TED十佳演讲之面对灾难:如何在核袭击中生存(2)

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　　and what we were dealing² with, at that point and through those years, was a superpowers' nuclear arms race. 我们要关注的是在这些年间有一场超级大国之间的核军备竞赛

　　It was characterized by a nation-versus-nation, very fragile standoff. 这场核军备竞赛最主要的特点就是，国家之间的对立导致核战争一触即发

　　And basically, we lived for all those years, and some might argue that we still do, 基本上可以毫不夸张地说，我们那些年，有些人认为直至今日情况仍然是

　　in a situation of being on the brink³, literally⁴, of an apocalyptic⁵, planetary calamity⁶. 就像走在世界末日的悬崖边，

　　It's incredible that we actually lived through all that.  我们能活到现在简直是难以置信

　　We were totally dependent during those years on this amazing acronym⁷, which is MAD. 这些年我们（之所以能活下来）完全是依赖于这个神奇的叫做MAD的东西

　　It stands for mutually assured destruction.  它是“确保相互毁灭”的缩写

　　So it meant if you attacked us, we would attack you virtually simultaneously⁸, 它的意思是，如果...如果你袭击我，我也会袭击你，双方几乎同时发动袭击

　　and the end result would be a destruction of your country and mine. 这样做的结果就是你我两国同时被摧毁

　　So the threat of my own destruction kept me from launching a nuclear attack on you. That's the way we lived. 因此由于担心我自己被毁灭，我不会发射（核武器）来对你进行核打击。这就是我们为什么能活下来

　　And the danger of that, of course, is that a misreading of a radar⁹ screen could actually cause a counter-launch, 不过这么做的危险就是，雷达的一次误报就可能引发一次反击

　　even though the first country had not actually launched anything.  即使另一个国家事实上根本没有发射任何东西

　　During this chapter one,  在这个时期

　　there was a high level of public awareness¹⁰ about the potential of nuclear catastrophe¹¹, 民众很清楚地意识到确实可能发生潜在的核灾难

　　and an indelible image was implanted in our collective minds  一个难以抹掉的画面出现在每个人的脑海中

　　that, in fact, a nuclear holocaust¹² would be absolutely globally destructive 那就是一次核灾难将带来全球性的毁灭

　　and could, in some ways, mean the end of civilization as we know it.  而且，从某个角度来说，这也意味着人类文明将走到尽头

　　So this was chapter one.  这就是第一个时期

　　Now the odd thing is that even though we knew that there would be that kind of civilization obliteration¹³, 不过奇怪的是，即使我们知道可能会发生这种文明灭绝

　　we engaged in America in a series -- and in fact, in the Soviet Union -- in a series of response planning. 我们美国人正忙于一系列--事实上苏联也一样--一系列应对措施

　　It was absolutely incredible.  这简直让人难以置信

　　So premise¹⁴ one is we'd be destroying the world, and then premise two is, why don't we get prepared for it? 一方面是我们随时都可能毁灭世界，另一方面我们却在考虑如何为此做好准备？

　　So what we offered ourselves was a collection of things. 所以，我们提出了一堆方案。

　　I'm just going to go skim through a few things, just to jog your memories. 我将只回顾其中的几个，只是为了唤起你们的回忆

　　If you're born after 1950, this is just -- consider this entertainment, otherwise it's memory lane. 如果你是1950年之后出生的，你可以把这些当作娱乐，或者是怀旧

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