Could a Galactic Civilization Survive the End of the Universe?

銀河系文明能夠在宇宙終結(jié)之后幸存下來(lái)嗎？


Galactic civilizations looking to postpone the end of the universe may be wise to stock up on a few stars like our sun.

想要推遲宇宙終結(jié)的那天到來(lái)的時(shí)間的銀河系文明可能是明智的，這樣就可以儲(chǔ)備一些像我們的太陽(yáng)一樣的恒星。

If you're reading this, then you're probably a 21st-century human with only a sort of naval-gazing curiosity about the end of the universe. But it's also possible that you, gentle reader, are an immortal member of a galactic civilization in a distant future. As you stare down the cosmic apocalypse, you've paused to examine some ancient internet writings for possible answers.

如果你在讀這篇文章，那么你很有可能是一個(gè)喜歡放眼宇宙，對(duì)宇宙終結(jié)十分感興趣的21世紀(jì)的人類(lèi)。但是親愛(ài)的讀者，你可能是在遙遠(yuǎn)的將來(lái)誕生的銀河系文明的一個(gè)不朽的成員。當(dāng)你看著宇宙毀滅的時(shí)候，你可以停下來(lái)去仔細(xì)尋找一些古老的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上發(fā)表的文章，從中可以找到相關(guān)的答案。

If you're the former, then have a listen to the recent Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast episode "Galactic Civilization's End." But if you really are an immortal transhuman from the end of time, then hang on for some possible ideas from the show.

如果你是前者，那么請(qǐng)聽(tīng)聽(tīng)最新一檔名為“震驚你的心靈”播客節(jié)目——“銀河文明的終結(jié)”。但是，如果你真的是一個(gè)不朽的超人，在銀河系文明終結(jié)之后，你可以繼續(xù)從節(jié)目中獲得一些有益的收獲。

Bear in mind that the podcast hosts recorded this episode during the early 21st century and therefore were limited by the scope of current science and technology. Meanwhile, you're part of a galaxy-spanning civilization that can harness the powers of entire stars. But who knows? Perhaps they hit upon a hypothetical solution that you missed.

請(qǐng)牢記這件事：播客主持人在21世紀(jì)初記錄了這個(gè)節(jié)目，因此這檔節(jié)目受到了當(dāng)前科學(xué)和技術(shù)范圍的限制。與此同時(shí)，你是一個(gè)可以利用所有恒星力量的跨星系的文明的一分子。但誰(shuí)知道呢？ 也許他們偶然發(fā)現(xiàn)了你沒(méi)有想到的假定的解決方案。

Back in 2018, humans were unsure exactly how the universe might eventually snuff itself out. First, they had a couple of older notions: the big freeze and the big crunch. In an expanding universe, the idea was that either things would expand forever or eventually spring back and contract. If it just kept expanding, the heat death of the universe would ensue. If it contracted, everything would crash back down into a fiery singularity.

讓我們回到現(xiàn)在的2018年，人們不確定宇宙會(huì)如何毀滅掉。首先他們有很多舊有的觀念：大凍結(jié)和大擠壓。在膨脹的宇宙中，任何東西要么會(huì)無(wú)限地膨脹下去，要么最終會(huì)收縮。如果它繼續(xù)膨脹，宇宙熱量的喪失殆盡會(huì)繼而發(fā)生。如果它坍縮了，所有的一切都會(huì)碰撞擠壓到一起，成為一個(gè)“奇點(diǎn)”。
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://nxnpts.cn 轉(zhuǎn)載請(qǐng)注明出處


As Robert and Joe discuss, physicist Freeman Dyson proposed a few strategies back in 1979. To counter the big crunch, he wondered if a highly advanced civilization might be able to "break open a closed universe and change the topology of space-time so that only a part of it would collapse and another part of it would expand forever." At the time he contended that such an advanced civilization would be able to roll with eternal expansion as well, but a later development changed everything.

正如羅伯特和喬所討論的那樣，物理學(xué)家弗里曼戴森在1979年提出了一些策略。為了應(yīng)對(duì)這個(gè)大危機(jī)，他想知道一個(gè)非常先進(jìn)的文明是否能夠“打破封閉的宇宙并改變時(shí)空的拓?fù)浣Y(jié)構(gòu)，使得宇宙只有一部分會(huì)崩潰，另一部分會(huì)永遠(yuǎn)膨脹下去?！碑?dāng)時(shí)他認(rèn)為這樣一個(gè)先進(jìn)的文明也能夠以永恒的膨漲為條件一直存在下去，但后來(lái)的研究推翻了這個(gè)結(jié)論。

Because in 1998, humans discovered that universal expansion wasn't only ongoing, it was also accelerating. BBC writer Adam Becker reached out to Dyson in 2015 on the matter and Dyson said that he's less optimistic, and the rosiest possibility was that the acceleration will slow down on its own. Otherwise, the universe will simply become too spread out and too cold.

譯文在1998年，人類(lèi)發(fā)現(xiàn)宇宙的膨脹不會(huì)永遠(yuǎn)進(jìn)行下去，而且它的膨脹速度是處于加速狀態(tài)。BBC的作家亞當(dāng).貝克和戴森聯(lián)系上，一起研究這個(gè)問(wèn)題。戴森說(shuō)：他對(duì)此不是很樂(lè)觀，最樂(lè)觀的事是這種加速會(huì)變慢。否則，整個(gè)宇宙將會(huì)變得太大以至于變得太冷。

In 2018, astrophysicist Dan Hooper pondered the question of a galactic civilization's long-term survival and contended that annihilation might at least be postponed with a little hoarding. In the same way that a doomsday prepper might collect and save canned goods, so too would a highly advanced civilization hoard up on suns. They could yank manageable mid-sized stars (such as Earth's own sun) and drag them to regions of space for safekeeping.

在2018年天體物理學(xué)家丹.霍珀思考了“銀河系文明”的長(zhǎng)久存續(xù)的問(wèn)題，認(rèn)為宇宙的毀滅時(shí)刻的到來(lái)至少可能因?yàn)槟撤N小小的“手段”的作用會(huì)被推遲。就像為世界末日到來(lái)做好充足準(zhǔn)備的人可以收集和儲(chǔ)存罐頭食品一樣，高度發(fā)達(dá)的文明也能夠囤積太陽(yáng)。他們可以掠奪可管理的中等大小的恒星（例如地球自己的太陽(yáng)），并將它們拖到特定的太空區(qū)域以便妥善保管。

If star-jacking isn't your style, physicist Alan Guth – who, by the way, developed cosmic inflation theory – told the BBC that a galactic civilization might be capable of creating its own pocket universe. Escape into that and you might just avoid the fall of the previous universe.

如果“劫持恒星”不是你的行事風(fēng)格，物理學(xué)家艾倫.古斯發(fā)展了宇宙膨脹理論。他告訴BBC說(shuō)：銀河文明可能有能力創(chuàng)造自己的口袋宇宙。逃到這個(gè)宇宙里，你就有可能從前一個(gè)崩潰的宇宙中逃脫出來(lái)并幸存下去。
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://nxnpts.cn 轉(zhuǎn)載請(qǐng)注明出處


These are just a handful of schemes you might employ to avoid cosmic stagnation – and they don't even contend with the big change or the big rip, in which the universe you know and love either cools due to an emergent low-temperature vacuum bubble or is shredded by dense, phantom energy.

這些只是你可能用來(lái)避免宇宙終結(jié)來(lái)毀滅自己的少數(shù)幾種方案。這些方案甚至可能經(jīng)不起巨大變化的考驗(yàn)，你所熟知和深?lèi)?ài)的宇宙要么因?yàn)橥蝗划a(chǎn)生的低溫真空泡沫而冷卻，要么就會(huì)被被密集的幻象能量撕碎。

Look, you may rule as star masters of a distant future, but there might be no winning this thing after all. The universe, as we understand it, will last an incredibly long time before it changes, rips, crushes or wears thin. But conditions are going to get pretty dire out there. Let's hope you have a few stars set aside when that happens.

看，你可能成為遙遠(yuǎn)將來(lái)的星球統(tǒng)治者，但是面對(duì)這種事，沒(méi)有人能成為贏家。宇宙，正如我們所理解的那樣，將會(huì)在發(fā)生改變、撕裂和壓碎之前繼續(xù)存在很長(zhǎng)很長(zhǎng)時(shí)間，但是結(jié)果終歸是悲慘的。讓我們祝愿你在宇宙終結(jié)之后能夠繼續(xù)保有少數(shù)一些恒星作伴吧。