Sitting in the waiting room of my local auto repair, I honestly began to wonder if on some other far-flung planet, pointy-eared aliens would be listening for someone to sing out that they, too, were “Good to Go.”
坐在本地汽车修理厂的等候室，我不禁开始思考，在别的遥远的星球上，长着尖耳朵的外星人是否也会坐等有人大喊“搞定了”。
Or, to them, would the sort of back and forth banter that we all take for granted in day-to-day business here on Earth seem as alien as ice cream?
或者，我们每天在地球上认为理所当然的各种你一言我一语，在他们看来，就像冰淇淋一样不可思议？
Would a highly-advanced civilization circling another sunlike star even need this sort of social lubricant?
如果有一个围绕另一个恒心旋转的高度发达的文明，他们是否也需要此类社交润滑剂？
Probably so, says Albert Harrison, a professor emeritus of social psychology at the University of California at Davis. “Every culture on Earth and many different species [here] depend at least in part on exchange and reciprocity, ” said Harrison.
加利福尼亚大学戴维斯分校（University of California at Davis）社会心理学荣誉教授埃尔伯·哈里森（Albert Harrison）认为，答案可能是肯定的。他说：“地球上每一种文化以及（这里）很多不同的物种至少都在一定程度上离不开交流和互惠活动。”
Unless an off-world civilization has a complete “hive”-like mentality, he says it’s probably not a stretch to think that marketing, customer service and even social decorum (or at least some sort of etiquette and civility) would also play a role there as well.
哈里森指出，除非某个地外文明拥有的是完整的“蜂群思维”，否则不难推断出，市场营销、客户服务乃至社会礼俗（或者至少某种礼仪和礼貌）在那个星球也是占有一席之地的。
Although such far-flung space civilizations may not “clip Sunday coupons, ” their ability to communicate effectively with each other and potentially even with other galactic civilizations will arguably be a mainstay of their existence.
尽管此类遥远的太空文明可能不会去“收集星期天优惠券”什么的，但彼此之间乃至与其他星系文明之间有效交流的能力，可能是他们存在的支柱。
“A sufficiently advanced civilization must have some way of making exchanges within their own society, not just of goods, but of knowledge and information, ” said Michael Gorman, a social psychologist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
夏洛茨维尔（Charlottesville）弗吉尼亚大学社会心理学家迈克尔·戈曼（Michael Gorman）指出：“足够发达的文明必须具有某种进行社会内部交流的方式，不只是商品的交换，还应包括知识和信息的交流。”
If so, is it a coincidence that the long march of evolution here on earth “selected” for Homo sapiens like us that, in turn, created civilizations where social decorum still plays such an integral role?
如果是这样的话，那么地球上的长期进化选择了像我们这样的“智人”，从而创造了多种仍然深受社会礼俗影响的文明，这是一种巧合吗？
“With humans, individuals that cooperate more tend to do better, ” said Stuart West, an evolutionary biologist at Oxford University in the U.K. West points out that such cooperation is also prevalent in very fundamental levels here on Earth.
“对于人类，个人通过更多合作通常会实现更好的成绩。”英国牛津大学进化生物学家斯图尔特·维斯特（Stuart West）表示。他指出，这样的合作在地球的最原始的物种中是非常普遍的。
“Mycorrhizal fungi live in an intimate relationship with plant roots, ” said West. “Fungi provide the plant with phosphorus and, in exchange, the plant gives carbon to the fungi.” West says these two very different species have developed a symbiotic reciprocity. That is, they preferentially pass resources to the “individuals” that provide them with “the most” carbon or phosphorus. Those, in other words, that give the best “service.”
“菌根真菌与植物的根部有一种非常亲密的关系，”维斯特说，“真菌为植物提供磷，相对应的，植物为真菌提供碳。”维斯特称，这两种非常不同的物种已经形成了一种共生互惠。这就是说，它们优先将资源传递给为其提供最多炭或者磷的“个体”。换言之，也就是那些提供最佳“服务”的物种。
This sort of evolutionary progression could arguably be usurped by the advent of nano-manufacturing and its prospective onslaught of highly-advanced replication mechanisms. But, if by its current definition “work” eventually becomes optional — either here or off-world — would that necessarily destroy a civilization’s social fabric?
纳米制造的到来以及非常先进的复制机制未来造成的冲击，可能会颠覆这种进化。不过，如果按照当前的定义，“工作”最终将变得可以任意选择——不管是在地球还是在外星，这是否必然摧毁一个文明的社会架构？
“When it comes to creativity, it’s either use it or lose it, ” said Harrison. “Living under conditions where it is not necessary to work would have the potential of weakening the social fabric. An off-world civilization’s loss of critical thinking and skills to think outside the box could prove disastrous.”
“在创造力方面，不用就会退化，”哈里森说，“如果处于无需工作的环境之中，社会架构就可能会弱化。外星文明一旦失去了批判性思维以及跳出固有思维模式进行思考的技术，其结果可能是灾难性的。”
So, if only for self-preservation, does this mean that the evolution of barter and trade and commerce is going to be universal in the cosmos?
因此，如果只是为了自我保护，这是否意味着易货贸易、贸易和商业的进化将在宇宙中普遍存在？
“I would expect it to be very common, ” said West. “Trade is very common in the natural world.”
“我猜这是非常普遍的，”维斯特说，“在自然世界里，交易就很普遍。”
Even people at war with each often engage in some form of commerce with each other, says Gorman; noting that between battles during the American Civil War, Union and Confederate soldiers still traded cotton.
戈曼表示，即使人们相互交恶，他们通常也会相互参与到某种形式的交易中；他指出，在美国内战期间，联邦和邦联的士兵虽然交战，但仍然交易棉花。
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