Early fifth-century philosopher St. Augustine famously wrote that he knew what time was unless someone asked him. Albert Einstein added another wrinkle when he theorized that time varies depending on where you measure it. Today's state-of-the-art atomic clocks have proven Einstein right. Even advanced physics can't decisively tell us what time is, because the answer depends on the question you're asking.
五世纪早期的哲学家圣奥古斯丁曾写过一句名言：除非有人问他，否则他知道时间是什么。阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦基于他的理论提出了另一个问题：时间因测量地点而异。今天最先进的原子时钟已经证明了爱因斯坦的正确性。即使是先进的物理学也不能明确告诉我们什么是时间，因为答案取决于你问的问题。
Forget about time as an absolute. What if, instead of considering time in terms of astronomy, we related time to ecology? What if we allowed environmental conditions to set the tempo of human life? We're increasingly aware of the fact that we can't control Earth systems with engineering alone, and realizing that we need to moderate our actions if we hope to live in balance. What if our definition of time reflected that?
忘记时间是绝对的。如果我们不从天文学的角度考虑时间，而是将时间与生态学联系起来呢？如果我们允许环境条件来决定人类的生活节奏，将会怎样？我们越来越意识到，我们无法仅靠工程来控制地球系统，并意识到，如果我们希望生活在平衡中，我们需要调整我们的行动。如果我们对时间的定义反映了这一点，会怎么样？
Recently, I conceptualized a new approach to timekeeping that's connected to circumstances on our planet, conditions that might change as a result of global warming. We're now building a clock at the Anchorage Museum that reflects the total flow of several major Alaskan rivers, which are sensitive to local and global environmental changes. We've programmed it to match an atomic clock if the waterways continue to flow at their present rate. If the rivers run faster in the future on average, the clock will get ahead of standard time. If they run slower, you'll see the opposite effect.
最近，我构思了一种新的计时方法，这种方法与我们星球上的环境有关，这些环境可能会因全球变暖而改变。我们现在正在安克雷奇博物馆建造一个时钟，反映阿拉斯加几条主要河流的总流量，这些河流对当地和全球环境变化很敏感水道继续以目前的速度流动。如果河流在未来平均运行速度更快，时钟就会提前。如果它们运行速度较慢，效果会相反。
The clock registers both short-term irregularities and long-term trends in river dynamics. It's a sort of observatory that reveals how the rivers are behaving from their own temporal frame, and allows us to witness those changes on our smartwatches or phones. Anyone who opts to go on Alaska Mean River Time will live in harmony with the planet. Anyone who considers river time in relation to atomic time will encounter a major imbalance and may be motivated to counteract it by consuming less fuel or supporting greener policies.
时钟记录了河流动力学的短期不规则性和长期趋势。这是一种观测站，可以从河流自身的时间框架揭示河流的行为，并使我们能够在智能手表或手机上见证这些变化。任何选择使用阿拉斯加平均河流时间的人都将与地球和谐相处。任何将河流时间与原子联系起来的人时间会遇到严重的不平衡，可能会通过减少燃料消耗或支持更环保的政策来抵消这种不平衡。
Even if this method of timekeeping is novel in its particulars, early agricultural societies also connected time to natural phenomena. In pre-Classical Greece, for instance, people "corrected" official calendars by shifting dates forward or backward to reflect the change of season. Temporal connection to the environment was vital to their survival. Likewise, river time and other timekeeping systems we're developing may encourage environmental awareness.
即使这种计时方法在细节上很新颖，但早期的农业社会也将时间与自然现象联系在一起。例如，在前古典希腊，人们通过向前或向后移动日期来“纠正”官方日历，以反映季节的变化。与环境的时间联系对他们的生存至关重要。同样，河流时间和我们正在开发的其他计时系统可能会鼓励环保意识。
When St. Augustine admitted his inability to define time, he highlighted one of time's most noticeable qualities: Time becomes meaningful only in a defined context. Any timekeeping system is valid, and each is as praiseworthy as its purpose.
当圣奥古斯丁承认他无法定义时间时，他强调了时间最显著的品质之一：时间只有在特定的背景下才有意义。任何计时系统都是有效的，每一个计时系统都与其目的一样值得称赞。
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