第十九章: 爱因斯坦、单摆、大撕裂 Einstein, the Pendulum Monument, and the Great Rip
In the distance were many more tall buildings, apparently dehydratories. All had completely reflective mirror surfaces. In the dawn light they appeared as giant crystal plants growing out of the ground.
远处的大地上，星罗棋布着许多显然是干仓的高大建筑，都有着全反射的镜面表面，在晨光中像大地上生长的巨型水晶植物。
Wang suddenly noticed the sun. But it rose in the opposite direction from the dawn light, and the patch of the sky around it was still completely dark.
汪淼突然发现日出了，但太阳是从与晨光相反方向的地平线下升起的，那里的天穹还是一片漆黑的夜空，太阳升起之前没有任何晨光。
The fifth time Wang Miao logged on to Three Body, it was dawn as usual, but the world was unrecognizable. The great pyramid that had appeared the first four times had been destroyed by the tri-solar syzygy. In its place was a tall, modern building, whose dark gray shape was familiar to Wang: the United Nations Headquarters.
汪淼第五次进入《三体》时，黎明中的世界已面目全非。前四次均出现的大金字塔已在“三日连珠”中毁灭，在那个位置上出现了一座高大的现代建筑。这幢黑色大楼的样子汪淼很熟悉，那是联合国大厦。
Wang heard a violin playing something by Mozart. The playing wasn’t very practiced, but there was a special charm to it, as though saying: I play for myself. The violinist was a homeless old man sitting on the steps in front of the UN Headquarters, his fluffy silver hair fluttering in the wind. Next to his feet was an old top hat containing some scattered change.
汪淼听见一阵小提琴声，好像是莫扎特的一首曲子，拉得不熟练，但有一种很特别的韵味，仿佛时时在说明，这是拉给自己听的，而自己也很欣赏。琴声来自坐在大厦正门台阶上的一位流浪老人，他蓬松的银发在风中飘着，他脚下放了一顶破礼帽，里面好像已经有人放了些零钱。
The sun was very large, its half-risen disk taking up a third of the horizon. Wang’s heart beat faster: Such a large sun could only mean another great catastrophe. But when Wang turned around, the old man continued to play as though nothing odd was happening. His silver hair shone brilliantly in the sun, as though it was on fire.
太阳很大．升出一半的日轮占据了三分之一的地平线。汪淼的心跳加快了，这么大的太阳，只能意味着又一次大毁灭。但他回头看时，见那位老人仍若无其事地坐在那儿拉琴，他的银发在太阳的光芒中像燃烧起来似的。
Wang realized that the disk did not emit light. It only reflected the light from the real sun, which was on the other side of the sky, below the horizon. What had risen wasn’t a sun at all, but a giant moon. The giant moon moved briskly up the sky at a pace that could be detected by the naked eye. In the process, it gradually waned from a full to a half moon, and then a crescent. The old man’s soothing violin strains drifted on the cold morning breeze. The majestic sight of the universe was like the music made material. Wang was intoxicated.
汪淼明白了，它本身不发光，只是反射从另一个方向发出晨光的真太阳的光芒，升起来的不是太阳，而是一个巨型月亮！巨月运行得很快，以肉眼可以察觉的速度掠过长空，在这个过程中，它逐渐由满月融缺成半月，然后又变成了月牙，老人舒缓的小提琴声在寒冷的晨风中飘荡，宇宙中壮丽的景象仿佛就是那音乐的物化，汪淼陶醉于美的震慑之中。
The sun was silvery, just like the old man’s hair. It cast a pale white light over the ground, but Wang couldn’t feel any warmth from the light. He gazed at the sun, which had now completely risen. On the giant silver disk he could pick out lines like wood grains: mountain ranges.
这太阳就是银色的，与老人头发一样的颜色，它将一片银光撒向大地，但汪淼从这光芒中感觉不到一点儿暖意。他看看已经完全升出地平线的太阳，从那发出银光的巨盘上，他清晰地看到了木纹状的图形，那是固态的山脉。
The giant crescent now fell into the dawn light and grew much brighter. When only two glowing tips remained above the horizon, Wang imagined them as the tips of the horns of a titanic bull rushing toward the sun.
巨大月牙在展光中落下，这时它的亮度增长了很多，当它只剩两个银光四射的尖角在地平线之上时，汪淼突然将其想象成一头正在奔向太阳的宇宙巨牛的两只犄角。
“Honored Copernicus, rest your busy feet here a while,” the old man said, after the giant moon had set. “Then after you’ve appreciated some Mozart, perhaps I can have some lunch.”
“尊敬的哥白尼，停一停您匆忙的脚步吧，这样您欣赏一曲莫扎特，我也就有了午饭。”巨月完全落下后，老人抬起头来说：
“If I’m not mistaken…” Wang looked at the face full of wrinkles. The wrinkles were long and their curves gentle, as though they were trying to create a kind of harmony. “You’re not. I’m Einstein, a pitiful man full of faith in God, though abandoned by Him.”
“如果我没认错一一”汪淼看着那张满是皱纹的脸说，那些皱纹都很长，曲线也很柔和，像在努力造就一种和谐：“您没认错，我是爱因斯坦，一个对上帝充满信仰却被他抛弃的可怜人。”
“What is that giant moon? I’ve never seen it the previous times I was here.”
“刚才那个大月亮是怎么回事？我前几次来没有见过它。”
“It’s already cooled off.”
“它已经凉下来了。”
“What?”
“谁？”
Einstein sighed and shook his head. “Let’s not speak of it. Forget the past. My past, civilization’s past, the universe’s past — all of it too painful to recall.”
爱因斯坦叹息着摇摇头：“不提了，往事不堪回首，我的过去，文明的过去，宇宙的过去，都不堪回首啊！”
“The big moon. When I was little it was still hot. When it rose to the middle of the sky, I could see the red glow from the central plains. But now it’s cold… Haven’t you heard about the great rip?”
“大月亮啊，我小时候它还热着，升到中天时能看到核心平原上的红光，现在凉下来了……你没听说过大撕裂吗？”
“No. What’s that?”
“没有，怎么回事？”
“I’ve always believed that without me, others would have discovered special relativity eventually. But general relativity is different. The bit that Newton lacked was the effect on planetary orbit from the gravitationally induced curvature of space-time described by general relativity. Though the error caused by it was small, its impact on the results of the computation was fatal. Adding the correction factor for perturbation from space-time curvature to the classical equations would yield the right mathematical model. The amount of computational power required far exceeds what you accomplished in the East, but is easily provided by modern computers.”
“我一直认为，没有我，别人也会发现狭义相对论，但广义相对论却不是这样。牛顿差的那一点，就是广义相对论所描述的行星轨道的引力摄动，它引起的误差虽然但对计算结果却是致命的。在经典方程中加入引力摄动的修正，就得到了正确的数学模型。它的运算量比你们在东方完成的要大得多，但对现代计算机来说，真的不成问题。”
“Thank you, Mr. Copernicus. Let’s hope that God doesn’t abandon you, though I don’t have much faith in that. I feel that the model you and Newton and the others created in the East with the help of the human-formation computer was very close to being correct. But the little bit of error left was like an uncrossable chasm for Newton and the others.”
“谢谢哥白尼先生，但愿上帝不抛弃您吧，不过我对此没有信心。我感觉，您和牛顿他们到东方用人列运算的那个模型，已很接近于正确了，但所差的那么一点点，对牛顿或其他的人来说是一道不可逾越的鸿沟。”
“How did you get to be like this?” Wang searched in his pocket and found some change. He bent over and dropped the money into the hat.
“您怎么落到这个地步？”汪淼掏掏口袋，真的掏出了一些零钱，他弯腰将钱放到帽子里。
“If that had occurred, do you think I’d be here? But from the perspective of aesthetics, I must be right and the universe must be wrong. God abandoned me, then others abandoned me as well. I’m wanted nowhere. Princeton dismissed me as a professor. UNESCO wouldn’t even have me as a science consultant. Before, even if they had begged on their knees, I wouldn’t have wanted the position. I even thought of going to Israel to be president, but they changed their minds and said I was nothing but a fraud…”
“要那样我会在这里吗？但从美学角度讲，我是没错的，错的是宇宙。上帝抛弃了我，接着所有的人都抛弃了我，哪里都不要我，普林斯顿撤销了我的教授职位，联合国教科文组织连个科学顾问的职位都不给我，以前他们跪着求我我都不干呢；我甚至想去以色列当总统，可他们说他们改变主意了，说我不过是个骗子，唉――”
“Have the results of the computation been confirmed by astronomical observations?”
“运算结果得到天文观测的证实了吗？”
“There’s no one in there,” Einstein said, still playing. “All the members of the General Assembly session are behind the building attending the Pendulum Initiation Ceremony.”
“里面没有人，参加这届联大的所有人都在大厦后面参加单摆启动仪式。”爱因斯坦拉着琴说。
Wang walked around the building and was greeted by a breathtaking sight: a colossal pendulum that seemed to stretch between the sky and the earth. In fact, Wang had seen it peeking out from behind the building, but he didn’t know what he was seeing.
汪淼绕过了大厦，来到它后面，立刻看到了一件不可思议的东西：一架顶天立地的巨型单摆。其实在大厦前面就能看到它露出的一段，但汪淼当时不知道是什么东西。
Einstein began playing again, picking up right where he had stopped. After listening to him for a while, Wang strode toward the UN building.
爱因斯坦说完又拉起了琴，很精确地从刚才的中断处拉起。汪淼听了一会儿，迈步向大厦的大门走去。
“You’re one of those who saw the pendulums of the Warring States Period with your own eyes!” A friendly man shook and held Wang’s hand. Someone introduced the man as the secretary general of the UN, from Africa.
“而且，您是在那战国时代亲眼见过单摆的人！”一个面貌和善的黑人握着汪淼的手说。有人介绍他是本届联合国秘书长。
“Ah, Copernicus, the man who crossed five eras!” someone shouted. The others welcomed him.
“啊，哥白尼，跨越五个时代的人！”有人高声喊道，其他人纷纷对他表示欢迎。
Below the pendulum was a crowd of people dressed in suits, probably the leaders of the various countries attending the General Assembly session. They gathered in small cliques and talked amongst themselves quietly, as though waiting for something.
在巨摆之下有一群穿着西装的人，可能就是参加联大会议的各国首脑了。他们三五成堆地低声聊着，好像在等待着什么。
The pendulum resembled those constructed by Fu Xi to hypnotize the sun god during the Warring States Period, back when Wang Miao first logged on to Three Body. But the pendulum before him had been completely modernized. The two pillars holding up the pendulum were made of metal, each as tall as the Eiffel Tower. The weight was also made of metal, streamlined, with a smooth, mirrorlike, electroplated surface. The pendulum line, made of some ultrastrong material, was so thin as to be almost invisible, and the weight seemed to float in the air between the two towers.
这就是汪淼第一次进入《三体》时，在战国时代的大地上看到的由伏羲建造的那种巨摆，用来给太阳神催眠。眼前这架巨摆外形已经现代化，支撑天桥的两个高塔是全金属结构，每一个都有埃菲尔铁塔那么高，摆锤也是金属的，呈流线型，表面是光滑的电镀镜面，由于有了高强度材料，悬吊摆锤的线缆只有很细的一根，几乎看不到，这使得摆锤看上去像是空悬在两座高塔之间的空中。
“Is the effort over?”
“这努力终结了吗？”
“It’s a monument for Trisolaris, as well as a tombstone.” The secretary general looked up at the pendulum. From down here, it appeared as big as a submarine.
“它是三体纪念碑，也是一个墓碑。”秘书长仰望着半空中的摆锤说，从这里看去，它足有一个潜水艇那么大。
“Yes, I did see them,” Wang said. “But why are we building another one now?”
“是的，我见过，可为什么现在又建起这东西？”汪淼问。
“For an aspiration, a striving that lasted through almost two hundred civilizations: the effort to solve the three-body problem, to find the pattern in the suns’ movements.”
“一个努力的，一个延续了近二百个文明的努力，为解决三体问题的努力，寻找太阳运行规律的努力。”
“A tombstone? For who?”
“墓碑？谁的？”
“Yes. As of now, it’s completely over.”
“到现在为止，彻底终结了。”
Wang hesitated for a moment before taking out a stack of papers, Wei Cheng’s three-body mathematical model. “I… I came here for this. I brought a mathematical model that solves the three-body problem. I have reason to believe it will likely work.”
汪淼犹豫了一下，拿出了一叠资料，这是魏成三体问题数学模型的链接：“我……就是为此事而来的，我带来了一个解决三体问题的数学模型，据信是很有可能成功。”
As soon as Wang said this, the crowd around him lost interest. They returned to their cliques to continue their conversations. He noticed that a few even shook their heads and laughed as they left him. The secretary general took the document and, without even glancing at it, handed it to a slender man wearing glasses standing next to him. “Out of respect for your famed reputation, I’ll have my science advisor take a look. Indeed, everyone here has shown you respect. If anyone else had said what you said, they’d be laughing at him.”
汪淼话一出口，发现周围的人立刻对他失去了兴趣，都离开他回到自己的小圈子里继续刚才的聊天，他注意到有的人离开时还笑着摇摇头。秘书长拿过了资料，看也没看就递给了旁边一位戴眼镜的瘦高的人：“出于对您崇高威望的尊敬，请我的科学顾问看看吧。其实大家已经对您表示了这种尊敬，换了别人，会立刻招来嘲笑的。”
“And?”
“结果呢？”
“Yes. There are dozens of other mathematical models. Of those, more than half are more advanced than yours. They’ve all been implemented and run on computers. During the past two centuries, such massive computation became the principal activity of this world. Everyone waited for the results as if waiting for Judgment Day.”
“是的，还有其他几十种数学模型，其中一半以上比您这个要高明得多，都被创造出来，并在计算机上完成了计算。在过去的两个世纪中，这种巨量的计算是世界的中心活动，人们就像等待最后审判日那样等着结果。”
“You seem to be suggesting that someone has already created such a mathematical model?”
“听您的意思，已经有人创造了这种数学模型？”
The science advisor flipped through the document. “Evolutionary algorithm? Copernicus, you’re a genius. Anyone who can come up with such an algorithm is a genius. This requires not only superior math skills, but also imagination.”
科学顾问接过资料翻了翻：“进化算法？哥白尼，你是个天才，能搞出这种算法的人都是天才，这除了高超的数学能力，还需要想象力。”
“We have definitively proven that the three-body problem has no solution.”
“已经确切地证明，三体问题无解。”
Wang gazed up at the massive pendulum overhead. In the dawn light, it was crystal bright. Its deformed mirrorlike surface reflected everything around it like the eye of the world. In this place, in a distant age separated from the here and now by many civilizations, he and King Wen had passed through a forest of giant pendulums on their way to the palace of King Zhou. Just like that, history had made a long circuit and returned to its starting place.
汪淼仰望着巨大的摆锤，它在晨曦中晶莹光亮，作为一面变形的镜子反映着周围的一切，仿佛是世界的眸子。在那已被许多个文明所隔开的遥远时代，就在这片大地上，他和周文王曾穿过林立的巨摆走向纣王的宫殿。历史就这样划了一个漫长的大圈，回到了最初的地方。
“God is a shameless old gambler. He has abandoned us!” The speaker was Einstein, waving his violin. Wang didn’t know when he had shown up.
“上帝是个无耻的老赌徒，他抛弃了我们！”爱因斯坦不知什么时候过来了，挥着小提琴说。
Wang felt his scientific knowledge and system of thought become a blur in a single moment. In their place was unprecedented confusion. “If even an extremely simple arrangement like the three-body system is unpredictable chaos, how can we have any faith in discovering the laws of the complicated universe?”
汪淼感觉自己所有的科学知识和思想体系在一瞬间模糊不清了，代之以前所未有的迷茫：“如果连三体这样极其简单的系统都处于不可预知的混沌，那我们还怎样对探索复杂宇宙的规律抱有信心呢？”
By now, the giant moon was rising again from the dark side of the horizon. Its large, silvery image was reflected by the surface of the pendulum weight. The light wriggled strangely, as though the weight and the moon had developed a mysterious sympathy together.
这时，巨月又从黑夜一方的天边升起，它银色的巨像映在摆锤光滑表面上，光怪陆离地蠕动着，仿佛摆锤和巨月两者之间产生了神秘的心灵感应。
The science advisor said, “It’s just like we guessed long ago: The three-body system is a chaotic system. Tiny perturbations can be endlessly amplified. Its patterns of movement essentially cannot be mathematically predicted.”
“正像我们早就精测的那样，三体是一个混沌系统，会将微小的扰动无限放大，其运行规律从数学本质上讲是不可预测的。”科学顾问说。
The secretary general slowly nodded. “Yes, God is a gambler. The only hope for Trisolaran civilization is to gamble as well.”
秘书长缓缓地点点头：“是的，上帝是个赌徒，那三体文明的唯一希望，就是也赌一把了。”
“This civilization seems to have developed to a very advanced state,” Wang said.
“您说到文明，这一个文明好像已经发展到相当的高度了。”汪淼说。
“Yes. We’ve mastered the energy of the atom and reached the Information Age.” The secretary general didn’t seem to be too impressed by his own words.
“是的，掌握了核能，到了信息时代。”秘书长说，但对这一切似乎不以为然。
“Then there is hope: Even if it’s impossible to know the pattern of the suns’ movements, civilization can continue to develop until it reaches a stage where it can survive the Chaotic Eras by protecting itself against the devastating catastrophes of those eras.”
“那就存在着这样一个希望：文明继续发展下去，达到另一个高度，虽然不能得知太阳运行的规律，但能够在乱纪元生存下去，并且能够抵御以前太阳异常运行造成的那些毁灭性的大灾难。”
“The disaster that destroyed the last civilization. Compared to the civilizations before it, they had ample warning of the disaster. Based on surviving records, the astronomers of Civilization 191 detected a frozen flying star early on.”
“毁灭上一轮文明的大灾难。其实，与以前的文明相比，对这个灾难的预警期还是相当长的。遗留的记载显示，191号文明的天文学家很早就观测到了‘飞星不动’。”
“People once thought as you do. That was one of the motivating forces pushing Trisolaran civilization to tenaciously come back again and again. But the moon made us realize the naïveté of such an idea.” The secretary general pointed to the rising giant moon. “This is probably the first time you’ve seen this moon. Actually, since it’s about a quarter of the size of our planet, it’s no longer a moon, but a companion to our world in a double planet system. It resulted from the great rip.”
“以前人们都是这样想的，这也是三体文明前赴后继顽强再生的动力之一，但它使我们认识到，这一想法是何等的天真。”秘书长指指正在升起的巨月说，“你可能是第一次看到这个巨大的月亮，其实它几乎有我们行星的四分之一大小，已经不是一个月亮，而是这颗行星的一颗伴星了，它是大撕裂的产物。”
“The great rip?”
“大撕裂？”
Wang’s heart clenched as he heard the last phrase. A frozen flying star was a terrible omen for Trisolaris. When a flying star, or a distant sun, seems to come to a complete stop against the background starfield, then the sun’s and the planet’s motion vectors are aligned. This has three possible interpretations: the sun and the planet are moving in the same direction at the same speed; the sun and the planet are moving apart from each other; and the sun and the planet are moving toward each other. Before Civilization 191, this last possibility was purely theoretical, a disaster that had never occurred. But the population’s fear of it and their vigilance did not diminish, so much so that “frozen flying star” became an extremely unlucky phrase in many Trisolaran civilizations. A single flying star remaining still was sufficient to terrify everyone.
听到最后四个字，汪淼心里一紧。“飞星不动”是三体世界最大的凶兆，飞星，或者说远方的太阳，从地面的观察角度看在宇宙的背景上静止了，只意味太阳与行星在一条直线上运行。这有三种可观能：一、太阳与行星以相同的速度向同一方向运行；二、太阳正远离行星而去，三、太阳正冲向行星而来。在191号文明之前，这只是一种想象中的灾难，从未真实发生过，但人们对它的恐惧和警觉丝毫没有放松，以至于“飞星不动”成了多个三体文明中的一句最不吉利的咒语。即使只有一颗飞星静止，也让人不寒而栗。
“And then three flying stars froze simultaneously. The people of Civilization 191 stood on the ground, gazing up helplessly at the three frozen flying stars, at the three suns falling directly toward their world. A few days later, one of the suns moved to a distance where its outer gaseous layer became visible. In the middle of a tranquil night, the star suddenly turned into a blazing sun. Separated by intervals of thirty hours or so, the other two suns also appeared in quick succession. This was not a normal kind of tri-solar day. By the time the last flying star turned into a sun, the first sun had already swept past the planet at extremely close range. Right after that, the other two suns swept past Trisolaris at even closer ranges, well within the planet’s Roche limit31, such that the tidal forces imposed on Trisolaris by the three suns exceeded the force of the planet’s gravitational self-attraction. The first sun shook the deepest geological structure of the planet; the second sun tore open a great rift in the planet that went straight to the core; and the third sun ripped the planet into two pieces.”
“当时，三颗飞星同时静止。191文明的人们站在大地上无助地看着这三颗在正空悬停的飞星，看着向他们的世界直扑过来的三颗太阳。几天后，一个太阳运行到外层气层的可见距离，宁静夜空中，那颗飞星突然变幻成光焰四射的太阳，以三十多小时的间隔，另外两个太阳也相继显形。这不是一般意义上的“三日凌空”，当最后一颗飞星变成太阳时，第一颗显形的太阳已从极近的距离掠过行星，紧接着，另外两个太阳相继从更近处掠过！三个太阳对行里产生的潮汐力均超过洛希极限（注：法国天文学家洛希证明，任何坚固的天体，在接近另一个比它大得多的天体的时候，都会受到强大的潮汐力作用而最终被扯成碎片。这个较小的天体会被拉碎的距离称为洛希极限．通常是大天体赤道半径的2.44倍。）第一颗太阳撼动了行星最深层的地质结构，第二颗太阳在行星上撕开了直通地核的大裂缝，第三颗太阳将行星撕成了两半。”
“For a while, the two ripped-apart pieces were still connected by streams of molten lava that coalesced into a space-spanning river. Then the lava cooled and turned into rings around the planets, but because of perturbations from the planets, the rings were unstable. The rocks that formed them fell back to the surface in a rain of giant stones that lasted several centuries… Can you imagine what kind of hell that was? The ecological destruction caused by this catastrophe was the most severe in all of history. All life on the companion planet went extinct, and the mother planet almost became a lifeless waste as well. But in the end, the seeds of life managed to germinate here, and as the geology of the mother planet settled down, evolution began its tottering steps in new oceans and on new continents, until civilization reappeared for the one hundred and ninety-second time. The entire process took ninety million years.
在一段时间内，行星被撕开的两部分藕断丝连，它们之间有一条横穿太空的岩浆的河流，这些岩浆在太空中冷却，在行星周围形成了一个环，但由于行星两部分的引力扰动，环不稳定，构成它的岩石纷纷坠落，使世界处于长达几世纪的陨石雨中……你能想象那是怎样的地狱啊！这次灾难对生态圈的破坏是所有历史上最严重的一次，伴星上的生命已经灭绝，母星也几乎变成一个没有生命的世界，但生命的种子居然又在这里发芽了，随着母星地质状态的稳定，在面目全非的大陆和海洋中，进化又开始了蹒跚的脚步，直到文明第一百九十二次出现，这个过程，耗时九千万年。
The secretary general pointed at the giant moon overhead. “That’s the smaller piece. There are still ruins from Civilization 191 on it, but it’s a lifeless world. It was the most terrible disaster in the entire history of Trisolaris. After the planet was torn apart, the two irregularly shaped pieces each returned to spherical form under self-gravitation. The dense, searing planetary core material gushed to the surface, and the oceans boiled over the lava. The continents drifted over the magma like icebergs. As they collided, the ground became as soft as the ocean. Massive mountain ranges tens of thousands of meters high rose in an hour and disappeared just as quickly.
秘书长指着已升到正空的巨月，“这就是较小的一半，上面有191号文明留下的废墟，但已是一个没有生命的世界。那是三体世界全部历史上最为惊心动魄的灾难，当行星被撕裂后，形状不规则的两部分在自身引力下重新变成球形，灼热致密的行星核心物质涌上地面，海洋在岩浆上沸腾，大陆如消融的流冰般漂浮，它们相撞后，大地变得像海洋般柔软，几万米的巨大山脉可以在一个小时内升起，又在同样短的时间内消失。
“Trisolaris’s place in the universe is even more grim than we had imagined. What will happen the next time frozen flying stars occur? Very likely, our planet will not just skim past the edge of the sun, but will plunge into the fiery sea of the sun itself. Given enough time, this possibility will become certainty.
“三体世界所处的宇宙，比我们想象的更加冷酷。下一次‘飞星不动’会怎样？有很大的可能，我们的行星不再从太阳边缘掠过，而是一头扎进太阳的火海中。随着时间的推移，这种可能几乎是必然。
“This was originally just a frightening speculation, but a recent astronomical discovery has caused us to lose all hope for the fate of Trisolaris. The researchers had intended to recover the history of the formation of the stars and the planets based on signs in this stellar system. Instead, they discovered that, in the distant past, the Trisolaran stellar system had twelve planets. Yet, now only this one remains. “There is only one explanation: The other eleven planets have all been consumed by the three suns! Our world is nothing more than the sole survivor of a Great Hunt. The fact that civilization has been reincarnated a hundred and ninety-two times is only a kind of luck. Also, after further study, we discovered the phenomenon of ‘breathing’ by the three stars.”
“这本来只是一个可怕的推测，但最近的一项天文学发现，使我们对三体世界的命运彻底绝望了。这项研究旨在通过这个星系中的一些残留的迹象，推测出星系中恒星和行星形成的历史。无意中发现，三体星系在遥远的时间前曾有过十二颗行星！而现在只剩下我们这一颗，解释只有一个：在漫长的天文纪年中那十一颗行星均被三颗太阳所吞噬！我们的世界，只不过是这场宇宙大捕猎的残余，文明能够经过一百九十二次轮回再生，只不过是一种幸运而已。通过进一步的研究，我们还发现了这三颗恒星的呼吸现象。”
“The stars breathe?”
“恒星呼吸？”
“It’s only a metaphor. You discovered the gaseous outer layer of the suns, but you didn’t know that this gaseous layer expands and contracts over cycles lasting eons, like breathing. When the gaseous layer expands, its thickness can grow by more than a dozen times. This greatly increases the diameter of the sun, like a giant mitt that can catch planets more easily. When a planet passes by a sun at close range, it will enter the sun’s gaseous layer. Friction will cause it to lose speed, and finally, like a meteor, it will fall into the blazing sea of the sun, dragging a long, fiery tail.”
“只是一个比喻，您发现了恒星的外围气态层，但您不知道的是，这个气态层以漫长的周期不停地膨胀和收缩，像呼吸一样。当气态层膨胀时，其厚度可以增大十多倍，这使得恒星的直径大大增加，像一个巨掌，更容易捕获到行星。当一颗行星与太阳近距离摩擦过时，就会进入它的气态层，在剧烈的摩擦中急剧减速，最后像一颗流星，拖着长长的火尾坠入太阳的火海。”
“The study results show that in the long history of the Trisolaran stellar system, every time the suns’ gaseous layers expanded, one or two planets were consumed. The other eleven planets all fell into a fiery sea during times when the gaseous layers were at their greatest. Right now, the gaseous layers of the three suns are in a contracted stage — otherwise our planet would have already fallen into one of them the last time they skimmed past. But scholars predict that the next expansion will occur in one thousand years.”
“据考证，在三体星系的漫长历史上，太阳气层每膨胀一次，就会吞噬一到两颗行星，那十一颗行星，就是在太阳气态层膨胀到最大时相继坠入火海的。现在，三颗太阳的气态层都处于收缩状态，否则在上次擦阳而过时，我们的行星已经坠落到太阳中了。据学者们的预测，最近的一次膨胀将在一百五万至二百万年后发生。”
The secretary general solemnly announced, “Start the pendulum.”
秘书长庄严宣布：“单摆启动！”
“How?” Wang asked.
“怎么赌？”汪淼问？
The secretary general nodded. “We can’t stay here any longer. The only path left for Trisolaran civilization is to gamble with the universe.”
秘书长点点头说：“待不下去了，也不能再待下去了！三体文明的唯一出路，就是和这个宇宙赌一把。”
The elevated winch released the cable tied to the pendulum, and the weight noiselessly fell along a smooth arc. Initially, it fell slowly, but then it accelerated, reaching maximum speed at the bottom of the arc. As it sliced through the air, the sound of the wind was deep and resonant. By the time the noise disappeared, the pendulum had followed the arc to its highest point on the other side, and, after pausing for a moment, began its backward swing.
高架绞车松开了将摆锤拉向高处的细缆，巨大的摆锤沿着一条平滑的弧形轨迹无声地滑落下来，开始落得很慢，但迅速加速，到达最低点时速度达到最大，冲破空气发出了浑厚的风声，当这声音消失时，摆锤已沿着同样的弧形轨迹升到了同祥的高度，停滞片刻后开始了新一轮的摆动。
“We can’t stay in this terrible place anymore,” Einstein said, crouched down on the ground like an old beggar.
“这个鬼地方，实在是待不下去了”爱因斯坦用一个老乞丐的姿势抱着小提琴蹲在地上说。
“We must leave the Trisolaran stellar system and fly into the wide open sea of stars. We must find in the galaxy a new world to emigrate to.”
“飞出三体星系，飞向广阔的星海，在银河系中寻找可以移民的新世界！”
Wang heard a grinding noise. He saw that the giant weight of the pendulum was being pulled up by a thin cable whose other end was attached to an elevated winch. As it rose to its highest point, a great waning crescent moon descended slowly in the sky behind it.
这时汪淼听到一阵“轧轧”的声音，看到巨大的摆锤正在被旁边一个高架绞车上的一根细缆斜拉着升高，升向它被释放的位置，它后面的天空背景上，一弯巨大的残月正在晨光中下沉。
Wang felt the great force generated by the movement of the pendulum, as though the ground was shaken by its swings. Unlike a pendulum in the real world, this giant pendulum’s period was not stable, but changed constantly. This was due to the continually shifting gravitational attraction of the giant moon. When the giant moon was on this side of the planet, its gravity partially canceled out the gravity of the planet, causing the pendulum to lose weight. When it was on the other side of the planet, its gravity was added to the gravity of the planet, causing the pendulum’s weight to increase, almost to the level it would have had before the great rip.
汪淼感到摆锤在摆动中仿佛产生了一股巨大的力量，仿佛大地被它拉得摇摇晃晃。与现实世界中的单摆不同，这个巨摆的摆动周期不恒定，时刻在变化中，这是因为围绕母星的巨月产生的重力变化所致：巨月在母星的这一面时，它与母星的引力相互抵消，重力减小；当它运行到母星另一面时，引力叠加，重力几乎恢复到大撕裂之前。
As he gazed up at the awe-inspiring swings of the Trisolaran Pendulum Monument, Wang asked himself, Does it represent the yearning for order, or the surrender to chaos? Wang also thought of the pendulum as a gigantic metal fist, swinging eternally against the unfeeling universe, noiselessly shouting out Trisolaran civilization’s indomitable battle cry…
仰望着三体纪念碑气势磅礴的摆动，汪淼问自己：它是表达对规津的渴望，还是对混沌的屈服？汪淼又觉得摆锤像一只巨大的金属拳头，对冷酷的宇宙永恒地挥舞着，无声地发出三体文明不屈的呐喊……
As Wang Miao’s eyes blurred with tears, he saw a line of text appear against the background of the swinging pendulum:
当汪淼的双眼被泪水模糊时，他看到了以巨摆为背景出现的字幕：
Civilization 192 was a milestone in Trisolaran civilization. It finally proved that the three-body problem had no solution. It gave up the useless effort that had already lasted through 191 cycles and set the course for future civilizations. Thus, the goal of Three Body has changed.
192号文明是三体文明的里程碑．它最终证明了三体问题的不可解，放弃了已延续191轮文明的徒劳努力，确定了今后文明全新的走向。至此，《三体》游戏的最终目标发生变化，新的目标是：
The new goal is: Head for the stars; find a new home.
飞向宇宙，寻找新的家园。
Four hundred and fifty-one years later, Civilization 192 was destroyed by the fiery flames of twin suns appearing together. It had reached the Atomic Age and the Information Age.
四百五十一年后，192号文明在双日凌空的烈焰中毁灭，它进化到原子和信息时代。
We invite you to log on again.
欢迎再次登录。
After logging out of Three Body, Wang felt exhausted, the same way he did after each previous session. But this time, he only rested half an hour before logging in again.
退出《三体》后，汪淼像每次那样感到十分疲惫，这真是一个累人的游戏，但这次他只休息了半个小时便再次登录。
The situation is urgent. The Three Body servers are about to be shut down. Please log on freely during the remaining time. Three Body will now go directly to the final scene.
情况紧急，《三体》服务器即将关闭，剩余时间自由登录，《三体》将直接转换至最后场景。
This time, against the pitch-black background, an unexpected line of text appeared:
进人《三体》后，在漆黑的背景上，出现了一条意想不到的信息：
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