《本源》的五个半科学梗

Five and a Half Scientific Stems for Dan Brown’s Origin

丹·布朗的《本源》触及生命起源与人类归宿这两个根本问题,书中借用一些前沿的科学理论,描述了许多当代高新技术的应用,理解其中的科学内涵是读懂本书的关键。《本源》中的五个科学梗分别是人工智能机器人、超级量子计算机、生命起源假说及有关实验、人机混合体"赛博格"、宇宙与生命演化的热力学,以及可以算得上半个梗的新型大众传播形式的飞速发展。同时,也附带指出,出于迎合公众心理和折冲宗教人士愤怒的目的,作者在某些地方试图消磨无神论的锋芒,以致温情的结尾与全书的沉重主题形成一种微妙的张力。

Dan Brown’s Origin touches on the two fundamental issues,i.e.the origin of life and the fate of human being.It leads into several theories in frontier sciences,describes some new high-technologies which are the stems for understanding the connotation of this novel.The five scientific stems involved in this paper are,respectively,intelligence robot,supercomputers,hypothesis of the origin of life and experiments concerned,the man-machine hybrid so-called cyborg,the thermodynamics about the evolution of universe and life.The rapid development in the ways of public communication,that can be counted as a half stem.It also points out that,in some places,the author advisedly appeal to public tastes,and weaken the edge of atheism,so that a subtle tension is formed between the tender ending and the heavy theme of the book.