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There are thousands of really large asteroids out here.
太空中有成千上万巨大的小行星
Some are over 10 miles long. The size of Manhattan.
有些长达十余英里，大小堪比曼哈顿
An asteroid this size
每一亿年左右
hits the Earth every 100 million years or so.
就会有一颗这般大小的小行星撞上地球
The last one struck the Earth 65 million years ago,
最近的一次撞击发生在六千五百万年前
and probably was responsible for wiping out the dinosaurs.
很可能正是恐龙灭绝的原因
We don't know when the next asteroid will strike,
我们不知道下一颗小行星会在何时袭来
but if it was big enough it could sterilize our planet.
不过如果它足够巨大，就可能毁灭地球
That would be the end of the 5 billion year long story of life on Earth.
那将是地球上五十亿年生命长河的终结
but even if we avoid such a natural catastrophe,
但即使我们幸免于这一自然灾难
we could all too easily end up destroying ourselves.
我们也可能轻易毁灭于自己之手
In the last 10 thousand years,
在最近的一万年里
humans have come to dominate the planet.
人类在地球上占据统治地位
We are so successful,
我们非常成功
that it's tempting to think we are evolution's grand prize.
以至于认为自己是进化史上最璀璨的成就
But I believe intelligence is probably overrated.
但我想我们对自身智慧的评价过高了
It's not necessarily a good thing for a species' survival.
这对于一个物种的生存并不是一件好事
Bacteria have managed without it
细菌在缺乏智慧的情况下
for over three billion years.
存在了超过三十亿年
Intelligence, at least in our case, leads to technology.
对人类而言，智慧至少会带来技术发展
And there many ways technology could wipe us out.
而技术却有很多毁灭我们的途径
The most obvious, of course, the threat from nuclear weapons.
最显而易见的就是核武器带来的威胁
Even if the risk of a nuclear war happening in one year is miniscule,
虽说今后一年内发生核战争的几率很低
say only one in a million,
只有百万分之一的可能
if we run those odds over 100,000 years,
但如果将范围扩大至十万年
the chance of catastrophe falls to one in ten.
几率将会大幅提高至十分之一
Personally I worry that even this might be overoptimistic.
个人认为，这个几率也有些过于乐观了
Although we are clever enough to have designed such weapons,
即使人类的智慧足以设计出这样的武器
I'm not sure we are clever enough not to use them.
但我不认为人类拥有足够的智慧不使用它们
As time marches relentlessly into the future,
随着时间延续到未来
the universe has other surprises in store.
宇宙还为我们准备了更多惊喜
There are some powerful things out there.
宇宙中还有更为强大的东西
Some of which could destroy the Earth without any help from us.
有些无需我们推波助澜，就能轻易毁灭地球
