https://www.ted.com/talks/stephen_hawking_asks_big_questions_about_the_universe/transcript
00:13
There is nothing bigger or older than the universe. The questions I would like to talk about are: one, where did we come from? How did the universe come into being? Are we alone in the universe? Is there alien life out there? What is the future of the human race?

00:43
Up until the 1920s, everyone thought the universe was essentially static and unchanging in time. Then it was discovered that the universe was expanding. Distant galaxies were moving away from us. This meant they must have been closer together in the past. If we extrapolate back, we find we must have all been on top of each other about 15 billion years ago. This was the Big Bang, the beginning of the universe.

01:20
But was there anything before the Big Bang? If not, what created the universe? Why did the universe emerge from the Big Bang the way it did? We used to think that the theory of the universe could be divided into two parts. First, there were the laws like Maxwell's equations and general relativity that determined the evolution of the universe, given its state over all of space at one time. And second, there was no question of the initial state of the universe.

01:59
We have made good progress on the first part, and now have the knowledge of the laws of evolution in all but the most extreme conditions. But until recently, we have had little idea about the initial conditions for the universe. However, this division into laws of evolution and initial conditions depends on time and space being separate and distinct. Under extreme conditions, general relativity and quantum theory allow time to behave like another dimension of space. This removes the distinction between time and space, and means the laws of evolution can also determine the initial state. The universe can spontaneously create itself out of nothing.

02:58
Moreover, we can calculate a probability that the universe was created in different states. These predictions are in excellent agreement with observations by the WMAP satellite of the cosmic microwave background, which is an imprint of the very early universe. We think we have solved the mystery of creation. Maybe we should patent the universe and charge everyone royalties for their existence.

03:33
I now turn to the second big question: are we alone, or is there other life in the universe? We believe that life arose spontaneously on the Earth, so it must be possible for life to appear on other suitable planets, of which there seem to be a large number in the galaxy.

03:58
But we don't know how life first appeared. We have two pieces of observational evidence on the probability of life appearing. The first is that we have fossils of algae from 3.5 billion years ago. The Earth was formed 4.6 billion years ago and was probably too hot for about the first half billion years. So life appeared on Earth within half a billion years of it being possible, which is short compared to the 10-billion-year lifetime of a planet of Earth type. This suggests that the probability of life appearing is reasonably high. If it was very low, one would have expected it to take most of the ten billion years available.

04:59
On the other hand, we don't seem to have been visited by aliens. I am discounting the reports of UFOs. Why would they appear only to cranks and weirdos? If there is a government conspiracy to suppress the reports and keep for itself the scientific knowledge the aliens bring, it seems to have been a singularly ineffective policy so far. Furthermore, despite an extensive search by the SETI project, we haven't heard any alien television quiz shows. This probably indicates that there are no alien civilizations at our stage of development within a radius of a few hundred light years. Issuing an insurance policy against abduction by aliens seems a pretty safe bet.

06:02
This brings me to the last of the big questions: the future of the human race. If we are the only intelligent beings in the galaxy, we should make sure we survive and continue. But we are entering an increasingly dangerous period of our history. Our population and our use of the finite resources of planet Earth are growing exponentially, along with our technical ability to change the environment for good or ill. But our genetic code still carries the selfish and aggressive instincts that were of survival advantage in the past. It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand or million.

07:08
Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain inward-looking on planet Earth, but to spread out into space. The answers to these big questions show that we have made remarkable progress in the last hundred years. But if we want to continue beyond the next hundred years, our future is in space. That is why I am in favor of manned -- or should I say, personned -- space flight.

07:47
All of my life I have sought to understand the universe and find answers to these questions. I have been very lucky that my disability has not been a serious handicap. Indeed, it has probably given me more time than most people to pursue the quest for knowledge. The ultimate goal is a complete theory of the universe, and we are making good progress. Thank you for listening.

08:26
Chris Anderson: Professor, if you had to guess either way, do you now believe that it is more likely than not that we are alone in the Milky Way, as a civilization of our level of intelligence or higher? This answer took seven minutes, and really gave me an insight into the incredible act of generosity this whole talk was for TED.

09:18
Stephen Hawking: I think it quite likely that we are the only civilization within several hundred light years; otherwise we would have heard radio waves. The alternative is that civilizations don't last very long, but destroy themselves.

09:40
CA: Professor Hawking, thank you for that answer. We will take it as a salutary warning, I think, for the rest of our conference this week. Professor, we really thank you for the extraordinary effort you made to share your questions with us today. Thank you very much indeed.

09:58
(Applause)

(17)Questioning the universe的更多相关文章

  1. TED #06# Questioning the universe

    Stephen Hawking: Questioning the universe 1. 第一段: There is nothing bigger or older than the universe ...

  2. Ubuntu 17.04 upgrade to 17.10

    Just try  sudo do-release-upgrade if you get this An upgrade from 'zesty' to 'bionic' is not support ...

  3. (转)Ubuntu 17.04_64上搭建巡风扫描系统(资产信息漏洞扫描内网神器)

    巡风简介 巡风是一款适用于企业内网的漏洞快速应急.巡航扫描系统,通过搜索功能可清晰的了解内部网络资产分布情况,并且可指定漏洞插件对搜索结果进行快速漏洞检测并输出结果报表.其主体分为两部分:网络资产识别 ...

  4. webi和universe

    Universe是一个包含以下内容的文件: 1 一个或多个数据库中间件的连接参数. 2 称为对象的SQL结构,映射到数据库中的实际SQL结构,如列,表和数据库函数.其中对象是按类分组的.用户既可以看到 ...

  5. GitHub Universe 2021|MS Reactor 邀你共聚年度盛会

    GitHub Universe 2021 将于2021年10月27-28日(PDT)在线直播,MS Reactor 将与 CSDN 合作进行转播,与你一同观看这场全球开发者盛会. 关于 GitHub ...

  6. Golang, 以17个简短代码片段,切底弄懂 channel 基础

    (原创出处为本博客:http://www.cnblogs.com/linguanh/) 前序: 因为打算自己搞个基于Golang的IM服务器,所以复习了下之前一直没怎么使用的协程.管道等高并发编程知识 ...

  7. .NET平台开源项目速览(17)FluentConsole让你的控制台酷起来

    从该系列的第一篇文章 .NET平台开源项目速览(1)SharpConfig配置文件读写组件 开始,不知不觉已经到第17篇了.每一次我们都是介绍一个小巧甚至微不足道的.NET平台的开源软件,或者学习,或 ...

  8. Centos 6.6 下搭建php5.2.17+Zend Optimizer3.3.9+Jexus环境

    (为何安装php5.2.17这个版本 因为phpweb这个程序用到了Zend Optimizer3.3.9 这个东东已经停止更新了 最高支持5.2版本的php 所以就有了一晚上填坑的自己和总结了这篇文 ...

  9. 企业IT管理员IE11升级指南【17】—— F12 开发者工具

    企业IT管理员IE11升级指南 系列: [1]—— Internet Explorer 11增强保护模式 (EPM) 介绍 [2]—— Internet Explorer 11 对Adobe Flas ...

随机推荐

  1. 微信小程序开发——开发者工具无法输入中文的处理

    问题模块 框架类型 问题类型 操作系统 工具版本 开发者工具 小程序 Bug Windows v.02.1810290 异常描述: 无法输入中文,偶现,但是概率有点高,重启,重装,更新版本等等都未解决 ...

  2. 命令行操作mysql数据库

    1.导出整个数据库mysqldump -u 用户名 -p 数据库名 > 导出的文件名 mysqldump -u dbuser -p dbname > dbname.sql 2.导出一个表m ...

  3. QT注意事项(持续更新...)

    同样要注意new和delete的问题: is not a member of QApplication:这个错误可能是找不到信号或槽函数: 想用到信号槽,必须至少继承QObject类,并在类第一行写上 ...

  4. [剑指Offer]54-二叉搜索树的第k个节点

    题目描述 给定一棵二叉搜索树,找出其中的第k小的结点,返回指向该节点的指针. 思路 中序遍历即可. 注意特判!报段错误数组越界这里就要考虑是少特判的问题. 法一:借助vector 法二(better) ...

  5. 分布式大数据多维分析(OLAP)引擎Apache Kylin安装配置及使用示例【转】

    Kylin 麒麟官网:http://kylin.apache.org/cn/download/ 关键字:olap.Kylin Apache Kylin是一个开源的分布式分析引擎,提供Hadoop之上的 ...

  6. 【Linux 线程】线程同步《三》

    1.条件变量 条件变量是利用线程间共享的全局变量进行同步的一种机制,主要包括两个动作:一个线程等待"条件变量的条件成立"而挂起:另一个线程使"条件成立"(给出条 ...

  7. ubuntu下安装mysql及常用操作

    1.可通过ps -ef | grep mysql命令查看系统中是否有安装mysql 如果出现类似上述的页面,就证明是已经安装过了mysql,否则就是没有. 2.安装mysql 很简单,只需要键入如下命 ...

  8. MySQL 中的数据类型介绍(转)

    据我统计,MySQL支持39种(按可使用的类型字段统计,即同义词也作多个)数据类型.下面的介绍可能在非常古老的mysql版本中不适用. 转载出处:http://blog.csdn.net/anxpp/ ...

  9. [Java]Spring Ioc讲解,不怕你不懂

    原文地址 引述:IoC(控制反转:Inverse of Control)是Spring容器的内核,AOP.声明式事务等功能在此基础上开花结果.但是IoC这个重要的概念却比较晦涩隐讳,不容易让人望文生义 ...

  10. 【Linux系列】Ubuntu ping通,xshell无法连接

    现象描述:Ubuntu能Ping通主机,主机也能ping通虚拟机.而且,虚拟机也能上网.只是xshell不能连接. 解决方案: 一:使用管理员身份 设置防火墙. 先查看一下防火墙状态 sudo ufw ...