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A colleague asked me, "Was Mineral 'X' around at time 'Y' in Earth history?"
一位同事问我，“在地球历史上的‘Y’时期，存在矿物‘X’吗？”
He's putting a time axis on mineralogy, and this led to the idea of- mineral evolution.
他给矿物学建立了一个时间轴，这就引出了矿物演化这个概念。
Mineral evolution, where you start with just a few dozen minerals that form planets in the earliest stage of our solar system, to a hundred minerals, then 300 minerals, then 800 minerals, and 3,000 minerals, and then life comes along, and it makes another 3,000 minerals- that's evolution.
矿物演化，即从太阳系最早时形成行星的几十种矿物开始，到一百种矿物，然后是300种矿物，再到800种矿物，再到3000种矿物，然后生命出现了，又产生了另外3000种矿物——这就是演化。
An increase in diversity, an increase in patterning, and increase in complexity.
多样性增加了，结构增加了，复杂性也增加了。
All of the same characteristics that we see in the origin and evolution of life, and indeed it's co-evolving 'cause minerals helped trigger life, but then life helps trigger minerals.
与我们在生命的起源和演化中看到的特点相同，其实，它们是同步演化的，因为矿物质触发了生命，后来生命也帮助触发了矿物质。
So the co-evolution of all these systems, and not just minerals in life, but oceans and atmospheres, and the way planets work and technology and the arts and language and all sorts of other domains.
所有系统的共同进化，不仅是生命中的矿物质，还有海洋和大气，以及行星的运作方式、技术、艺术、语言和其他各种领域。
When the idea of mineral evolution first hit me, I said, "Gee, there's a connection here between living and non-living systems," and we claim this is true because all of these systems, all these evolving systems, are conceptually equivalent in three absolutely critical ways.
我第一次想到矿物演化这个想法时，我说：“哎呀，生物系统和非生物系统之间存在联系。”我们认为这是真的，因为所有系统，所有进化系统，在三个非常关键的方面概念上是相同的。
First, you have lots of interacting components.
首先，要有很多相互作用的组件。
They could be atoms and molecules, they could be cells or genes.
它们可能是原子和分子，也可能是细胞或基因。
They could be musical notes or words on a page or even computer code- and those different systems can be arranged in combinatorially huge numbers of ways, vast potential configuration space.
它们可能是音符或页面上的文字，甚至是计算机代码——这些不同的系统有不计其数的排列组合方式，具有巨大的潜在配置空间。
Now, the second thing is you have to have some way to generate a bunch of those configurations, either Earth mixing up atoms and molecules, or life generating new combinations of genes, or composers creating new arrangements of notes on a page.
第二点是必须有某种方法去生成一堆这样的配置要么是地球混合原子和分子，要么是生命产生新的基因组合，要么是作曲家在页面上创造新的音符排列。
And then number three, there has to be a mechanism for selection.
然后是第三点，必须有一个选择机制。
Now, what do you select for?
你为了什么去选择保留呢？
Darwin said, "It's survival of the fittest. It's passing your genes onto the next generation," and that's true for life, but in minerals, it's being stable.
达尔文说：“是适者生存。它会将你的基因传递给下一代，”对生命来说确实如此，但对矿物质来说，它需要的是稳定。
It means you don't melt, you don't dissolve, you don't weather away.
这意味着不会融化，不会溶解，不会风化。
In the case of music, it means that people buy your records.
在音乐方面，它需要的是人们购买你的唱片。
Of every million songs that's written, maybe only a handful become, you know, number one hits on the charts.
在创作的每一百万首歌曲中，也许只有少数几首会成为排行榜上的冠军单曲。
That's because of a selection mechanism.
那是因为存在一种选择机制。
So this is a continuum of co-evolving, integrated systems.
所以，这是一个共同进化的、集成系统的连续体。
It's not just life, it's the whole shebang.
不单是生命如此，整个世界都如此。
The whole thing is evolving, and we still are part of that incredible, inspiring evolution of our cosmos.
万事万物都在不断进化，我们仍然是宇宙那令人难以置信、鼓舞人心的进化的一部分。
