So, about three years ago I was in London, and somebody called Howard Burton came to me and said, I represent a group of people, and we want to start an institute in theoretical physics. We have about 120 million dollars, and we want to do it well. We want to be in the forefront fields, and we want to do it differently. We want to get out of this thing where the young people have all the ideas, and the old people have all the power and decide what science gets done. It took me about 25 seconds to decide that that was a good idea.
大約三年前我在倫敦的時候, 一位叫霍華德•伯頓的人來訪,並對我說 我代表一個群體, 我們這個群體想成立一個理論物研究所。 我們擁有一億兩千萬美金的資金,我們想把這個研究所做好。 我們想在該領域中出類拔萃, 而且我們想要有所創新。 我們想脫離這種現狀, 就是現在年輕學子擁有想法點子,而權力卻掌握在老一輩人的人手中 並且由他們決定科學的走向。 在思量了二十五秒之後,我認為這是個絕妙的想法。
Three years later, we have the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario. It’s the most exciting job I’ve ever had. And it’s the first time I’ve had a job where I’m afraid to go away because of everything that’s going to happen in this week when I’m here. (Laughter) But in any case, what I’m going to do in my little bit of time is take you on a quick tour of some of the things that we talk about and we think about. So, we think a lot about what really makes science work? The first thing that anybody who knows science, and has been around science, is that the stuff you learn in school as a scientific method is wrong. There is no method. On the other hand, somehow we manage to reason together as a community, from incomplete evidence to conclusions that we all agree about. And this is, by the way, something that a democratic society also has to do.
三年之後,我們在安大略省滑鐵盧市成立了〈周長理論物理研究所〉。 這是我有生以來擁有過最讓人興奮的工作。 而這也是我第一次擁有一份會讓我不敢離開半步的工作, 這都是因為這週在研究所裡發生一切之際,我卻在這裡和你們一起。 (笑聲) 但不管怎樣,我所將要做的是在我有限的時間內, 讓你們快速的了解 我們所談論及思考的事情。 我們常常思考到底是什麽使科學產生影響? 第一件事就是任何一位了解科學 和與科學為伍的人 都在學校所習得的科學方法是錯誤的。 因為根本沒有任何方法。 另一方面,我們不知何故地根據不完整的線索 共同討論,又以某種方法得出原因 來總結出我們大家都同意的結論。 順帶一提,這也是在民主社會必須達成的一個步驟。
So how does it work? Well, my belief is that it works because scientists are a community bound together by an ethics. And here are some of the ethical principles. I’m not going to read them all to you because I’m not in teacher mode. I’m in entertain, amaze mode. (Laughter)
那麼,這項做法如何運作? 嗯,我認為它能得以運作 是因為科學家們是被某種共同理念緊密連結在一起的團體。 這裡列舉了一些行道德理念。 我不會將它們逐字逐句的念給你們聽, 因為我現在不是來教書,而是來娛樂的。 (笑聲)
But one of the principles is that everybody who is part of the community gets to fight and argue as hard as they can for what they believe. But we’re all disciplined by the understanding that the only people who are going to decide, you know, whether I’m right or somebody else is right, are the people in our community in the next generation, in 30 and 50 years. So it’s this combination of respect for the tradition and community we’re in, and rebellion that the community requires to get anywhere, that makes science work. And being in this process of being in a community that reasons from shared evidence to conclusions, I believe, teaches us about democracy. Not only is there a relationship between the ethics of science and the ethics of being a citizen in democracy, but there has been, historically, a relationship between how people think about space and time, and what the cosmos is, and how people think about the society that they live in.
但其中一項理念是團體中的每一位科學家 要為他們所相信的事物 竭盡所能的去據理力爭。 但是我們都達成一種共識 那就是在未來能夠決定 我們或他人對錯與否的人, 是我們這個團體中的下一代, 三十至五十年之後的科學家。 這是我們對科學界的傳統和這個團體的 敬意的結合, 也是使科學繼續運作的,讓科學界前進的 叛逆精神。 身為科學界的一份子,參與以及供享的證明來推論到定下結論的 這個過程中 我相信,我們可以從中學到民主。 不單單是因為科學的理念和身為民主社會中的公民 理念相關聯, 而是自古以來 人們對於空間,時間,宇宙的想法 和人們如何在社會中相處是有所關聯。
And I want to talk about three stages in that evolution. The first science of cosmology that was anything like science was Aristotelian science, and that was hierarchical. The earth is in the center, then there are these crystal spheres, the sun, the moon, the planets and finally the celestial sphere, where the stars are. And everything in this universe has a place. And Aristotle’s law of motion was that everything goes to its natural place, which was of course, the rule of the society that Aristotle lived in, and more importantly, the medieval society that, through Christianity, embraced Aristotle and blessed it. And the idea is that everything is defined. Where something is, is defined with respect to this last sphere, the celestial sphere, outside of which is this eternal, perfect realm, where lives God, who is the ultimate judge of everything.
接著, 我要討論在這個演變中的三個階段。 第一階段的宇宙科學 是亞里斯多德科學, 而那是有等級觀念的。 地球是宇宙的中心, 接著便是其它的水晶球體, 太陽,月亮,行星群,最後是恆星所在的天體, 在宇宙的中所有的事物都有其位置。 根據亞里斯多德的動力定律, 每一樣事物都有其歸屬,當然這也是在當時,亞里斯多德 所處的社會中的法則, 更重要的是,以基督教為主要信仰的中古世紀社會 推崇亞里斯多德,支持這樣的社會法則。 而這個想法是相對於最後一層天體。 所有的事物都可以被定義,一切的事物都是可以被確定的, 在天體之外 是上帝所居住的完美天國, 祂對一切的事物做最終的審判。
So that is both Aristotelian cosmology, and in a certain sense, medieval society. Now, in the 17th century there was a revolution in thinking about space and time and motion and so forth of Newton. And at the same time there was a revolution in social thought of John Locke and his collaborators. And they were very closely associated. In fact, Newton and Locke were friends. Their way of thinking about space and time and motion on the one hand, and a society on the other hand, were closely related.
這就是亞里斯多德宇宙論, 就某種程度上來說也是中古社會。 到了十七世紀,牛頓提出有關於空間,時間,及動力 的思想革命, 在同一時期,約翰•洛克和他的合作夥伴 也正在引發社會思想中的變革。 這兩個變革是有緊密的關聯。 事實上,牛頓和洛克是朋友 一方面,他們對空間,時間,動力進行思考, 另一方面,他們對社會進行考量。
And let me show you. In a Newtonian universe, there’s no center -- thank you. There are particles and they move around with respect to a fixed, absolute framework of space and time. It’s meaningful to say absolutely where something is in space, because that’s defined, not with respect to say, where other things are, but with respect to this absolute notion of space, which for Newton was God.
讓我向你說明。 在牛頓的宇宙中沒有中心---謝謝。 相動於固定且絕對的空間和時間框架中, 有一群粒子在其中運轉。 在這個空間中,物體有其絕對位置的說法是有意義的, 因為這並不是說,它定義其他事物的存在, 而是定義了宇宙空間絕對存在的這個看法, 這對牛頓來說就是相對於上帝。
Now, similarly, in Locke’s society there are individuals who have certain rights, properties in a formal sense, and those are defined with respect to some absolute, abstract notions of rights and justice, and so forth, which are independent of what else has happened in the society. Of who else there is, of the history and so forth. There is also an omniscient observer who knows everything, who is God, who is in a certain sense outside the universe, because he has no role in anything that happens, but is in a certain sense everywhere, because space is just the way that God knows where everything is, according to Newton, OK?
同樣的,在洛克的社會中, 每一個個體在某種形式上都有特定的權益,財產, 而另一群人擁有 絕對的權益,正義等等抽象想法, 這些獨立存在, 不受社會所發生的一切,人類,及歷史所規範。 亦有一位全知全能的觀察者, 祂知道所有的事情,祂就是上帝, 在某種意義上來說,祂不處於這個宇宙當中, 因為在這個世界上所有事物中,祂沒有扮演任何一個角色, 但在某種意義上來說,祂又無所不在, 因為通過空間,上帝知曉一切, 這是根據牛頓的理論所得出,明嗎?
So this is the foundations of what’s called, traditionally, liberal political theory and Newtonian physics. Now, in the 20th century we had a revolution that was initiated at the beginning of the 20th century, and which is still going on. It was begun with the invention of relativity theory and quantum theory. And merging them together to make the final quantum theory of space and time and gravity, is the culmination of that, something that’s going on right now. And in this universe there’s nothing fixed and absolute. Zilch, OK. This universe is described by being a network of relationships.
這就是傳統民主政治理論 和牛頓物理學的基礎。 到了二十世紀,我們曾有一場革命, 它是在二十世紀初開始 持續到現在。 相對論和量子物理 的誕生,引發了這場革命。 接著兩者結合,創造出時空量子理論, 萬有引力是這一理論的頂峰, 直到今天也是如此。 在宇宙當中沒有事物是絕對和固定的,完全沒有。 宇宙被描述為一張聯繫網。
Space is just one aspect, so there’s no meaning to say absolutely where something is. There’s only where it is relative to everything else that is. And this network of relations is ever-evolving. So we call it a relational universe. All properties of things are about these kinds of relationships. And also, if you’re embedded in such a network of relationships, your view of the world has to do with what information comes to you through the network of relations. And there’s no place for an omniscient observer or an outside intelligence knowing everything and making everything. So this is general relativity, this is quantum theory. This is also, if you talk to legal scholars, the foundations of new ideas in legal thought. They’re thinking about the same things. And not only that, they make the analogy to relativity theory and cosmology often. So there’s an interesting discussion going on there. This last view of cosmology is called the relational view.
太空太是其中一方面, 因此說某種事物的絕對位置是沒有意義的。 事物的存在只有相對位置, 而這張聯繫網仍在不斷進化中。 因此我們稱它為關聯宇宙。 事物所有的本質都在這關聯之中。 假如你也身在這連繫網當中, 而你從中所取得資訊, 亦左右你對這個世界的看法。 而通曉一切的造物主或是無所不知的旁觀者 並不存在其中。 所以這是廣義相對論, 這是量子理論。 如果你去問法律專家, 這也會是新法律學理論的基礎。 他們所思量的是同樣的事。 不僅如此 他們常常會用 相對論和宇宙論作譬如。 因此一個有趣的討論就此誕生。 我們剛剛提到的宇宙學的觀點便是關聯的觀點。
So the main slogan here is that there’s nothing outside the universe, which means that there’s no place to put an explanation for something outside. So in such a relational universe, if you come upon something that’s ordered and structured, like this device here, or that device there, or something beautiful, like all the living things, all of you guys in the room -- "guys" in physics, by the way, is a generic term: men and women. (Laughter)
主要的口號就是處在這個宇宙之外沒有任何事物存在, 這意味著處在宇宙之外的一切 是沒有解釋的。 因此在這個關聯的宇宙中, 如果你遇見某件有秩序,組織的事物, 像是這個儀器,或是那個儀器, 或是某種美麗的事物,例如所有生物, 在座所有的傢伙們-- 順帶一提 「傢伙們」 在物理學當中是男人和女人通稱。 (笑聲)
Then you want to know, you’re a person, you want to know how is it made. And in a relational universe the only possible explanation was, somehow it made itself. There must be mechanisms of self-organization inside the universe that make things. Because there’s no place to put a maker outside, as there was in the Aristotelian and the Newtonian universe. So in a relational universe we must have processes of self-organization.
接著,你想知道,身為一個人類, 你想知道它是怎麼形成的。 在關聯宇宙中,唯一可能的解釋是,經過某種形式,它們創造了自己。 在這宇宙一定有一種自我組織機制 來創造萬物。 因為造物主不存在於宇宙之外, 這點不同於亞里斯多德和牛頓的宇宙。 因此在關聯宇宙當中,一定有自我組織過程的存在。
Now, Darwin taught us that there are processes of self-organization that suffice to explain all of us and everything we see. So it works. But not only that, if you think about how natural selection works, then it turns out that natural selection would only make sense in such a relational universe. That is, natural selection works on properties, like fitness, which are about relationships of some species to some other species. Darwin wouldn’t make sense in an Aristotelian universe, and wouldn’t really make sense in a Newtonian universe.
達爾文教導自我組織的過程是存在的, 那過程之豐富足以解釋我們本身和所有我們所看見的事物。 因此它行得通,但是不僅如此, 當你在思考天擇如何運作, 你會發現自然選擇只在關聯宇宙當中 會有其意義。 自然選擇作用於事物的固有屬性, 例如:適性, 是物種和物種之間的關係。 在亞里斯多德的宇宙中,達爾文的理論沒有意義, 在牛頓的宇宙當中也沒有意義。
So a theory of biology based on natural selection requires a relational notion of what are the properties of biological systems. And if you push that all the way down, really, it makes the best sense in a relational universe where all properties are relational. Now, not only that, but Einstein taught us that gravity is the result of the world being relational. If it wasn’t for gravity, there wouldn’t be life, because gravity causes stars to form and live for a very long time, keeping pieces of the world, like the surface of the Earth, out of thermal equilibrium for billions of years so life can evolve.
因此以自然選擇為基礎的生物學理論 要知道生物系統的 固有屬性。 如果繼續進行下去, 自然選擇在關聯宇宙當能體現其中的意義, 在這樣的宇宙中,事物的屬性都是相關聯的。 不僅如此,愛因斯坦告訴我們 地心引力是讓這個世界相互有關聯的原因。 沒有地心引力,就沒有生命, 因為地心引力讓星星得已形成並存活了非常長的一段時間, 保留世界上的片段,例如像地球的表面, 歷經數十億年的熱平衡,生命因此得以演化。
In the 20th century, we saw the independent development of two big themes in science. In the biological sciences, they explored the implications of the notion that order and complexity and structure arise in a self-organized way. That was the triumph of Neo-Darwinism and so forth. And slowly, that idea is leaking out to the cognitive sciences, the human sciences, economics, et cetera. At the same time, we physicists have been busy trying to make sense of and build on and integrate the discoveries of quantum theory and relativity.
在二十一世紀, 我們目睹了科學界當中兩大主題各自獨立的發展。 在生物科學當中,他們探索 在自我組織過程中,所呈現的次序性,複雜性, 和結構性所蘊含的意義。 這是新達爾文主義的成就。 漸漸地,這個想法擴散到認知科學, 人文科學,經濟學等等各種領域。 在此同時,我們物理學家 一直很努力去理解 整理,研究,整合 量子論和相對論的發現。
And what we’ve been working out is the implications, really, of the idea that the universe is made up of relations. 21st-century science is going to be driven by the integration of these two ideas: the triumph of relational ways of thinking about the world, on the one hand, and self-organization or Darwinian ways of thinking about the world, on the other hand. And also, is that in the 21st century our thinking about space and time and cosmology, and our thinking about society are both going to continue to evolve. And what they’re evolving towards is the union of these two big ideas, Darwinism and relationalism.
根據我們的研究,發現其中所蘊含的意義, 的確,宇宙是由許多的關聯所構成的。 二十一世紀的科學是由 兩大想法的整合所驅動: 一方面是以關聯的想法 去思考這個世界, 另一方面是自我組織 或是達爾文的方式去思考這個世界。 在二十一世紀, 我們對空間,時間,宇宙的看法 以及我們對社會的看法都持續在發展當中。 而它們發展的方向是朝 將達爾文主義和關聯主義整合的方向前進。
Now, if you think about democracy from this perspective, a new pluralistic notion of democracy would be one that recognizes that there are many different interests, many different agendas, many different individuals, many different points of view. Each one is incomplete, because you’re embedded in a network of relationships. Any actor in a democracy is embedded in a network of relationships. And you understand some things better than other things, and because of that there’s a continual jostling and give and take, which is politics. And politics is, in the ideal sense, the way in which we continually address our network of relations in order to achieve a better life and a better society.
如果從這個觀點去思考民主, 民主的創新多元觀點將會是 承認許多各式各樣的利益,議題, 個體,觀點的想法。 每一個都是不完整的,因為我們置身於 聯繫網其中。 任何一位民主的參與者 都包含在聯繫網當中。 有些人對某些事物的了解比對其他事物的了解還要來得更深入, 因此不間斷有競爭, 給予和索取,這就是政治。 而政治就某種意義上來說 便是我們持續討論的聯繫網。 為了創造更好的社會, 以及獲得更好的生活。
And I also think that science will never go away and -- I’m finishing on this line. (Laughter) In fact, I’m finished. Science will never go away.
我也相信科學會永遠在我們身邊,並且 我以一這句話做為總結。 (笑聲) 事實上,我已經結束了,科學會永遠在我們身邊。