Transformers
1
A million yearsisn’t much, as the galaxy spins. Stars are older. Nebulae are older. Driftingshards of unidentifiable matter and splinters of subatomic particles and wave-formproperties we don’t even have names for yet are considerably older still. Forhuman beings, though, a million years is a very long stretch indeed. It’s asmall step back in time, but one that extends way past our first feeblescratchings as a civilization, before we could be counted as even moderatelyintelligent creatures. 当星系旋转时,一百万年并不算多。星星更老了。星云比较老。不明物质的漂移碎片、亚原子粒子的碎片以及我们甚至还没有名字的波形特性,都要比这古老得多。然而,对人类来说,一百万年确实是很长的一段时间。这只是时间上的一小步倒退,但却远远超出了我们作为一个文明所经历的第一次微弱的抓挠,在我们甚至可以被算作是中等智慧的生物之前。There are other entities Out There,however, for whom a million years is a simple, measurable, comprehensible passingof time. Beings made of sterner stuff both mentally as well as materially.Intelligences straightforward yet vast, to whom our petty everyday concernswould be of no more concern than are those of an ant to a strolling human. Sometimesthese beings pause to contemplate the universe. Sometimes they raise monumentsand works that would stun into permanent silence the most imaginative among us.Sometimes they embark on and bring to fruition good works. 然而,对于其他实体来说,一百万年是一个简单的、可测量的、可理解的时间流逝。无论是精神上还是物质上都是由更严厉的东西构成的。智慧直截了当,却又浩瀚无垠,对他们来说,我们日常琐碎的琐事,就不比蚂蚁对闲逛的人来说更为重要了。有时这些生物会停下来沉思宇宙。有时他们会竖起纪念碑和作品,让我们中最富有想象力的人陷入永久的沉默。有时他们会着手并取得好的成果。And sometimes . . . sometimes they are notnice. 有时。有时候他们不好。The symbol had not been wrought by the handof man. Its design was simultaneously infinitely complex, astoundinglybeautiful, and clear-cut. Any human sculptors would have been proud to haveacknowledged it as their work. Etched into the side of an immense metalliccube,its straight lines and sharp diagonals, its whorls and curves and stylish embellishments,shone beneath the light of distant stars as it tumbled through space. 这个符号不是由人的手造成的。它的设计同时是无限复杂,惊人的美丽,和明确。任何人类雕塑家都会为自己的作品而自豪。刻在一个巨大的金属立方体的侧面,它的直线和尖锐的对角线,它的轮盘和曲线,以及时尚的装饰,在遥远的星光下闪耀着,因为它在空间中翻滚。The symbol was not an isolated example ofits type. A second one decorated the metal surface to its right, another to itsleft. A different symbol gleamed above it and still another kind below. Theslowly spinning cube was covered with such metal inscriptions. 该符号不是其类型的孤立示例。第二个装饰的金属表面在它的右边,另一个在它的左边。一个不同的符号在上面闪烁,在下面还有另一种。慢慢旋转的立方体上覆盖着这样的金属铭文。Thousands of them. There was nothing toindicate why the cube had been created. Nothing beyond surface aesthetics toindicate what its purpose might be, if indeed it had one that extended beyondthe mere visual. That it was the product of an immensely advanced intelligencewould have been apparent to any sentient being who happened to set eyes uponit. That it represented the supreme power, the ultimate heart of an immenselysophisticated world whose utterly nonhuman inhabitants had all but destroyed themselvesin an interminable war between darkness and light, between truth and lies, wasperceptible only to those for whom it represented and focused their very lifeforce itself. 成千上万的人。没有任何东西可以说明创建多维数据集的原因。没有什么能超越表面美学来说明它的目的是什么,如果它确实有一个超越单纯视觉的目的。它是一种极为先进的智慧的产物,这一点对于任何碰巧看到它的众生来说都是显而易见的。它代表着至高无上的力量,是一个极其复杂的世界的终极心脏,这个世界上完全非人类的居民几乎在黑暗与光明、真理与谎言之间的无休止的战争中毁灭了自己,只有那些它所代表和集中其生命力的人才能察觉到这一点。Cast out from a world awash in death,catapulted into the emptiness of interstellar space by a convulsion greaterthan any that had preceded its creation, it now wandered aimlessly across thegreat glowing spiral of the galaxy as those who had battled over its controlfought on even in the absence of that for which they had originally warred.Great cities were obliterated and laboriously rebuilt, whole cultures were swallowedand reborn, as the war dragged on and on—without purpose,without meaning,without end.它被从一个充满死亡的世界中赶出来,被一场比它诞生之前任何一次都大的惊厥抛入星际空间的空虚之中,现在它漫无目的地游荡在银河系的巨大发光的旋涡中,因为那些为它的控制权而战的人,即使没有他们最初为之而战的东西,也在继续战斗。伟大的城市被毁灭和艰苦的重建,整个文化被吞没和重生,因为战争无目的、无意义、无目的地持续下去。
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