2020年经济学人 物理学家弗里曼·戴森(4)

He was on the board of sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, maintainers of the nuclear Doomsday Clock, which now stands at 100 seconds to midnight. There was far more to nuclear weapons, he knew, than the science that had spawned¹ them. He wrestled² with the moral questions they raised, studying game theory in an effort to work out when, if ever, it might make sense to use such a weapon in anger.

弗里曼是《原子能科学家公报》的赞助者之一，该报纸是核末日时钟的维护者，现在距离象征末日的午夜还有100秒。他知道，核武器远不只限于孕育他们的科学。弗里曼纠结于核武器引发的道德问题，研究博弈论，试图找出何时在愤怒时使用这种武器可能是有意义的，如果它会出现的话。

The problem of nuclear war, it seemed to him, was fundamentally not technical but human and historical. He was an iconoclast³, too, and enjoyed being known as one. Heretics were useful in science. It was far better to be contradicted than ignored; better to be wrong than vague. As a colleague said, whenever consensus⁴ was forming like ice hardening on a lake, he would do his best to chip away at it. He dared to challenge natural selection as the only driver of evolution, and he queried⁵ climate change: not the fact that it was happening, but the usefulness of the models that aimed to predict its effects.

对他来说，核战争的问题从根本上来说不是技术上的问题，而是人性和历史的问题。他也是一名反社会习俗者，并且享受作为这样一个人。异端分子在科学上是有用的。被否定远远好于被忽略；犯错比含糊不清要好。正如一位同事所说，每当共识形成时，就像湖面上的冰变硬了一样，他就会尽自己最大的努力去打破它。弗里曼敢于挑战自然选择作为进化的唯一驱动力，他质疑气候变化：不是它正在发生的事实，而是旨在预测其影响的模型的有效性。

In any case, some of those effects might be beneficial—a longer growing season, for example, and fewer deaths from the cold. Environmentalism struck him as more a religion than a science. Not that he was against religion; he supported it, in a diffident Church of England way. To get back beyond the Big Bang, certainly, you needed religion. But the real faith that sustained him was a boundless⁶ belief in the power and possibilities of science. He had witnessed at first hand how it could give mere⁷ mortals the power to destroy their own world. Perhaps they could use science to save it, too—or, if not, leave it for another altogether.

无论如何，气候变化的一些影响可能是有益的-生长周期更长，因寒冷死去的人更少。他认为环保主义更多的是一种宗教，而不是一种科学。这并不表示他反对宗教；他支持宗教，以一种缺乏自信的英国国教的方式。当然，为了回到宇宙大爆炸之后，你需要宗教。但是支撑他的真正信念是对科学的力量和可能性的无限信念。弗里曼亲眼目睹了科学如何赋予凡人摧毁自己世界的力量。也许他们也可以用科学来拯救世界——或者，如果没有做到的话，把它完全留给另一个人来做。

1 spawned   

（鱼、蛙等）大量产（卵）( spawn的过去式和过去分词 )； 大量生产

参考例句：

• The band's album spawned a string of hit singles. 这支乐队的专辑繁衍出一连串走红的单曲唱片。
• The computer industry has spawned a lot of new companies. 由于电脑工业的发展，许多新公司纷纷成立。

2 wrestled   

v.（与某人）搏斗( wrestle的过去式和过去分词 )；扭成一团；扭打；（与…）摔跤

参考例句：

• As a boy he had boxed and wrestled. 他小的时候又是打拳又是摔跤。
• Armed guards wrestled with the intruder. 武装警卫和闯入者扭打起来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 iconoclast   

n.反对崇拜偶像者

参考例句：

• Cage was an iconoclast.He refused to be bound by western musical traditions of harmony and structure.凯奇是个反传统的人，他拒绝接受西方有关和声和结构的音乐传统的束缚。
• But he shows little sign of being an iconoclast.但他表现出他是一个信念很强的人。

4 consensus   

n.(意见等的)一致，一致同意，共识

参考例句：

• Can we reach a consensus on this issue?我们能在这个问题上取得一致意见吗？
• What is the consensus of opinion at the afternoon meeting?下午会议上一致的意见是什么？

5 queried   

v.质疑，对…表示疑问( query的过去式和过去分词 )；询问

参考例句：

• She queried what he said. 她对他说的话表示怀疑。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• \"What does he have to do?\" queried Chin dubiously. “他有什么心事？”琴向觉民问道，她的脸上现出疑惑不解的神情。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）

6 boundless   

adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的

参考例句：

• The boundless woods were sleeping in the deep repose of nature.无边无际的森林在大自然静寂的怀抱中酣睡着。
• His gratitude and devotion to the Party was boundless.他对党无限感激、无限忠诚。

7 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。