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Here’s a hotel meeting room with a bunch of clocks that are apparently set at random.
这是一个酒店的会议室，显然，墙上的钟表指针都是混乱的。
But it still seemed appropriate because these clocks were behind this man.
然而，这似乎也算不上什么问题，因为坐在这些钟前面的是他。
“I’m James Gleick and the book is Time Travel: A History.”
“我是詹姆斯·格雷克，《时间旅行史》的作者。”
And there is one obvious question for a person who has studied the history of this strange idea.
对任何一个研究时间旅行这一奇怪概念的历史的人来说，有一个很明显的问题。
Would he travel back in time and kill baby Hitler?
你会不会回到过去杀死幼年时期的希特勒？
“Oh, I don’t even know.” Seriously? That could not be the real answer?"
“噢，我也不知道。”“不是吧？这不是真正的答案吧？”
“No. Well…” OK let’s go back.
“不是的，呃……” 好吧，我们还是从头说起吧。
When did we start asking this?
我们是什么时候开始问这个问题的呢？
Baby Hitler has a publicity pop every few years, like this New York Times poll.
每隔几年幼年希特勒的问题就会成为一个热门话题，比如《纽约时报》做的这个民调。
Or when former Presidential candidate Jeb Bush gave his answer to the Huffington Post. “Hell, yeah, I would.”
前总统候选人杰布·布什也曾在接受《赫芬顿邮报》采访时说：“这问题，好吧，我会。”
But this dilemma has a longer history than what just went viral.
然而，这一问题早就已经出现了，比它成为热门话题要早得多，
It reflects how we think about time travel and history. And maybe the present, too.
同时也反映了我们对时间旅行和历史大看法，甚至是对现在的看法。
Time travel is...oddly new. Well, it depends how you count.
奇怪的是，时间旅行这一概念问世的时间并不长。好吧，这要看你拿什么标准来衡量了。
Some might count stories like A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,
有人可能会拿《亚瑟王朝里的美国人》，
the Mark Twain story that sent a modern man to medieval times once he got hit on the head.
也就是马克·吐温那本讲述一个现代人在头部被击之后穿越回了中世纪的书，之类的故事说事，
Or there’s even a Spanish novel where the protagonists traveled in a cast iron box to the 1860s, 1400s, 690s, 220s, and 79 AD before going to the distant past.
西班牙也有一部小说，讲述主人公坐着铸铁盒子穿越到19世纪60年代，15世纪，6世纪90年代，2世纪20年代，公元79年乃至更遥远的过去的故事。
But HG Wells’ Time Machine was one of the first to truly put the words “time travel” together.
然而，伯特·乔治·威尔斯的《时间机器》是首批真正将“时间”和“旅行”两个词结合起来的作品。
Time travel through a machine wasn’t a longstanding Greek myth, or something Shakespeare invented in the 1500s.
通过机器进行穿越并不是古老的希腊神话，也不是16世纪莎士比亚发明的什么东西。
“That was the surprise. HG Wells’ Time Machine — we think of that as being in the middle of the time travel story —
“这就是让人吃惊的地方，伯特·乔治·威尔斯提出的时间机器——我们本以为应该是时间旅行研究的阶段产物——
but really, it turns out to be the very beginning.”
但它其实还在研究的起步阶段。”
“What was in the air was a kind of confluence of things.
“还有很多问题悬而未决。
One thing was an understanding of the speed of advancement of technology.”
比如人们对科技发展速度的理解。
If you were living in the 16th century and somebody appeared from the sky and said,
如果你生活在16世纪，有人从天而降，然后问你，
how do you think life is going to be for your grandchildren?
你觉得你孙子辈的生活会是什么样？
You would have said, what? It’s going to be the same.
你的反应会是，“什么鬼？肯定和现在一样啊。”
If something new came along, a new kind of plow, that seemed like an accident.
如果有新事物出现，比如一种新式的犁，人们会觉得那是一个意外。
It didn’t seem like part of inevitable progress.”
不会觉得它是必然的进步。”
But by Wells’ time, technology’s pace was evident.
然而，从威尔斯的时间概念来看，技术进步的速度是显而易见的。
The telegraph had taken over and reduced the world’s news to a few taps and clicks.
在电报统治的时代，世界的新闻都被压缩成了几个字几次按键。
And Wells’ time travel had the spirit of the era’s most futuristic gadgets.
而且，伯特·乔治·威尔斯的时间旅行包含了那个时代最具未来感的东西。
“You look at the prose carefully and it describes quartz rods,
“仔细阅读你会发现里面提到了石英棒，
and there’s a saddle, and he seems to have an oil can, or something,
坐具，好像还有油罐之类的东西，
he puts drops of oil in the gears,
主人公就把油滴到引擎里，
but it’s all a little mysterious what this machine is, until suddenly it hits you — it’s a bicycle.”
所有这些描述都赋予了这个时间机器一种神秘感，然而最后你会惊奇地发现，它原来是辆自行车。”
Wells’ description of the machine seemed inspired by bikes - which at the time were exciting and new.
威尔斯对时间机器的描述似乎是受了自行车的启发，而自行车在那个时代还是一种激动人心的新兴事物。
But it was the idea that really took hold.
但真正让人着迷的是背后的理念。
People instantly understood the complexities and contradictions of Wells’ fantastic machine.
人们立刻就领会了威尔斯这个了不起的机器的复杂性和问题所在。
“You know, Wells thought he was just creating a fanciful story, an adventure.
"要知道，威尔斯心想，自己不过就是在创作一个天马行空的故事，一次冒险之旅。
But very quickly a reviewer said, no, you know, this is impossible,
但不久就有读者认真了，说时间机器是不靠谱：
what if you went back into time and met yourself? What would happen then?”
要是穿越的时候碰到了从前的自己怎么办？
“We’re you, dude!” “No way.”
“我们就是你们啊，哥们儿！”“不是吧！”
