We Found a Loophole to Survive the End of the Universe · Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
视频探讨宇宙热寂后人类文明如何通过物理漏洞延续意识。适合练习科技、成长、自然类词汇与表达。
Can we survive the heat death of the universe?
我们能够幸存于宇宙的“热寂”（即宇宙最终因能量耗尽而陷入极冷状态）吗？
One day, the last star will die, galaxies will dissolve and black holes will evaporate.
终有一天，最后一颗星星也会熄灭；星系将逐渐消失，黑洞也会慢慢蒸发殆尽。
The cosmos will become a forever expanding, empty void where nothing happens.
宇宙将变成一个永远在膨胀的、空无一物的虚空，在那里什么也不会发生。
Forever.
永远。
A place without life, purpose, or meaning.
一个毫无生命、目标或意义的地方。
Lame and depressing.
既无聊又令人沮丧。
But there might be a loophole in the laws of physics for a future civilization to survive the death of everything.
不过，物理定律中或许存在某些“漏洞”，使得未来的文明能够在万物毁灭之后依然存活下来。
And go on having fun and internet arguments for googols of years, maybe even forever.
继续享受乐趣吧，继续在互联网上争论个没完吧……也许能争论上好几年，甚至永远都争论下去。
To explain how this works we need to go through a few steps, so strap in if you want consciousness to live forever.
为了解释这一机制的工作原理，我们需要分几个步骤进行说明。如果你希望人类的意识能够永远延续下去，那么请认真阅读以下内容吧。
How to Outlast the Stars Let’s travel
如何比星辰更长久地存在……让我们开始这段旅程吧。
100 trillion years into the future, when the last stars are about to die and the cosmos starts turning dark forever.
在未来的100万亿年后，当最后一颗恒星即将熄灭、宇宙开始永远陷入黑暗之时……
Here, in this dying universe we find the Noxans, the last civilization still alive.
在这个正在走向灭亡的宇宙中，我们发现了诺克桑人——他们仍是唯一存活着的文明。
Compared to them we are cave dwellers, they have solved physics and can do things we can only dream of.
与他们相比，我们简直就像穴居人一样落后；他们已经掌握了物理学的相关知识，能够完成那些我们只能梦想的事情。
Still, the same rules of reality apply to them as to us.
尽管如此，现实中的那些规则对他们来说同样适用，就像对我们一样。
The Noxans like being alive and don’t want to vanish with the last stars.
诺克桑人热爱生命，他们并不希望随着最后一颗星星的消失而一同消亡。
So they are enacting the plan to keep consciousness around forever.
因此，他们正在实施这一计划，旨在让意识永远存在下去。
The first issue is energy.
第一个问题是能源问题。
If you want to keep a civilization running you need a lot of it – but actually not that much in cosmic terms.
如果你想让一个文明持续运转下去，那么你需要大量的资源；但从宇宙的角度来看，其实所需的资源并没有那么多。
With five hours of the full energy emitted by the Sun, we could power present day humanity for about 10 billion years.
如果能够利用太阳释放出的全部能量中的五小时，我们就可以为当今的人类提供大约100亿年的能源供应。
So the Noxans harvest the last stars and build a gigantic complex of batteries around their home star.
诺克桑人采集了最后一颗恒星上的能量资源，并在他们所处的母星周围建造了一个巨大的电池设施。
In principle, this energy could keep them alive for a few hundred trillion years, a long time but not even close to forever.
从理论上讲，这种能量足以让他们存活数百万亿年——时间确实很长，但远远称不上“永恒”。
So now the hard part of the plan begins.
现在，这个计划中比较困难的部分开始了。
The Noxans need to change the nature of life itself.
诺克桑人必须改变生命本身的本质。
Thoughts Cold as Ice Being alive means doing things – eating, playing video games and very importantly: thinking.
思绪如冰般寒冷。 活着意味着要去做各种事情：吃饭、玩电子游戏，而最重要的是——思考。
And each of those things costs energy.
而每一件事都需要消耗能量。
But how much energy?
但是需要多少能量呢？
There is an idea from a famous
有一个来自一位著名人物的想法……
paper we’ll mercilessly simplify and call Dyson's Cold Thoughts – In a nutshell the idea is that the lower your temperature,
这篇论文的内容我们会毫不留情地简化处理，并将其命名为《戴森的冷思考》（Dyson’s Cold Thoughts）。简而言之，其核心观点是：温度越低……
the less energy it takes to do something.
做某件事所需的能量就越少。
Your brain runs at a temperature of 310 degrees above absolute zero.
你的大脑工作时的温度比绝对零度高310度。
Zero is the temperature where nothing can happen anymore.
零度就是那种温度：在零度以下，任何事情都无法再发生了。
At 310 degrees your brain needs 20 joules of energy to think a simple thought that takes one second to think,
在310度的环境下，你的大脑需要20焦耳的能量才能完成一个简单的思考过程（这个过程只需要一秒钟）。
like “I should wear a funny hat”.
比如：“我应该戴一顶有趣的帽子。
If your brain worked at colder temperatures, say 155 kelvin instead of 310, a few things would change.
如果你的大脑能够在更低的温度下运作（比如 155 开尔文而不是 310 开尔文），那么一些情况就会发生变化。
First of all, you’d think at half the speed and the same thought would now take two seconds.
首先，你可能会认为：既然速度减半了，那么完成同样的思考过程应该只需要两秒钟。
But in return, the energy you’d need to think the thought, now halves from 20 joules to only 10.
但作为回报，产生这个想法所需的能量从原来的 20 焦耳减少到了 10 焦耳。
If Dyson's Cold Thoughts are correct, then the colder you go, the less energy you need to think a thought.
如果戴森的“冷思维理论”是正确的，那么温度越低，思考一个想法所需的能量就越少。
At one tenth your current temperature, the same thought would take 10 seconds but only require 2 joules.
当温度降至当前温度的十分之一时，同样的思维过程仍需要 10 秒时间，但所需的能量仅为 2 焦耳。
And this has wild implications.
而这将带来极其深远的影响。
Because it means that we actually might be able to play this game forever.
因为这意味着我们或许真的可以永远玩下去这个游戏。