2017年8月维也纳
今晚去学校开家长会，一进入人文学科的教室，老师当着二十几个家长问我儿子在家是怎样的一个孩子。我看着大家犹豫了一下，有一位妈妈用鼓励的眼光说她也想听听。我说艾伦喜欢思考大问题，譬如宇宙啊，人类啊。但是对于按时交作业，钥匙在哪里之类的问题他倒是关心不够。大家都笑了。
儿子和我基本上相对独立，他只要不饿不冷不热，基本上都不来烦我，我也不怎么去烦他。平时我也不关心他的成绩，更不管他的作业。我们倒是喜欢一起聊天，漫无目标的瞎聊。偶尔我穿插一些主题思想，经常他会给我一些启发甚至震撼，譬如下面这篇小文。从教室出来时，老师让我去读读儿子昨天写的这篇文章，他说很有深度。
What was there before the Big Bang and what is there outside of our universe?
大爆炸之前有什么，我们的宇宙之外还有什么？
- Alan Deutsch 狄艾伦
“What lies beyond what our eyes cannot perceive?” is perhaps the most scientifically demanding question we face yet. It is the question over which the most stellar physicists scratch their heads. And yet here we are, playing dice with the universe and what lies beyond it. But in order to answer the question, one must take into account the sheer lack of scientific evidence for the days leading up towards the Big Bang, in this way, religion has the upper hand. In most myths, especially Genesis, the universe was once depicted as a chaotic bottomless void leading to nowhere. Until some higher being decided enough was enough, casually forging the universe from scratch. And although most religions don't go in depth to what happened before the Big Bang, the most obvious answer is the universe had no beginning, simply a change.
“超越我们的眼睛无法察觉之外存在着什么？”也许仍然是我们在科学上面临的最挑战的问题。这是让最优秀的物理学家挠头的问题。而我们，就这样，与宇宙以及宇宙以外的东西一起玩骰子。但为了回答这个问题，我们必须考虑到我们完全没有任何科学证据来证明在大爆炸之前的日子，这样，宗教就占了上风。在大多数神话中，特别是创世纪的神话，宇宙曾经被描绘成一个无处可去的混乱的无底洞。直到某个更高的神灵决定不能再那样下去，于是（他）随意从头开始锻造宇宙。虽然大多数宗教不深究大爆炸之前发生的事情，但最明显的答案是宇宙没有开始，只是有一个变化。
However, when looked at from the scientific perspective, there was a beginning, a spectacular one at that. Turning literally nothing, into something. Contradicting our factual knowledge of matter being unable to be created or destroyed, both theories seem false. After all, how could something so vast and large start without a beginning? And if it did have a beginning, then what existed before that? All of these raise staggering controversy, but I suppose the only real answer to all of the speculations is, there is none...or at least it's incomprehensible to “mere” humans, which ties into what lies beyond our universe.
然而，从科学的角度来看，宇宙是有开始的，而且是一个很壮观的起始。从无，到了有。从没有任何东西，变成有了一些东西。与我们已知的关于事物无法被创造也无法被摧毁这一事实相悖（译者注：指物质守恒定律），这两个理论（译者注：指宗教和科学的理论）都似乎是错的。毕竟，如此广阔而巨大的事物的开启怎么可能没有一个开始呢？而如果它有一个开始，那么在那开始之前又存在着什么呢？所有这些都引发惊人的争议，但我认为对所有这些猜测的唯一真正的答案是，它没有答案...... 或者至少对人类来说，毕竟我们不过是人类而已，即使有答案，那也是不可理解的，这又让我联想到“我们的宇宙之外到底存在着什么”的问题。
We live in a three-dimensional world, but we have been led to believe that many more exist, up to ten. Each more vast than the previous, and If you were to live in the tenth dimension, traveling to any point in time, anywhere, including an infinite amount of universes would be as easy as waving your hand. So that raises the question, what is the point of living in the tenth dimension if all you are confronted with are infinite possibilities and no challenges? This makes me glad that humans were never designed to leave the third dimension. It makes us who we are. Besides, we're busy enough on this planet as it is!
我们生活在一个三维的世界，但我们已经被引导到相信这世界存在着更多的维度，直到十个。每一个维度都比前一个更广，且如果你生活在第十个维度，你穿越到任何时间点，任何地方，包括穿越到任意的无限量的宇宙都将像挥挥手一样容易。所以这就引发一个问题，如果你所能拥有的是无限的可能性而没有任何挑战，那么在第十个维度上生活的意义又是什么呢？这让我很高兴人类从来都不是为离开第三个维度而设计的。这使得我们成为了我们。更何况，我们在这个星球上，就这个样子，就已经够忙乎的了。
by Alan Deutsch
September 6, 2017, Shanghai.
原创：狄艾伦，2017年9月6日，上海
翻译：湘伟，2017年9月8日，上海
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