TED演讲：宏观历史(8)

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　　We can see it at work in the earliest stages of human history. 我们可以看到在人类历史早期的阶段这种能力的运作。

　　We evolved as a species in the savanna¹ lands of Africa, but then you see humans migrating into new environments, 我们作为一种物种，在非洲的草原上进化，但是然后你看到人类迁徙到一个新的环境

　　into desert lands, into jungles, into the Ice Age tundra² of Siberia -- tough, tough environment -- into the Americas, into Australasia. 进入到沙漠，进入雨林，进入西伯利亚冻土带--艰苦，艰苦的环境中--进入美洲，澳洲。

　　Each migration³ involved learning -- learning new ways of exploiting the environment, new ways of dealing⁴ with their surroundings. 每次迁徙都涉及到学习--学习新的方法来利用环境，新的方法来适应环境。

　　Then 10,000 years ago, exploiting a sudden change in global climate with the end of the last ice age, humans learned to farm. 然后一万年前，全球环境突然发生变化在冰河世纪晚期，人类学会耕种。

　　Farming was an energy bonanza⁵. And exploiting that energy, human populations multiplied. 农业是一个能量密集型产业。同时利用这个能量，人口增长。

　　Human societies got larger, denser⁶, more interconnected. 人类社会变的更庞大，更密集，更加相互交流。

　　And then from about 500 years ago, humans began to link up globally through shipping⁷, 然后大约500年之前，人类开始全球化的联系，通过轮船，

　　through trains, through telegraph, through the Internet, until now we seem to form a single global brain of almost seven billion individuals.  通过铁路，通过电报，通过网络，直到现在我们似乎已经形成一个单独的全球性大脑，它包含着近70亿个个体。

　　And that brain is learning at warp⁸ speed. And in the last 200 years, something else has happened. 这个大脑以一种超速学习着。在过去200年，有一些事发生了。

　　We've stumbled on another energy bonanza in fossil fuels. 我们偶然发现另外一个能量源，石油。

　　So fossil fuels and collective learning together explain the staggering complexity⁹ we see around us. 所以石油以及集体学习进化一起解释了我们周围的让人吃惊的复杂性。

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