内容简介

　　其实，你我以及所有人正在经历的现实，可能正在其他很多宇宙中一遍又一遍地发生。每种历史都会无限次地频繁上演。但即便如此，生命和意识也终将化为乌有，一切创造都将消散于虚空。在这样的宇宙中，人类到底该怎样自处？

　　演化带来秩序，熵使一切复归混沌，沉思宇宙万物之理多年的作者，就在这两种彼此纠缠的原则的指引下，综合多学科见解，以融合科学与人文的浪漫笔触，带我们从宇宙的诞生开始，一路见证宇宙中的结构体（包括恒星、星系等）、生命、意识都可能是怎样产生的，而意识特别是人类思维又为宇宙和自身带来了怎样瑰丽的产物……直到去设想、去面对那宏大又暗淡但终将到来的“时间的尽头”“万物的黄昏”时，我们依然可以从思维这种约等于不可能的活动形态中，得到怎样的收获、启示、意义和慰藉？

　　作者简介

　　布莱恩·格林（Brian Greene），博士，理论物理学家，超弦理论的重要开拓者，哥伦比亚大学理论物理中心主任，并致力科普传播。在大英百科全书中拥有自己的词条。从幼儿期即展现出神童特质，小学毕业即掌握全部高中数学，教育背景为藤校和牛津。著有《宇宙的琴弦》《宇宙的结构》《隐藏的现实》等众多畅销科普书。曾出演《生活大爆炸》。

　　译者简介

　　舍其，恩施土家人，北京大学物理学院硕士，译者，户外运动分子。译有《万物起源》《从此刻到永恒》《形而上学俱乐部》等。

　　审读人简介

　　苟利军，中国科学院国家天文台研究员，中国科学院大学天文学教授，北京天文学会副理事长。主要研究方向为高能天体物理，包括黑洞、引力波等。在Science等期刊发表SCI论文50余篇。译有多部科普图书，进行科普报告百余场，并创作数十篇科普文章。荣获诸多奖项，入中国侨界个人贡献奖、国家图书馆“文津奖”、国家优秀科普图书奖等，以及中国科学院多个科普奖项。

　　精彩书评

　　人类一直在追寻能够跨越时间的永恒之道，科学的蕞终目的也是找到与时间无关的大一统理论，从而能描述整个宇宙运转的蕞深层次。不过人类为何要追寻永恒，意识如何产生，生命能否实现永恒，生命永恒之后又会怎样……面对这些科学还无法给出完美答案的问题，作者以物理学家的身份，在本书中给出了自己非常有启发性的看法和思考。——苟利军中国科学院国家天文台研究员，中国科学院大学天文学教授

　　本书是一部大百科，饱含雄心、学识和怦然心动；也是一封情书，写给宇宙中方生方死却又一切皆有可能的瞬息时光。——《纽约时报书评》

Content introduction

In fact, what you and I and all of us are experiencing is probably happening over and over again in many other universes. Every kind of history is repeated infinitely frequently. But even then, life and consciousness will come to naught, and all creation will dissipate into nothingness. In such a universe, how on earth are humans supposed to live?

Under the guidance of these two intertwined principles, the author, who has brooded for years on the principles of everything in the universe, synthesizes multidisciplinary insights in a romantic fusion of science and humanity, taking us from the birth of the universe to witness how structures (including stars, galaxies, etc.), life, and consciousness may have emerged. And what wonderful products does consciousness, especially human thinking, bring to the universe and itself... Until we imagine and face the grand and dim but eventually coming "the end of time" and "the dusk of all things", what kind of harvest, revelation, meaning and comfort can we still get from this impossible activity form of thinking?

About the author

Brian Greene, Ph.D., is a theoretical physicist, an important pioneer of superstring theory, and director of the Center for Theoretical Physics at Columbia University. Has its own entry in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. He showed prodigy traits from early childhood, mastered all high school mathematics after primary school, and his education background was Ivy League and Oxford. He is the author of many popular science books such as "The Strings of the Universe", "The Structure of the Universe" and "Hidden Reality". The Big Bang Theory.

Translator's introduction

She Qi, Enshi Tujia, Master of Physics, Peking University, translator, outdoor sports activist. He has translated "The Origin of All Things", "From Now to Eternity" and "Metaphysical Club".

Profile of the reader

Gou Lijun is a researcher at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, professor of astronomy at the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and vice president of the Beijing Astronomical Society. His research interests include high-energy astrophysics, including black holes and gravitational waves. He has published more than 50 SCI papers in Science journals. He has translated many popular science books, made more than 100 reports on popular science, and created dozens of popular science articles. He has won many awards, such as the Individual Contribution Award to the Overseas Chinese Community, the "Wenjin Award" of the National Library, the National Excellent Popular Science Book Award, and many popular science awards of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Wonderful book review

Human beings have been searching for the eternal way that can span time, and the ultimate goal of science is to find a grand unified theory that has nothing to do with time, so as to describe the deepest level of the operation of the whole universe. But why should human beings seek eternity, how does consciousness arise, whether life can achieve eternity, and what will happen to life after eternity... In the face of these questions that science has not yet been able to give perfect answers to, the author, as a physicist, gives his very enlightening views and thoughts in this book. -- Gou Lijun, Researcher of National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Professor of Astronomy, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

This book is a big encyclopedia, full of ambition, learning and heartache; It is also a love letter to the moment in the universe when life and death are possible. -- New York Times Book Review