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Suppose we're working with aliens who live near Alpha Centauri to build a wormhole teleporter
假设我们要和住在半人马座阿尔法星附近的外星人合建一个虫洞传送点
so we can go visit them - for dinner, or interstellar diplomacy, or whatever.
方便我们去拜访他们-和他们共度晚餐或进行星际外交等等。
Of course we'll need to be able to talk with them about what to make each side of the portal out of,
当然那我们需要能够和他们讨论传送门的材料
how big to make the various pieces, and so on.
这些不同的零件有多大等等问题。
But since we've never been to Alpha Centauri, and they've never been here, this is tricky –
但由于我们从来没有去过半人马座阿尔法星，他们也从没有来过地球，这就有点棘手—
I mean, if you tell me to make you an arc that's 300 cubits long,
我是说，如果你让我做一个300腕尺长的弧形物，
and I don't know what a cubit is, you'll probably get an arc that's not exactly what you were hoping for.
而我又不知道腕尺是多大，最后做成的弧形物可能和你期待的不一样。
So we'll have to build, from the ground up, an easily sharable way of communicating about the universe,
所有我们首先需要建立一种容易分享的交流方式对宇宙进行交流，
where distances and such are based on ideas, rather than specific artifacts.
其中距离等是基于想法，而不是某种人工产品。
We'd probably start with basic materials, you know, like how instead of sending a vial with a chunk of lithium in it across interstellar space,
我们可能会从基本材料开始，比如与其在星际空间中传送一个装有锂块的小瓶子，
we can just say "use the atom that has 3 protons, 3 neutrons, and 3 electrons."
不如直接说“用一个有3个质子、3个中子和3个电子的原子。”
Water would be "the molecule that's a combination of one atom with 8 protons and two atoms with 1 proton." And so on.
水应该是“由1个带8个质子的原子和2个带1个质子的原子组成的分子”。等等。
Once we have materials down, we can do clocks – we just tell the aliens that if they take the atom with 55 protons and 78 neutrons,
一旦我们有了材料，我们就可以有时间—我们只需告诉外星人，如果他们用带55个质子和78个中子的原子
make it emit a photon of light in a certain way and wait for that photon to oscillate 9,192,631,770 times: that's what we call one second.
让这个原子以某种方式发出一个光子，并等待这个光子摆动9,192,631,770次：这就是地球人所说的一秒钟。
Once we have clocks, we can do distances: just tell the aliens to see how far light goes in one 299,792,458th of a second –
一旦有了时间，我们就可以有距离：只需告诉外星人光在每299,792,458分之一秒内走的距离—
that's what we call a meter. But this is when we would run into a massive roadblock – literally.
就是我们所说的一米。但这是我们将会遇到一个巨大的障碍。
Pretty much the rest of our communication about the universe requires knowing what mass is,
其他关于宇宙的沟通大部分需要知道质量是什么，
and what we currently call a kilogram isn't an idea we can just tell distant aliens, the way we can say "the atom with 3 protons".
并且我们不能直接用“有3个质子的原子”的这种方式向遥远的外星人解释我们目前所说的一公斤的概念。
A kilogram is just a particular lump of metal sitting in a particular room in a particular place on our planet,
一公斤只是我们星球上的某个地方某个房间内的某块金属，
and if you want to know how many kilograms of say, antimatter, you have, you have to take it there and weigh them against each other.
如果你想知道你有多少千克的反物质，你需要把它带到那个房间里作比较。
In the very near future, we're going to settle on a more sensible way of talking about mass,
在不久的将来，我们将用一种更合理的方式来讨论质量，
so instead of saying "in order to build this teleporter you have to come to the part of earth with good cheese so we can show you our shiny lump of metal",
我们不用说：“为了建这个传送点，你需要带着美味的奶酪来到地球上，这样我们才能给你看我们闪亮的金属块”，
we'll either be telling the aliens to just get a pile of something like 21.5253873 septillion of the atom that has 14 protons and 14 neutrons,
我们要么是告诉外星人带一堆21.5253873百万的七乘方的原子，这个原子还需要有14个质子和14个中子，
or we'll tell them to weigh how much mass an atom or molecule loses
要么是告诉他们称一称
after emitting a photon of light that oscillates roughly 135.6392534 septillion septillion times each second.
发出大约每秒振荡135.6392534百万的七乘方的光子后，一个原子或分子损失了多少质量。
One of these two concepts will be our new kilogram. Whichever way it is,
两个概念中的任一个将是我们新的公斤单位。不论哪一种方式，
once we have our new way of communicating about mass as an idea instead of an object,
一旦我们有了沟通质量的新方法，将质量最为一种想法而不是一种实物，
we'll be able to build our wormhole teleporter with the alpha centaurians. And then we can bring them here to earth, have dinner,
我们就将能够在半人马座阿尔法星建立我们的虫洞传送点。然后我们就可以邀请他们来到地球共进晚餐，
and afterwards, show them the chunk of metal that used to be THE THING that we used to talk about the mass of all other things.
然后给他们看那块金属，看，这就是我们过去常说的其他东西的质量。
