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Being a human in the 21st century often feels frustrating. We are clearly at the high point of our species – never have so many of us lived so well, been so healthy and well off.
身为21世纪的人类，我们常常感到沮丧。我们显然正处于人类的巅峰——从未有这么多人生活得如此美好、如此健康和富裕。
At the same time life is incredibly hard – more than 15 thousand children died yesterday, 700 million people live in extreme poverty, even within rich societies there is loads of unfairness and daily struggle.
与此同时，生活也异常艰难——昨天有超过1.5万名儿童死亡，7亿人生活在极端贫困中，即使在富裕社会中也存在着大量不公平和日常挣扎。
We are divided, unable to solve our problems while creating new ones, destroying our world in the process. In many ways the vibe is that we live in dark times.
我们四分五裂，无法解决问题，却又制造了新的问题，在这个过程中摧毁了我们的世界。从很多方面来看，我们生活在黑暗的时代。
It is so easy to feel disconnected and powerless in the face of problems too big to solve.
面对无法解决的重大问题，我们很容易感到无助和无能为力。
And so the state of the world fills many of us with doom, hopelessness and sadness. We feel it too.
世界的现状让我们中的许多人充满了厄运、绝望和悲伤。我们也有同样的感受。
It is one of the most pervasive stories of our time and there is a lot of truth to it.
这是我们这个时代最普遍的故事之一，其中有很多是真实的。
But as Terry Pratchett said, we are the storytelling ape, we think in narratives and live in a network of stories that make up our world.
但正如特里·普拉切特所说，我们是讲故事的猿猴，我们用叙事来思考，生活在构成我们世界的故事网络中。
So without minimising the darkness, we want to add a story that we find helpful for dealing with the world.
因此，在不淡化黑暗的情况下，我们想添加一个我们认为有助于应对世界的故事。
This is subjective and not a science video, so you don't need to buy into it. Our story begins with the first moment that ever was.
这是主观的，不是科学视频，所以你不必相信。我们的故事从有史以来的第一个时刻开始。
14 billion years ago time and space began from some kind of state of pure energy.
140亿年前，时间和空间始于某种纯能量状态。
From this very first moment the universe grew and evolved. Things that were one became many.
从这一刻起，宇宙开始成长和进化。一物变成了万物。
Energy turned into forces and particles, out of chaos emerged the laws of nature.
能量变成了力和粒子，自然法则从混乱中诞生。
From these ingredients stars arose, gigantic engines, turning simple stuff into complex stuff only to die violently and spread the new complexity around.
从这些成分中诞生了恒星，巨大的引擎，将简单的东西变成复杂的东西，最终剧烈死亡，并将新的复杂性传播开来。
Out of this more complex stuff, new stars and more worlds emerged, repeating the cycle until most of the simple stuff was used up and most stars that will ever be born had been born.
从这些更复杂的物质中，出现了新的恒星和更多的星球，重复这个循环，直到大多数简单的东西被用尽，大多数将要诞生的恒星都诞生了。
And then, on one planet, where the conditions were just right, dead particles and molecules combined to make another jump in complexity.
然后，在一个条件恰到好处的星球上，死亡的粒子和分子结合在一起，使复杂性再次飞跃。
Maybe the laws that govern everything were destined to make life happen. Maybe it was just a cosmic dice throw.
也许支配一切的法则注定要让生命发生。也许这只是宇宙掷骰子。
But life, now the most complex thing in existence, wasted no time and spread to even the tiniest corners.
但生命现在是存在的最复杂的东西，没有浪费时间，蔓延到最微小的角落。
For billions of years cells held on, fighting against the elements and each other, evolving in the process.
数十亿年来，细胞坚持不懈，与元素和彼此抗争，在此过程中进化。
Until one day they came together and made another jump in complexity, to plants, animals and fungi. First in the oceans, then on the land.
直到有一天，它们聚集在一起，复杂性再次飞跃，变成了植物、动物和真菌。首先是在海洋中，然后在陆地上。
Earth was now the stage of something grand, a complexity acceleration machine going at full speed. Millions of new species emerged and vanished.
地球现在是一个宏伟的舞台，一个全速运转的复杂性加速机。数百万个新物种出现和消失。
Life was beaten down over and over, but every time it came back stronger. Resettling niches filled with corpses of the ones that came before.
生命一次又一次被击垮，但每次它都会变得更强大。重新安置的生态位充满了之前出现的尸体。
Most of these beings are hidden in time forever, we only know their faint echoes. Until a few million years ago an animal looked at the night sky.
这些生物中的大多数永远隐藏在时间中，我们只知道它们微弱的回声。直到几百万年前，一种动物仰望夜空。
It looked at its hands. It saw its reflection in a puddle. And it realised it existed. That it was alive. Here and now.
它看着自己的双手。它在水坑中看到了自己的倒影。它意识到自己存在。此时此地，它还活着。
You probably had such a moment as a small child, mundane and majestic at the same time.
你小时候可能也经历过这样的时刻，既平凡又庄严。
This is where the human story begins, about six million years ago, with the hominins. Still just another animal among many others.
人类的故事从这里开始，大约六百万年前，从原始人类开始。当时它们只是众多动物中的一种。
They split into many families and lineages evolving further or disappearing again.
它们分裂成许多家族和血统，进一步进化或再次消失。
But for some reason their evolutionary niche enabled their brains to grow and they learned more about this strange world.
但由于某种原因，它们的进化利基使它们的大脑得以成长，它们对这个陌生的世界有了更多的了解。
They prayed to the stars, they tamed fire and turned stones into tools. They celebrated and cried together.
它们向星星祈祷，驯服火，把石头变成工具。他们一起庆祝，一起哭泣。
Life was hard and brutally short but together they endured – probably by telling themselves stories about the world.
生活艰难而短暂，但他们一起坚持了下来——可能是通过给自己讲述世界的故事。
For almost 250,000 generations they built a biological foundation.
在近25万代人中，他们建立了一个生物基础。
And then, at some point 200,000 years or about 10,000 generations ago they became us. Humanity had arrived. Our ancestors did not waste any time.
然后，在20万年前或大约1万代之前的某个时间点，他们变成了我们。人类已经到来。我们的祖先没有浪费任何时间。
Their world was still hard and unforgiving, but out of pure stubbornness they did not accept that. They wanted their lives to be better.
他们的世界仍然艰难而无情，但出于纯粹的固执，他们没有接受这一点。他们希望自己的生活变得更好。
So they made better tools and learned to preserve their knowledge beyond death. Progress started slow.
因此，他们制造了更好的工具，并学会了在死后保存知识。进展缓慢开始。
And then suddenly they (or better WE) made the planet our own. Agriculture and the first villages and temples snowballed into civilization.
然后突然间，他们（或者更确切地说是我们）把这个星球变成了我们自己的。农业和第一批村庄和寺庙滚雪球般发展成为文明。
Kingdoms and empires, technology, writing, astronomy, medicine, philosophy.
王国和帝国、技术、写作、天文学、医学、哲学。
