Everything There Is
世间万物

Caltech theoretical physicist Sean M. Carroll talks about the necessary connections among the various ways we have of describing the universe.
加利福尼亚理工学院的理论物理学家Sean M. Carroll谈及我们描述宇宙的不同方式之间的必要联系。

撰文：斯蒂夫·米尔斯基（Steve Mirsky）
翻译：陈旭琦
审校：吴非
统筹：李轩

“My previous books have been specifically about topics in physics. But this time I wanted to take a step back and ask questions about how all of the different ways we have of describing the universe fit together.”
“我之前的书主要涉及的是物理学中的话题。但是这次我想后退一步，就我们如何将现有描述宇宙的方式整合在一起提出问题。”

Caltech theoretical physicist Sean M. Carroll. His latest book is The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself.
加利福尼亚理工学院的理论物理学家Sean M. Carroll谈到了他的近作《大蓝景：生命的起源、意义和宇宙本身》（The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself）。

“So some ways we have of describing the universe are physics-centered, you know, talking about particles and forces and quantum mechanisms. But we also talk about it terms of macroscopic things like tables and chairs, biological things like cells and organisms, or human level things, you know, emotions and aspirations and desires. And they’re all, I strongly believe, ways of describing the same underlying stuff. So even though you don’t need to know particle physics to do biology or psychology, your theories of biology and psychology better be compatible with particle physics and your theories of psychology better be compatible with biology and so on.
“我们描述宇宙的方式中，有一些是以物理为中心的，例如粒子、作用力和量子机制。但是我们也讨论桌椅等宏观的事物、细胞和有机体等生物相关的事物，或者从人类角度谈论情绪、激励和欲望。我坚信，它们是讨论同一种事物的不同方式。所以即使你在研究生物或心理学时不需要了解粒子物理学，你提出的生物学或心理学理论最好能够和粒子物理学相兼容。同样，心理学的理论最好也能够和生物学相兼容。”

“There’s an enormous amount of very exciting and challenging work to be done, to both invent these different theories and to fit them together. But I think we can see the outlines of how it will all happen…it’s what in the book I label poetic naturalism.
“有许多令人激动又极具挑战的工作亟待完成，包括构建这些不同的理论并将它们整合在一起。但在我看来，我们是可以看到容纳这些这些理论的整体轮廓的。我在书中将这标记为诗意的自然主义。”

“Naturalism is the simple idea that there’s one world—the natural world. Even if there’s a multiverse we call it all a single world. There’s nothing else that the universe needs. The universe just goes on by itself, it doesn’t need to be sustained or created from outside. And the poetic aspect of it is that we should take seriously all of these different ways that we have of talking about the natural world.
“自然主义的想法很简单，就是只存在一个世界——自然界。即使多元宇宙存在，所有其他宇宙和我们所在的宇宙连同在一起称为是一个大的世界。宇宙不需要由外界维持或创造，它的发展仅取决于自身，无需借助于自身之外的事物。而诗意的层面是指我们要严肃对待所有认识自然界的不同方式。”

“So you can be a naturalist and sort of be a hardcore naturalist who says the only thing that is real are elementary particles or the fundamental stuff of nature. I think that tables and chairs are real, and the argument for saying that tables and chairs are real leads you to also say that things like consciousness and free will are also real, they’re useful ways of talking about the universe.
“所以你可能是一个狂热的自然主义者，认为唯一的真实是基本粒子或自然界中某些最基本的东西；而我认为桌椅也是真实的，而接受这一观点又将使你接受意识和自由意志等事物也是真实的。所有这些观点都是是我们认识宇宙的有效途径。”

“So the act of choosing the best way to talk about the universe is in some context a fundamentally poetic one. It is narrating the story of our lives in a useful way.”
“所以在某种程度上，认识宇宙的最佳方式是在诗意层面，它是我们描述宇宙的最全面有效的方式。”