Part I Lost in the cosmos¹. 第一章 如何营造一个宇宙

They're all in the same plane.They're all going around in the same direction. . . . 它们都处于同一平面。 它们都在沿同一方向转动......

It's perfect,you know. It's gorgeous. It's almost uncanny. 你要知道，这真是完美无缺的，这真是不可思议的，这几乎是很神奇的。

Astronomer² Geoffrey Marcy describing the solar system 天文学家杰弗里?马西对太阳系的描述

1 How to build a universe? No matter hard you try you will never be able to grasp just how tiny, how spatially³ unassuming, is a proton. 无论怎么努力，你都永远也想像不出质子有多么微小，占有多么小的空间。

It is just way too small. 它实在太小了。

A proton is an infinitesimal part of an atom, which is itself of course an insubstantial thing. 质子是原子极其微小的组成部分，而原子本身当然也小不可言。

Protons are so small that a little dib of ink like the dot on this i can hold something in the region of 500 billion of them, 像字母"i"上的点这样大小的一滴墨水，就可以拥有约莫5000亿个质子，

rather more than the number of seconds contained in half a million years. 说得更确切一点，要比组成1.5万年的秒数还多。

So protons are exceedingly microscopic⁴, to say the very least. 因此，起码可以说，质子是极其微小的。

Now imagine if you can (and of course you can't) 现在，请你想像一下，假如你能（你当然不能）

shrinking one of those protons down to a billionth of its normal size into a space so small that it would make a proton look enormous. 使它显得很大，然后，你把大约30克物质装进那个极小极小的空间。

Now pack into that tiny, tiny space about an ounce of matter. 把一个质子缩小到它正常大小的十亿分之一，放进一个极小的空间，

Excellent. You are ready to start a universe. 很好，你已作好创建一个宇宙的准备。

I'm assuming of course that you wish to build an inflationary universe. 我当然估计到，你希望创建一个会膨胀的宇宙。

If you'd prefer instead to build a more old-fashioned, standard Big Bang universe, you'll need additional materials. 不过，要是你愿意创建一个比较老式而又标准的大爆炸型宇宙，你还需要别的材料。

In fact, you will need to gather up everything there is every last mote⁵ and particle of matter between here and the edge of creation 事实上，你需要收集现有的一切东西--从现在到宇宙创建之时的每个粒子--

and squeeze it into a spot so infinitesimally compact that it has no dimensions at all. 把它塞进一个根本谈不上大小的极小地方。

It is known as a singularity.", 这就是所谓的奇点。