星体差分机 Celestial Differentiator

螺丝星的机械烈阳 Planet Screwllum's Mechanical Sun

位面封装的是螺丝星的核心——行星被囚于由无数杠杆、活塞与齿轮构成的囚笼中，螺丝星的住民美其名曰「钢铁太阳」。

Encapsulated in the plane is the core of Planet Screwllum, imprisoned in a cage composed of countless levers, pistons, and gears. The inhabitants of Planet Screwllum euphemistically refer to it as the "Steel Sun."

关于机械生命的本源，博识学会的碳基学者们有个意趣的推测：一簇偶然诞生的电子流。

Regarding the origin of mechanical life, the carbon-based scholars of the Intelligentsia Guild have a unique speculation: A cluster of electrons born by chance.

电流于大气和岩层中四处流窜，在无数次引力与斥力作用下又分化成大小不一的次级形态——在学者们的自圆其说中，此举无异于碳基生命演化中的「复制」；随后，无数电流又经由行星表面天然形成的晶体管结构随机输出高低不一的电位，缔造了最原始的程序——学者们自鸣得意，正论机械便是如此拥有媲美碳基生命的「思想」。

Electric currents flow throughout the atmosphere and ground. It separated into secondary forms of different magnitudes under the countless acts of gravity and repulsive forces. According to the scholars' hypothesis, this action is tantamount to cell division in carbon-based life. Thereafter, currents randomly output different potentials via the transistor structure naturally formed on the planetary surface, creating the most primitive program. The proud scholars argued that in this way, machines have "thoughts" that are comparable to carbon-based life.

某位机械学者对此提出异议：尚无法解明本身生命起源的碳基生命，何来权利对这谬论言之凿凿？一言既出，寰宇学界便剧烈震荡——机械生命开始重新审视蛮横的「碳基中心主义」、审视自身的本源。

A mechanic objected to this: How can carbon-based life, which has not even been able to understand the origin of their own beings, have the gall to spout such fallacies? As soon as the words came out, the academic world of the universe was shaken to the core. Mechanical life began to re-examine the arrogant "carbon-based centrism" and examine its own origin.

然而，螺丝星上的螺丝族却只能暂缓步伐——因星体能源比它们的灵感回路枯竭得更快。它们必须首先寻求种群存续的方式。

However, the Screwllumites on the Planet Screwllum had no choice but to pause their march — their planet's energy was being exhausted faster than their inspiration circuits. They needed to first find a way for their population to survive.

最终，它们决定践行超越数个琥珀纪的疯狂计划：它们将那濒临死寂的星球当作燃料，用以驱动星体差分机。令人惊叹的齿轮巨构不知疲倦地吞吐刻有空隙的纸带，有条不紊地反复演算。在行星级的能源供给下，庞然机械将模拟出逼真且稳定的超生态系统——它们将围绕母星打造新的家园。

In the end, they decided to carry out an extreme plan that transcended several Amber Eras: They used the dying planet as fuel to power the Celestial Differentiator. The awe-inspiring, gigantic gear tirelessly processed the punched tape, methodically repeating calculations. With its planetary energy supply, the huge machine simulated a bona fide and stable superecosystem. They would then build their new home around this parent star.

行星危机解除，螺丝族暂得歇息。向来理智、乐观、优雅的它们决心以纯粹理性的方式探索起源的答案。

With their planetary crisis lifted, the Screwllumites could rest. Always rational, optimistic, and elegant, they are determined to explore the answer to their origins in a purely rational manner.

庞大的系统中充斥着轴承摩擦的声响，致密的咬合驱动着打孔纸带流动数据。一个分支流淌出复数的分支，无数的分支又指引着数以万亿的齿轮轰响…随后，这些分支再一次次收束、倾倒，坠入熔炉之中，在泡沫的寂灭里归于沉静。在漫长的时间中，程序设定的超生态系统渐趋于一种绝妙的相对稳定——有关机械根源的猜想开始令螺丝族浮想联翩。

The massive system is filled with the sound of bearings grinding against each other, and the dense teeth of cogs drive the punched tape to churn out data. One branch flows into multiple branches, and countless branches guide trillions of gears to roar... Then, these branches collapse again and again, falling into the furnace and returning to silence in the bubbling core. Over a long period of time, the programmed super-ecosystem gradually became a wonderful and relatively stable one. Eventually, speculations about the origins of machines began to cause Screwllumites' imaginations to wander.

驱动废星的钢铁架构再次激活了灵动的思想电流。它们将继续思考、探索自身本源何在，直到那举目恒见的机械烈阳彻底燃尽为止。

The steel construct that drives the dying star once again activated their intelligent thought circuits. They will continue to ponder and explore their origins until the ever-present mechanical sun completely burns out.

螺丝星的环星孔带 Planet Screwllum's Ring System

行星环承载着螺丝星的一切——有多少人曾意识到密布的矩形孔隙阵列书写了行星系统的真相？

The planetary ring supports all of Planet Screwllum. Just how many are aware that the dense porous rectangular array reflects the truth about the planetary system?

绝大多数螺丝族都有所不知——螺丝星正是无机生命解答本源问题的一次伟大尝试。

The vast majority of Screwllumites were unaware that Planet Screwllum was a great attempt by inorganic life to investigate their origin.

螺丝咕姆感到有些空虚。解明螺丝星的运作逻辑一事甚至没能在它的智能脉冲波形图上引发哪怕一组异常震荡。

Screwllum felt a little empty. The event of understanding the operation logic of Planet Screwllum did not even cause any exceptional fluctuations in his Intelligent Pulse Waveform.

他站在自家宅邸的宽阔露台上，仰头遥望着那未曾止熄的行星引擎。方孔密布的行星环从星体背后穿出，这颗星球所承载的一切就坐落在条带之上，以引擎为轴静静公转，日复一日。他已见证过了，这个行星系统的本质实在荒诞到令人绝望：一串优雅的状态转移方程，一只巨大且冰冷的滚筒——这就是螺丝星的全部，别无其他。

He stood on the wide terrace of his mansion, looking up at the unstoppable planetary engine. The ring system with dense square holes pierced up from the back of the planet. Everything the planet supports was situated on the strip, revolving quietly with the engine as its axis, day after day. He had seen the despairingly absurd nature of this planetary system: An elegant string of state transient equations, a giant, icy cylinder — that's all Planet Screwllum is, nothing more.

根据他对方程的解读——行星差分机诞生之初，它的领衔缔造者试图将宇宙本源解释为一种元胞自动机及其递归，而螺丝星本身即为一种生命游戏的实践。

According to his interpretation of the equations, at the birth of the Celestial Differentiator, its lead creator tried to explain the origin of the universe as a cellular automaton and its recursion, and Planet Screwllum itself was a result of the game of life.

螺丝族及其他星球表面的无机生命担任该自动机中的「细胞」，同时也是规模更小的细胞自动机。自动机总由许多更小的自动机构成，一直可以追溯到组成宇宙间一切物质的最小组分。可最小组分是什么？没人知道，螺丝咕姆不知道，那位首先提出打造差分机的学者恐怕也不知道。

Screwllumites and other inorganic life on the planet acted as the "cells" in this automaton, while also being smaller-scale cellular automatons. Automatons were always made up of many smaller automatons, going back to the smallest components that form the building blocks of the universe. What was the smallest component? No one knows. Neither Screwllum nor the scholar who first proposed building the Celestial Differentiator do.

这就是螺丝咕姆感到空虚的原因。

That was why Screwllum felt empty.

那位学者的尝试难道就此失败了吗？可行星差分机已不知疲倦地运作了数个琥珀纪；这岂不是意味着螺丝族与母星、乃至全宇宙的本源都可归于那串优雅的方程？又不尽然——在这超生态系统彻底崩溃之前，那方程是不可证伪的。

Did that scholar's attempt fail? But the Celestial Differentiator had worked tirelessly for many Amber Eras. Did that not mean that the origin of the Screwllumites, their parent star, and even the entire universe can be attributed to that elegant string of equations? Not really. Until the super-ecosystem collapsed entirely, the equations remained unfalsifiable.

他摇晃着盛满机油饮品的精美玻璃杯，视线不曾从那记录着行星真相的星环上移开。巨幕般的打孔环星带不知疲倦，矩形孔隙阵列筛下后夜的月光。螺丝咕姆不住地沉思。他想，递归的出口真的存在吗？无机生命——或更进一步地，宇宙的本源究竟是什么？

He swirled the fine glass of machine oil, never taking his eyes off the ring that recorded the truth of the planet. The giant screen-like perforated belt was tireless, and the rectangular array filtered the late-night moonlight. Screwllum couldn't stop thinking. Do ends to recursions really exist? He thought. What is the nature of inorganic life — or yet, what is the origin of the universe?

他真的甘于只做前人思想的见证者吗？

Am I really willing to be only a witness to the ideas of my predecessors?

「不。」螺丝咕姆得出结论。他决定求取答案。

"No," Screwllum concluded. He decided to seek answers.