you is about how one of the most advanced technological achievements of the modern era has its roots in stories, and how some of the most important transformations yet to come might also. 今天我讲的故事 是关于一个现代的 最高先进的科技成就 是如何起源于一个小说故事, 以及一些最重要的,还未发生 的变革为何也是如此。
advanced:adj.先进的; v.前进; (advance的过去式和过去分词形式) technological:adj.技术[工程](上)的;因工艺技术高度发展而引起的; transformations:n.[晶体]转变(transformation的复数形式);转换;
The story begins over 300 years ago, when Galileo Galilei first learned of the recent Dutch invention that took two pieces of shaped glass and put them in a long tube and thereby extended human sight farther than ever before. 这个故事发生在三百多年前, 在伽利略初次了解到一个 当时最新的荷兰发明的时候, 这个发明是将两片打磨过的玻璃 放入一个长管道里, 并且从此将人类视野 延伸到从未有过的远度。
Dutch:adj.荷兰的; n.荷兰人; v.费用平摊地; thereby:adv.从而,因此;在那附近;在那方面; extended:adj.延长了的;扩展了的;v.使伸长;扩大;扩展;(extend的过去式和过去分词)
When Galileo turned his new telescope to the heavens and to the Moon in particular , he discovered something incredible . 当伽利略将他新发明的望远镜对向天际 并且特别对准月亮时, 他得到了惊人的发现。
telescope:n.望远镜;v.(使)叠套缩短;精简; in particular:尤其,特别; incredible:adj.难以置信的,惊人的;
These are pages from Galileo's book "Sidereus Nuncius," published in 1610. 这些内容来源于伽利略 1610年出版的《星际信使》。
And in them, he revealed to the world what he had discovered. 他在这本书里向世界揭示了他的发现。
revealed:v.揭示;显示;露出;(reveal的过去分词和过去式)
And what he discovered was that the Moon was not just a celestial object wandering across the night sky, but rather, it was a world, a world with high, sunlit mountains and dark " mare ," the Latin word for seas. 他发现月球不仅仅是一个 在夜空中游荡的天体, 而是一个 拥有阳光照射的高山 以深邃的“海洋 的世界。
celestial:adj.天上的,天空的;n.神仙,天堂里的居民; sunlit:adj.阳光照射的;被日光照射了的; mare:n.母马;母驴;月球表面阴暗部; Latin:adj.拉丁语的;用拉丁语写成的;n.拉丁语;
And once this new world and the Moon had been discovered, people immediately began to think about how to travel there. 这个新世界和月亮的大门一旦开启, 人们立即开始思考如何到月球旅行。
And just as importantly, they began to write stories about how that might happen and what those voyages might be like. 同样重要的是, 他们开始着手撰写关于 如何实现月球旅行 以及航行细节的小说故事。
voyages:n.[水运]航海(voyage的复数); v.航行;
One of the first people to do so was actually the Bishop of Hereford, a man named Francis Godwin. 实际上赫里福德主教是最早一批 开始做这些事的人之一, 他的真实名字是弗朗西斯·戈德温。
Bishop:n.主教;象;
Godwin wrote a story about a Spanish explorer , 戈德温写了一个关于西班牙探险家
explorer:n.探险者;勘探者;考察者;
Domingo Gonsales, who ended up marooned on the island of St. Helena in the middle of the Atlantic , and there, in an effort to get home, developed a machine, an invention, to harness the power of the local wild geese to allow him to fly -- and eventually to embark on a voyage to the Moon. 多明戈·冈萨雷斯的故事, 他被困在大西洋中间 一个叫做圣赫勒拿的岛上, 而他为了回到家乡, 发明了一个机器, 这个机器可以驾驭当地的野生大雁 载着他飞行—— 并最终开启了一段前往月球的行程。
marooned:adj.陷于孤立无援困境的; Atlantic:adj.大西洋的;巨人阿特拉斯的;n.大西洋; harness:vt.治理; n.马具; eventually:adv.最后,终于; embark:vi.从事,着手;上船或飞机;vt.使从事;使上船;
Godwin's book, "The Man in the Moone, or a Discourse of a Voyage Thither ," 戈德温写的《月中人或论月球之旅》
Discourse:n.论述;谈话;演讲;vi.演说;谈论;讲述;vt.说出;演奏出; Thither:adv.向那方;到那边;adj.对岸的;那边的;
was only published posthumously and anonymously in 1638, likely on account of the number of controversial ideas that it contained, including an endorsement of the Copernican view of the universe 在他死后的1638年才被匿名的出版, 这极有可能是因为书中 包含着饱受争议的观点, 包括对哥白尼日心说
posthumously:adv.于死后,于身后;于著作者死后出版地; anonymously:adv.不具名地;化名地; on account of:由于;因为;为了…的缘故; controversial:adj.有争议的;有争论的; endorsement:n.赞同,支持,认可;宣传,代言;违章记录; Copernican:adj.哥白尼的;哥白尼学说的;
that put the Sun at the center of the Solar System , as well as a pre-Newtonian concept of gravity that had the idea that the weight of an object would decrease with increasing distance from Earth. 宇宙观的支持, 以及在牛顿之前提出的万有引力概念, 即一个物体的重量 随着与地球距离增加而减少。
Solar System:[天]太阳系; as well as:也;和…一样;不但…而且; decrease:v.降低;减少;缩小;减弱;n.减少;减小量;所减少的总量;减缩位置;
And that's to say nothing of his idea of a goose machine that could go to the Moon. 他的大雁机器想法也就是说说而已, 肯定是无法到月球的。
say nothing of:更不用说;更别提;
(Laughter) （观众笑）
And while this idea of a voyage to the Moon by goose machine might not seem particularly insightful or technically creative to us today, what's important is that Godwin described getting to the Moon not by a dream or by magic, as Johannes Kepler had written about, but rather, through human invention. 尽管这个利用大雁机器 飞向月球的想法 在今天看来并无远见, 技术上也没有创意, 但重要的是戈德温描述的 不是通过做梦或 像开普勒写的那样通过魔法实现登月, 而是通过人类发明实现。
particularly:adv.特别地,独特地;详细地,具体地;明确地,细致地; insightful:adj.有深刻见解的,富有洞察力的; creative:adj.创造性的; described:v.描述;形容;把…称为;做…运动;(describe的过去分词和过去式) Johannes:n.葡萄牙18,19世纪的金币; Kepler:na.Kepler;
And it was this idea that we could build machines that could travel into the heavens, that would plant its seed in minds across the generations. 正是我们能够建造 可以遨游天际的机器 这一思想在世世代代的人心中 播下了种子。
The idea was next taken up by his contemporary , John Wilkins, then just a young student at Oxford, but later, one of the founders of the Royal Society. 接着,同时代的约翰·威尔金斯 继承了戈德温的思想, 当时他只是一名来自 牛津大学的年轻学生, 但后来,他成为了 英国皇家学会的创始人之一。
contemporary:n.同时代的人;同时期的东西;adj.当代的;同时代的;属于同一时期的; founders:n.创办人;造物者(founder的复数); Royal:adj.国王的;女王的;皇家的;n.王室成员;
John Wilkins took the idea of space travel in Godwin's text seriously and wrote not just another story but a nonfiction philosophical treatise , entitled , "Discovery of the New World in the Moon, or, a Discourse Tending to Prove that 'tis Probable There May Be Another Habitable World in that Planet." 约翰·威尔金斯认真汲取了 戈德温书中太空旅行的观点, 并在此基础上完成了另一个故事。 这是一篇非虚构类哲学类专著, 题目是《新世界的发现 或一种倾向于证明 那颗行星上可能有个 可居住的世界的论述》。
nonfiction:n.非小说的散文文学; philosophical:adj.哲学的(等于philosophic);冷静的; treatise:n.论述;论文;专著; entitled:v.使享有权利;使符合资格;给…命名;(entitle的过去分词和过去式) Probable:adj.很可能的;可信的;n.很可能的事;大有希望的候选者; Habitable:adj.可居住的;适于居住的;
And note, by the way , that word "habitable." 注意“可居住“这个词。
by the way:顺便说一下;
That idea in itself would have been a powerful incentive for people thinking about how to build machines that could go there. 这个想法本身就能强烈激励 人们思考怎样建造通往那里的机器。
incentive:n.动机;刺激;adj.激励的;刺激的;
In his books, Wilkins seriously considered a number of technical methods for spaceflight , and it remains to this day the earliest known nonfiction account of how we might travel to the Moon. 在书中,威尔金斯严谨地 考虑了几种太空飞行的 技术方法, 这是已知最早的非虚构类的 关于我们如何登月的说明。
technical:adj.工艺的,科技的;技术上的;专门的; spaceflight:n.航天;宇宙飞行; to this day:至今;
Other stories would soon follow, most notably by Cyrano de Bergerac, with his " Lunar Tales." 其他故事接踵而至,最有名的 是西拉诺·德·贝尔热拉克的 《月球传说》。
notably:adv.显著地;尤其; Lunar:adj.月亮的,月球的;阴历的;银的;微亮的;
By the mid-17th century, the idea of people building machines that could travel to the heavens was growing in complexity and technical nuance . 到17世纪中期,人们建机器 飞向太空的想法 逐渐趋于复杂和技术差异化。
complexity:n.复杂性;难以理解的局势 nuance:n.细微差别;
And yet, in the late 17th century, this intellectual progress effectively ceased . 但在十七世纪晚期, 这项智力上的进步实际上停止了。
intellectual:n.知识分子;脑力劳动者;adj.智力的;脑力的;理智的;有才智的; ceased:v.停止(cease的过去式及过去分词形式);中止;中断;
People still told stories about getting to the Moon, but they relied on the old ideas or, once again, on dreams or on magic. 人们虽然依旧讲述着 去往月亮的故事, 但他们依赖着过去的想法, 或是再一次依赖于梦或是魔法。
relied:v.依赖;依靠;信赖;信任;(rely的过去分词和过去式)
Why? 为什么？
Well, because the discovery of the laws of gravity by Newton and the invention of the vacuum pump by Robert Hooke and Robert Boyle meant that people now understood 因为牛顿发现的万有引力定律 以及罗伯特·胡克与 罗伯特·波伊尔发明的真空泵 意味着人们现在认识到
Newton:n.牛顿(英国科学家);牛顿(力的单位); vacuum:n.真空; adj.真空的; v.用真空吸尘器清扫; pump:n.抽水机;泵;打气筒;v.用泵输送;涌出;奔流;快速摇动; Boyle:n.波义耳(17世纪英国物理学家,化学家);
that a condition of vacuum existed between the planets, and consequentially between the Earth and the Moon. 星球之间存在真空环境, 因此推断地球与月球 之间也是如此。
consequentially:adv.必然地;
And they had no way of overcoming this, no way of thinking about overcoming this. 他们没有克服的方法, 也没有思考如何克服。
overcoming:v.克服;解决;战胜;(overcome的现在分词)
And so, for well over a century, the idea of a voyage to the Moon made very little intellectual progress until the rise of the Industrial Revolution and the development of steam engines and boilers and most importantly , pressure vessels . 一个多世纪过去了, 登月想法实质上只有细微的进展。 这种情况持续到工业革命兴起。 蒸汽机和锅炉的发展, 最重要的是压力容器的发明。
Industrial Revolution:n.工业革命; boilers:n.[动力]锅炉(boiler的复数); and most importantly:最主要的是…; vessels:n.血管(vessel的复数);船舶;容器;
And these gave people the tools to think about how they could build a capsule that could resist the vacuum of space. 这赋予人们工具来建造 能抵御真空宇宙的太空舱。
capsule:n.太空舱;荚;航天舱;(装药物的)胶囊;adj.简略的;小而结实的;v.节略; resist:v.抵制;阻挡;反抗;回击;抵抗;忍住;n.防染剂;防蚀用涂料;防腐剂;
So it was in this context , in 1835, that the next great story of spaceflight was written, by Edgar Allan Poe. 在这一背景下,1835年, 下一个宇宙航行的故事 被爱伦·坡所写。
context:n.环境;上下文;来龙去脉;
Now, today we think of Poe in terms of gothic poems and telltale hearts and ravens . 如今,我们提到爱伦·坡, 就会想到哥特诗、 短篇小说《泄密的心》 以及诗歌《乌鸦》,
gothic:adj.哥特式的;野蛮的;n.哥特式; telltale:adj.报警的;泄密的;搬弄是非的;n.迹象;指示器;搬弄是非者; ravens:n.乌鸦(raven的复数);低质煤;
But he considered himself a technical thinker. 但是他认为自己是一个技术思想家。
He grew up in Baltimore , the first American city with gas street lighting, and he was fascinated by the technological revolution that he saw going on all around him. 他在巴尔的摩长大, 一个最早拥有燃气路灯的美国城市, 他被在他周围发生的 技术革命所吸引。
Baltimore:n.巴尔的摩(美国一座港市);
He considered his own greatest work not to be one of his gothic tales but rather his epic prose poem " Eureka ," 他认为自己的最大成就 不是他的哥特诗, 而是他史诗般的散文诗歌《我发现了》。
epic:adj.史诗的,叙事诗的;n.史诗;叙事诗;史诗般的作品; prose poem:n.散文诗; Eureka:int.有了！;找到了！;
in which he expounded his own personal view of the cosmographical nature of the universe. 他详述了自己关于 宇宙的结构本质的个人观点。
expounded:v.阐述;说明;解释(经典);详细说明(理论);(expounded是expound的过去分词) personal:adj.个人的;身体的;亲自的;n.人事消息栏;人称代名词; cosmographical:adj.宇宙志的;
In his stories, he would describe in fantastical technical detail machines and contraptions , and nowhere was he more influential in this than in his short story , "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall." 他在故事中详细描述了空想的 机器装置技术, 在这方面,他的短篇小说 《汉斯·普法尔历险记》 最有影响力。
fantastical:adj.空想的;捕风捉影的; contraptions:n.奇妙的装置;精巧的设计; nowhere:v.无处; n.无处; adj.不存在的; influential:adj.有影响的;有势力的;n.有影响力的人物; short story:短篇小说(指一万字以内的小说); Unparalleled:adj.无比的;无双的;空前未有的; Adventure:n.冒险;奇遇;经历;冒险游戏;v.探险;以…冒险;大胆进行;闯;
It's a story of an unemployed bellows maker in Rotterdam, who, depressed and tired of life -- this is Poe, after all -- and deeply in debt , he decides to build a hermetically enclosed balloon-borne carriage that is launched into the air by dynamite and from there, floats through the vacuum of space all the way to the lunar surface. 小说讲述了一个 在鹿特丹做风箱的失业者, 抑郁不得志,厌倦了人生 ——这毕竟是爱伦·坡的风格—— 而且欠了一屁股债的故事。 他决定建造一个气密封闭 的气球运输船, 通过炸药发射到空中, 并从那里漂浮到太空中, 一直到月球表面。
unemployed:adj.失业的;下岗的;n.(集合词)失业者; bellows:n.波纹管;风箱;皮老虎; depressed:adj.沮丧的; v.使抑郁; (depress的过去式和过去分词) debt:n.债务;借款;罪过; hermetically:adv.密封地,不透气地;炼金术地; enclosed:adj.封闭的;附上的;v.把…围起来;围住;附上;(enclose的过去分词和过去式) balloon-borne:un.用气球升空的;气球运载的;球载反射器; carriage:n.运输;运费;四轮马车;举止;客车厢; launched:v.发射;发起;开展;开始;(launch的过去式和过去分词) dynamite:n.炸药;具有潜在危险的人(或物);vt.炸毁;adj.极好的;
And importantly, he did not develop this story alone, for in the appendix to his tale, he explicitly acknowledged Godwin's "A Man in the Moone" 重要的是,这个故事 并不是他独自的创作, 在故事的附录中, 他明确地承认了这本书受到戈德温
appendix:n.附录;阑尾;附加物; explicitly:adv.明确地;明白地;
from over 200 years earlier as an influence , calling it "a singular and somewhat ingenious little book." 200多年前的小说《月中人》 的影响, 他称这是“一本非凡绝妙的小书”。
influence:n.影响;势力;感化;有影响的人或事;v.影响;改变; singular:adj.单数的;单一的;非凡的;异常的;n.单数; somewhat:n.几分;某物;adv.有点;多少;几分;稍微; ingenious:adj.有独创性的;机灵的,精制的;心灵手巧的;
And although this idea of a balloon-borne voyage to the Moon may seem not much more technically sophisticated than the goose machine, in fact, Poe was sufficiently detailed 虽然这个利用气球运输机 去往月球的想法 看起来在技术上 比大雁机器靠谱不了多少, 但事实上,爱伦坡非常详细的
sophisticated:adj.复杂的;老练的;见多识广的;水平高的; sufficiently:adv.充分地;足够地;
in the description of the construction of the device and in terms of the orbital dynamics of the voyage that it could be diagrammed in the very first spaceflight encyclopedia as a mission in the 1920s. 描述了设备的构造, 并且就航行的轨道动力学而言, 它可以在第一本航天百科全书中 作为20世纪20年代的使命来描绘。
description:n.说明;形容;描写(文字);类型; construction:n.建设;建筑物;解释;造句; device:n.装置;策略;图案; orbital:adj.轨道的;眼窝的; dynamics:n.动力学,力学; encyclopedia:n.百科全书(亦是encyclopaedia); mission:n.使命,任务;代表团;布道;v.派遣;向…传教;
And it was this attention to detail, or to " verisimilitude ," as he called it, that would influence the next great story: 正是对于细节的专注或 如他自己所说的“逼真”, 影响了下一个伟大的故事——
verisimilitude:n.逼真,貌似真实;逼真的事物;
Jules Verne's "From the Earth to the Moon," written in 1865. 凡尔纳在1865年写了《从地球到月球》。
And it's a story that has a remarkable legacy and a remarkable similarity to the real voyages to the Moon that would take place over a hundred years later. 这是一个给后世留下了 伟大遗产的故事, 与真正发生于百年之后的 月球之旅有着惊人的相似之处。
remarkable:adj.卓越的;非凡的;值得注意的; legacy:n.遗赠,遗产; similarity:n.类似;相似点; take place:发生;举行;
Because in the story, the first voyage to the Moon takes place from Florida, with three people on board, in a trip that takes three days -- exactly the parameters that would prevail during the Apollo program itself. 因为在这个故事里, 第一次登月始于佛罗里达, 飞船上有三人, 经历了3天行程—— 这些数据与阿波罗计划完全一致。
parameters:n.决定因素;规范;范围;(parameter的复数) prevail:v.流行;盛行;战胜;压倒; Apollo:n.阿波罗(太阳神);美男子;
And in an explicit tribute to Poe's influence on him, 为了向爱伦坡致敬,
tribute:n.礼物;[税收]贡物;颂词;(尤指对死者的)致敬,悼念,吊唁礼物;
Verne situated the group responsible for this feat in the book in Baltimore, at the Baltimore Gun Club, with its members shouting, "Cheers for Edgar Poe!" 凡尔纳将这本书中 负责这一伟大壮举的组织 设立在巴尔的摩枪支俱乐部。 当他们开始制定征服月球的计划时,
situated:adj.位于…的;处于…境遇的;v.使位于;使处于;(situate的过去分词和过去式) responsible:adj.负责的,可靠的;有责任的; feat:n.功绩,壮举;技艺表演;adj.合适的;灵巧的;
as they began to lay out their plans for their conquest of the Moon. 成员们大喊“为爱伦坡干杯！”
conquest:n.征服;占领;占领(或征服)的地区;(爱情或性方面)被俘虏的人;
And just as Verne was influenced by Poe, so, too, would Verne's own story go on to influence and inspire the first generation of rocket scientists. 正如凡尔纳深受爱伦坡的影响, 凡尔纳自己的故事接着启发影响了 第一代火箭科学家们。
influenced:v.影响;对…起作用;支配;左右;(influence的过去分词和过去式) inspire:v.激发;鼓舞;启示;产生;使生灵感; first generation:adj.出生在美国的;原件第一代;
The two great pioneers of liquid fuel rocketry in Russia and in Germany, 两位分别来自于俄罗斯与德国 的液体燃料火箭的先驱,
rocketry:n.火箭学,火箭技术;火箭(集合称);火箭研究;
And Verne's story was not the only one in the 19th century with a long arm of influence. 凡尔纳的故事不是十九世纪唯一 有长远影响的一个。
On the other side of the Atlantic, 在大西洋的另一边,
On the other side:另一面;在另一边;
H.G. Wells's "War of the Worlds" directly inspired a young man in Massachusetts, Robert Goddard. 威尔斯的《世界大战》直接启发了 一个麻省的年轻人,罗伯特·戈达德。
directly:adv.直接地;立即;马上;正好地;坦率地;conj.一…就; inspired:adj.受到启发的; v.鼓舞; (inspire的过去分词和过去式)
And it was after reading "War of the Worlds" 正是在读了《世界大战》后,
that Goddard wrote in his diary, one day in the late 1890s, of resting while trimming a cherry tree on his family's farm and having a vision of a spacecraft taking off from the valley below and ascending into the heavens. 他在日记里写道, 19世纪90年代末的一天, 他在家里的农场修剪樱桃树时, 在脑海中浮现了宇宙飞船 从下面的山谷起飞 上升到空中这一幕。
trimming:n.(菜肴的)配料; v.修剪; (trim的现在分词) cherry:adj.上品;卓越的;樱桃色的;n.樱桃;樱桃树;樱桃色; vision:n.视力;美景;幻象;想象力;v.想象;显现;梦见; spacecraft:n.[宇]宇宙飞船;航天器; ascending:adj.上升的;v.上升;获得(ascend的ing形式);追溯;
And he decided then and there that he would commit the rest of his life to the development of the spacecraft that he saw in his mind's eye. 从此他决定将余生奉献于研发 他脑海中出现的宇宙飞船。
commit:v.犯(罪等);干(坏事等);[法]提(审);判处;
And he did exactly that. 他的确做到了。
Throughout his career , he would celebrate that day as his anniversary day, his cherry tree day, and he would regularly read and reread the works of Verne and of Wells 在他的职业生涯中, 他将修剪樱桃树那一天 作为他的周年纪念日来庆祝, 为了不断获得灵感, 不断提醒自己的承诺,
Throughout:adv.自始至终,到处;全部;prep.贯穿,遍及; career:n.职业;事业;生涯;经历; regularly:adv.经常地;有规律地;定期的 reread:vi.重读,再读;vt.重读;再读;n.重读;
in order to renew his inspiration and his commitment over the decades of labor and effort that would be required to realize the first part of his dream: the flight of a liquid fuel rocket, which he finally achieved in 1926. 他反复研读凡尔纳与威尔斯的著作, 经过数十年的努力工作, 终于在1926年 实现了梦想的第一部分—— 发明了液体火箭。
renew:v.重新开始;中止后继续;重复强调;延长; commitment:n.承诺;投入;保证;许诺; finally:adv.终于;最终;(用于列举)最后;彻底地;
So it was while reading "From the Earth to the Moon" and "The War of the Worlds" 正是在《从地球到月球》 和《世界大战》这些书中,
that the first pioneers of astronautics were inspired to dedicate their lives to solving the problems of spaceflight. 解决宇宙飞船的问题中。
astronautics:n.航天学;宇宙航行; dedicate:vt.致力;献身;题献;
And it was their treatises and their works in turn that inspired the first technical communities and the first projects of spaceflight, thus creating a direct chain of influence that goes from Godwin to Poe to Verne to the Apollo program and to the present-day communities of spaceflight. 正是他们的文章与作品 促进了第一个技术社区 和第一个宇宙飞行项目的诞生, 从而形成了直接的影响力链。 从戈德温到爱伦坡、凡尔纳, 再到阿波罗计划, 直到今天的宇宙飞行。
treatises:n.论文,论述(treatise的复数形式);政府论(书名); communities:n.社区;社会;团体;共有(community的复数) present-day:adj.现代的;当今的;现在的;现时的;
So why I have told you all this? 我讲这些故事的原因
Is it just because I think it's cool, or because I'm just weirdly fascinated by stories of 17th- and 19th-century science fiction ? 仅仅是因为我觉得这很酷吗？ 还是仅仅因为我被这些奇怪的, 17或19世纪的科幻小说 所深深地吸引着？
weirdly:adv.古怪地; science fiction:科幻小说;
It is, admittedly , partly that. 我承认,这是部分原因。
admittedly:adv.公认地;无可否认地;明白地;
But I also think that these stories remind us of the cultural processes driving spaceflight and even technological innovation more broadly . 但更重要的是,这些故事提醒着我们, 文化进程推动了宇宙飞行 甚至更广义上的技术创新。
remind:v.提醒;使想起; cultural:adj.与文化有关的;文化的;与艺术、文学、音乐等有关的; processes:n.过程; v.处理(process的第三人称单数形式); innovation:n.创新,革新;新方法; broadly:adv.明显地;宽广地;概括地;露骨地;粗鄙地;
As an economist working at NASA, 作为一名在美国宇航局 工作的经济学家,
I spend time thinking about the economic origins of our movement out into the cosmos . 我常思考有关人类迈向宇宙的 经济起源。
economic:adj.经济的,经济上的;经济学的; origins:n.起源; (origin的复数) cosmos:n.宇宙;和谐;秩序;大波斯菊;
And when you look before the investments of billionaire tech entrepreneurs and before the Cold War Space Race , and even before the military investments in liquid fuel rocketry, the economic origins of spaceflight are found in stories and in ideas. 在来自科技圈的 亿万富翁企业家的投资, 冷战时期的太空竞赛, 甚至在军方投资液体燃料火箭之前, 太空旅行就已经起源于故事和想法中。
investments:n.[经]投资,投资的财产;投资学;(investment的复数) billionaire:n.亿万富翁; entrepreneurs:n.企业家;(entrepreneur的复数) Space Race:n.太空竞赛(20世纪50和60年代美国和苏联之间为取得宇宙探索领先地位而进行的竞争); military:adj.军事的;军人的;适于战争的;n.军队;军人;
It was in these stories that the first concepts for spaceflight were articulated . 正是在这些故事里,人们构建了 第一个太空飞行的概念,
articulated:adj.铰接式的; v.铰接(articulate的过去分词);
And it was through these stories that the narrative of a future for humanity in space began to propagate from mind to mind, eventually creating an intergenerational intellectual community that would iterate on the ideas for spacecraft until such a time as they could finally be built. 也正是通过这些故事, 对未来人类在太空生活的憧憬 开始在大众的脑海中传播开来, 并最终形成了跨越几代人 的知识共同体, 去不断迭代太空飞船的构思, 直到真的建成太空飞船。
humanity:n.人类;人道;仁慈;人文学科; propagate:vt.传播;传送;繁殖;宣传;vi.繁殖;增殖; intergenerational:adj.两代间的; community:n.社区;[生态]群落;共同体;团体; iterate:vt.迭代;重复;反复说;重做;
This process has now been going on for over 300 years, and the result is a culture of spaceflight. 这个过程一直持续了三百多年, 形成了太空飞行文化。
It's a culture that involves thousands of people over hundreds of years. 数千人在几百年间 对其做出了贡献。
involves:v.包含;需要;牵涉;牵连;影响;(使)参加,加入(involve的第三人称单数)
Because for hundreds of years, some of us have looked at the stars and longed to go. 因为上百年来,我们当中的 一些人在不断仰望星空, 因为几百年来,
And because for hundreds of years, some of us have dedicated our labors to the development of the concepts and systems required to make those voyages possible. 因为几百年来, 我们中的一些人致力于 发展使这些航行成为可能 所需要的概念和系统。
dedicated:adj.献身的; v.把…奉献给; (dedicate的过去分词和过去式) labors:n.劳动;工作;劳工;分娩;vi.劳动;努力;苦干;vt.详细分析;使厌烦;
I also wanted to tell you about Godwin, Poe and Verne because I think their stories also tell us of the importance of the stories that we tell each other about the future more generally . 我给大家讲述戈德温、 爱伦坡和凡尔纳的故事, 是因为我认为他们的故事告诉了我们 人们口口相传的关于未来的 故事具有更普遍的重要性。
generally:adv.通常;普遍地,一般地;
Because these stories don't just transmit information or ideas. 因为这些故事不仅仅 传递了信息或想法,
transmit:v.传送;发射;播送;传播;传染;
They can also nurture passions , passions that can lead us to dedicate our lives to the realization of important projects. 还孕育了一种激情, 一种可以让人贡献一生 去实现重要计划的激情。
nurture:v.养育;培养;养护;支持; passions:n.强烈情感;激情;盛怒;(passion的复数) realization:n.实现;领悟;
Which means that these stories can and do influence social and technological forces centuries into the future. 这意味着这些故事也确实可以 影响未来几个世纪的 社会和科技进步。
I think we need to realize this and remember it when we tell our stories. 我认为当我们讲故事的时候, 需要意识到并牢记这点。
We need to work hard to write stories that don't just show us the possible dystopian paths we may take for a fear that the more dystopian stories we tell each other, the more we plant seeds for possible dystopian futures. 我们需要努力地撰写故事, 不只是说明我们可能 走上的反乌托邦道路 是出于这样一种恐惧, 即对彼此讲述的反乌托邦故事越多, 我们为可能的反乌托邦未来 播下的种子就越多。
dystopian:adj.反面假想国的;反面乌托邦的;n.反面乌托邦的鼓吹者;
Instead we need to tell stories that plant the seeds, if not necessarily for utopias , then at least for great new projects of technological, societal and institutional transformation. 相反,我们需要讲述一些故事, 即使不一定是为乌托邦播下种子, 至少也要为伟大的新技术、 社会和体制改革项目 播下种子。
necessarily:adv.必要地;必定地,必然地; utopias:n.乌托邦(书名); societal:adj.社会的; institutional:adj.制度的;
And if we think of this idea that the stories we tell each other can transform the future is fanciful or impossible, then I think we need to remember the example of this, our voyage to the Moon, an idea from the 17th century that propagated culturally for over 300 years until it could finally be realized. 如果我们认为 我们对彼此讲述的故事 可以扭转未来的这个想法 是异想天开或是不可能的话, 那么我认为我们需要记住一个例子, 我们的探月之旅, 这个从17世纪便浮现的想法, 已经在文化中传播了超过300年, 直到探月之旅最终实现。
fanciful:adj.想像的;稀奇的; propagated:传播; culturally:adv.从文化角度,文化意义上;在人文学方面;
So, we need to write new stories, stories that, 300 years in the future, people will be able to look back upon and remark how they inspired us to new heights and to new shores, 因此,我们需要撰写新的故事, 让人们在300年以后的未来 可以通过这些故事回溯过去,去评价 它们是如何启发人们到达 新的高度,突破新的边界。
how they showed us new paths and new possibilities, and how they shaped our world for the better . 它们是如何向我们展示 新道路和新的可能性, 以及它们是如何更好地 塑造了我们的世界。
for the better:好转,向好的方向发展;
Thank you. 谢谢大家。
(Applause) （掌声）