TED演讲之伟大预言 马丁·里斯:这是我们最后的世纪吗?(8)
The planet became an intense emitter of radio waves — the total output from all TV and cell phones and radar transmissions.
地球开始发射出强烈的电磁波 – 其来源是所有的电视，手机和雷达信号传输。
And something else happened. Metallic objects — albeit very small ones, a few tons at most — escaped into orbit around the Earth.
另外还有一些景象出现了。金属物体 -尽管个头不大，最多重几吨 – 被发射到了地球的轨道中（指人造卫星）。
Some journeyed to the moons and planets. A race of advanced extraterrestrials watching our solar system from afar could confidently predict Earth’s final doom in another six billion years.
有些甚至被发射到月球或其他行星。地球外的高等生物，在遥远的地方观察我们的太阳系的话，可以肯定地预期在60亿年的时间内地球将毁灭。
But could they have predicted this unprecedented spike less than halfway through the Earth’s life?
但是他们是否能预期这种不到地球寿命的一半时，发生的史无前例的生命活动高潮呢？
These human-induced alterations occupying overall less than a millionth of the elapsed lifetime and seemingly occurring with runaway speed?
这些由人类主导的改变，虽然只是发生在生命历程中的不到百万分之一的时段内，却有着惊人的改变速度。
If they continued their vigil, what might these hypothetical aliens witness in the next hundred years?
如果他们持续地监视下去，这些假想中的外星生物将会在今后的一百年当中看到些什么呢？
Will some spasm foreclose Earth’s future? Or will the biosphere stabilize?
会否在一阵发作中丧失了地球的未来？又或者整个生物圈稳定下来？
Or will some of the metallic objects launched from the Earth spawn new oases, a post-human life elsewhere?
再或者由一些从地球发射出的金属物体，将人类生命后的新的绿洲传播到其它地方？
The science done by the young Einstein will continue as long as our civilization,
由年轻的爱因斯坦所做出的科学研究将随着人类文明的发展而持续下去。
but for civilization to survive, we’ll need the wisdom of the old Einstein — humane, global and farseeing.
但是人类文明若想得以持续存在，我们需要老年爱因斯坦般的智慧 – 仁爱，全球观和远见卓识。
And whatever happens in this uniquely crucial century will resonate into the remote future and perhaps far beyond the Earth,
在这个至为关键的世纪里无论发生什么，都将在遥远的未来产生共鸣，而且可能远远超出地球的范围，
far beyond the Earth as depicted here. Thank you very much.
远远超出在这里所描述的地球。非常感谢。
演讲简介：
作为一个天文学家，同时作为人类社会中忧心忡忡的一员，马丁·里斯爵士从宇宙全景的视角考察我们的星球和其未来。他敦促要采取行动以避免科技发展过程中可能出现的毁灭性后果。