1,000,000 years back
100万年前
A million years ago, before the most recent great episode of glaciations, the world was fairly warm. It was the middle of the Quaternary period; the great modern ice ages had begun several million years earlier, but there had been a lull in the advance and retreat of the glaciers, and the climate was relatively stable.
100万年前，在最近一次大冰川期之前，世界还是相当温暖的。那时正处于第四纪中期，现代大冰川期在几百万年前已经开始，不过在冰川进退之间存在着一段平静时期，那期间气候相对来说比较稳定。
The predators we met earlier, the fleet-footed creatures who may have preyed on the pronghorn, were joined by another terrifying carnivore, a long-limbed hyena that resembled a modern wolf. Hyenas were mainly found in Africa and Asia, but when the sea level fell, one species crossed the Bering Strait into North America. Because it was the only hyena to do so, it was given the name Chasmaporthetes, which means “the one who saw the canyon.”
我们之前见识到了跑得飞快的以叉角羚为食的各种猎食动物，现在马上就会看到另一种残暴的食肉动物，一种长得很像现代狼的长腿土狼。土狼曾经主要在非洲和亚洲活动，随着海平面的下降，有一个种类的土狼跨过白令海峡进入了北美地区。由于它们是唯一一种跨过海峡的土狼，人们给它起了个名字叫豹鬣狗，拉丁名意为“见过海峡的土狼”。
Next, Mark 8217;s question takes us on a great leap backward in time.
接下来马克的问题把我们带到了更远的过去。
1,000,000,000 years back
10亿年前
A billion years ago, the continental plates were pushed together into one great supercontinent. This was not the well-known supercontinent Pangea-it was Pangea 8217;s predecessor, Rodinia. The geologic record is spotty, but our best guess is that it looked something like this:
10亿年前，各个大陆板块被挤到一起，是一个超级大陆。这个超级大陆并不是人们所熟知的泛古陆，而是联合大陆的前身：罗迪尼亚超大陆。详细的地质记录相当残缺，但我们猜测它是下面这个样子的：
In the time of Rodinia, the bedrock that now lies under Manhattan had yet to form, but the deep rocks of North America were already old. The part of the continent that is now Manhattan was probably an inland region connected to what is now Angola and South Africa.
在罗迪尼亚超大陆时期，现在位于曼哈顿底部的基岩还没有形成，不过北美地区深处的岩石已经存在很久了。现在的曼哈顿所在的那块大陆当时可能还在内陆地区，与如今的安哥拉和南美部分相连。
In this ancient world, there were no plants and no animals. The oceans were full of life, but it was simple single-cellular life. On the surface of the water were mats of blue-green algae. These unassuming critters are the deadliest killers in the history of life.
在这个古老的世界中，没有植物也没有动物。海洋里孕育着大量生命，但都是简单的单细胞生物。海洋表面漂浮着大量蓝藻。这些其貌不扬的生物是生命长河中最为致命的杀手。
Blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, were the first photosynthesizers. They breathed in carbon dioxide and breathed out oxygen. Oxygen is a volatile gas; it causes iron to rust (oxidation) and wood to burn (vigorous oxidation). When cyanobacteria first appeared, the oxygen they breathed out was toxic to nearly all other forms of life. The resulting extinction is called the oxygen catastrophe.
蓝藻细菌是第一种进行光合作用的生物，它们吸入二氧化碳并释放出氧气。氧气是一种很暴力的气体，它会让铁生锈（氧化），让木头燃烧（剧烈氧化）。当蓝藻刚出现时，它们释放出的氧气对于其他几乎所有种类的生命来说都是有毒的，随之产生的物种大灭绝被称为大氧化事件。
After the cyanobacteria pumped Earth 8217;s atmosphere and water full of toxic oxygen, creatures evolved that took advantage of the gas 8217;s volatile nature to enable new biological processes. We are the descendants of those first oxygen-breathers.
在蓝藻使地球大气层和海洋中充满有毒的氧气后，其他生物慢慢进化出了新的能力，能够利用氧气的化学活性进行新的生物过程。我们就是那些第一批呼吸氧气的生物的后代。
Many details of this history remain uncertain; the world of a billion years ago is difficult to reconstruct. But Mark 8217;s question now takes us into an even more uncertain domain: the future.
这段历史有很多细节我们仍然不甚了解，10亿年前的世界很难进行重建，不过马克的问题现在把我们带到了更不确定的地方：未来。
1,000,000 years forward
100万年后
Eventually, humans will die out. Nobody knows when,12 but nothing lives forever. Maybe we 8217;ll spread to the stars and last for billions or trillions of years. Maybe civilization will collapse, we 8217;ll all succumb to disease and famine, and the last of us will be eaten by cats. Maybe we 8217;ll all be killed by nanobots hours after you read this sentence. There 8217;s no way to know.
人类终将灭亡。没有人知道会是什么时候13，但没有什么东西能够永远存活下去。也许我们会逃到其他星球上继续存在百千万亿年；也许文明会崩溃，我们都会死于疾病或是饥荒，最后的人类会被猫科动物吃掉；也许我们所有人都会在读完这个句子后的几小时里被纳米机器人杀害。未来充满了各种可能。
A million years is a long time. It 8217;s several times longer than Homo sapiens has existed, and a hundred times longer than we 8217;ve had written language. It seems reasonable to assume that however the human story plays out, in a million years it will have exited its current stage.
100万年是很长一段时间。它是智人存在历史的好几倍，是我们发明书写语言时间的几百倍，因而我们可以很合理地推断，无论人类的未来将会怎样，百万年后我们必将处在与目前完全不同的时代里。
Without us, Earth 8217;s geology will grind on. Winds and rain and blowing sand will dissolve and bury the artifacts of our civilization. Human-caused climate change will probably delay the start of the next glaciation, but we haven 8217;t ended the cycle of ice ages. Eventually, the glaciers will advance again. A million years from now, few human artifacts will remain.
没有了人类，地质活动依然会继续进行。风雨和呼啸的沙子会逐渐分解并掩埋我们文明的印记，人类造成的气候影响很有可能会延后下一次冰河期，但我们不会终结冰河期的循环。最终，冰川会继续向前进发。几百万年后，没有多少人造物体还能保存下来。
Our most lasting relic will probably be the layer of plastic we 8217;ve deposited across the planet. By digging up oil, processing it into durable and long-lasting polymers, and spreading it across the Earth 8217;s surface, we 8217;ve left a fingerprint that could outlast everything else we do.
人类存留时间最长的遗物可能是我们埋在地球各处的塑料片。我们挖掘出原油，对其进行加工生产出持久耐用的聚合物，然后把它们散布到地表各处，由此留下的印记将会比其他任何事物留存更长的时间。
Our plastic will become shredded and buried, and perhaps some microbes will learn to digest it, but in all likelihood, a million years from now, an out-of-place layer of processed hydrocarbons-transformed fragments of our shampoo bottles and shopping bags-will serve as a chemical monument to civilization.
我们留下的塑料会被撕碎并掩埋，或许一些微生物会进化出消化塑料的能力。很可能在几百万年后，一层无处可去的碳氢化合物处理品——包括洗发水瓶子和购物袋转化后形成的碎片——会成为我们文明存在过的化学纪念碑。
The far future
遥远的未来
The Sun is gradually brightening. For three billion years, a complex system of feedback loops has kept the Earth 8217;s temperature relatively stable as the Sun has grown steadily warmer.
太阳正在慢慢变亮。在过去的30亿年里，一套复杂的反馈系统使得地球的温度能够保持相对稳定，即使太阳在缓慢地变得越来越热。
In a billion years, these feedback loops will have given out. Our oceans, which nourished life and kept it cool, will have turned into its worst enemy. They will have boiled away in the hot Sun, surrounding the planet with a thick blanket of water vapor and causing a runaway greenhouse effect. In a billion years, Earth will become a second Venus.
但10亿年后，这些反馈系统就会失效。曾经孕育生命并保持地球凉爽的海洋会成为生命最大的敌人。在炽热阳光的照射下，海水会煮沸，在地球表面形成一层厚厚的水蒸气毯子，并由此引发失控的温室效应。10亿年后，地球将成为第二颗金星。
As the planet heats up, we may lose our water entirely and acquire a rock vapor atmosphere, as the crust itself begins to boil. Eventually, after several billion more years, we will be consumed by the expanding Sun.
随着地球变得越来越热，我们最终会失去所有的水，大气中将充满岩石蒸汽，因为地壳自身也开始沸腾了。几十亿年后，我们最终将被不断膨胀的太阳所吞没。
The Earth will be incinerated, and many of the molecules that made up Times Square will be blasted outward by the dying Sun. These dust clouds will drift through space, perhaps collapsing to form new stars and planets.
那时地球将被焚毁，而曾经组成时代广场的许多分子都会被垂死的太阳吹走，这些粉尘云会在太空中飘荡，或许还会坍缩形成新的行星和恒星。
If humans escape the solar system and outlive the Sun, our descendants may someday live on one of these planets. Atoms from Times Square, cycled through the heart of the Sun, will form our new bodies.
如果那时人类已经逃出太阳系，目睹太阳的死去，那么我们的后代就将生活在这些新形成的星球上。那些曾经组成时代广场、被太阳之心循环利用过的原子，将会形成我们新的身体。
One day, either we will all be dead, or we will all be New Yorkers.
总有一天，我们要么全都死了，要么就都是纽约人了。
Also known as the Delaware.
又名特拉华人。勒纳佩语，意为“美好家园”。
Also known as cougars.
又名美洲狮（cougar）。
Also known as pumas.
又名美洲虎（puma）。
Also known as catamounts.
又名山猫（catamount）。
Also known as panthers.
又名美洲豹（panther）。
Also known as painted cats.
又名斑猫（painted cat）
Although you might not see the clouds of trillions of pigeons encountered by European settlers. In his book 1491, Charles C. Mann argues that the huge flocks seen by European settlers may have been a symptom of a chaotic ecosystem perturbed by the arrival of smallpox, bluegrass, and honeybees.
虽然你可能不会看到欧洲殖民者们当初遇到的数亿只旅鸽形成的黑压压的旅鸽云。查尔斯.曼恩在他的书《1491》中声称欧洲人带来了天花、蓝绿茎牧草和蜜蜂，搅乱了当地的生态系统，欧洲人看到的庞大的旅鸽群其实是生态系统混乱的一个表现。
That is, the current site of Yonkers. It probably wasn 8217;t called “Yonkers” then, since “Yonkers” is a Dutch-derived name for a settlement dating to the late 1600s. However, some argue that a site called “Yonkers” has always existed, and in fact predates humans and the Earth itself. I mean, I guess it 8217;s just me who argues that, but I 8217;m very vocal.
也就是现在的杨克斯所在地。那时这个地方的名字应该还不是“杨克斯”（Yonkers），因为“杨克斯”来源于一个意为“安定下来”的荷兰语单词，而这要追溯到17世纪晚期了。不过有人声称叫作“杨克斯”的地区一直存在，在人类甚至地球存在之前就已经存在了。大概这么想的只有我一个人吧，但我可是想说什么就说什么的哦。
Though with fewer billboards.
不过没有这么多广告牌。
Well, had been. We 8217;re putting a stop to that.
嗯，是曾经保持稳定，现在我们要使气候失衡了。
If anyone asks, total coincidence.
如果有人问起来，就说完全是巧合。
If you do, email me.
如果你知道的话，请发邮件告诉我。