BY STEPHEN HAWKING
Contains keen observations, humorous utterances, and serious advice/warnings to humankind.
5 stars out of 5 stars
Stephen Hawking believed that it is possible to explain the basic ideas behind the discoveries in modern science, so that the general public, the majority of whom have meager education in the sciences, can comprehend, including the esoteric field of modern physics and astrophysics, in simple plain English, without equations, The success of his bestselling book “A Brief History of Time”, seemed to lend support to this belief. It is, however, questionable how many who bought the book actually finish reading it and how many would admit that certain portions of the book are simply difficult to understand, despite the remarkable effort of the author.
What is indisputable is the clear, lucid, and occasionally humorous style which makes “A Brief History of Time” so attractive. He brought the same style to “Brief Answers to Big Questions”, his last book, published the year he died. There are 10 big questions chosen by Stephen. In my opinion, despite Stephen’s superlative skills in explaining ideas without equations, the answers to several big questions are difficult to comprehend to those readers who did not major in physics, including this reviewer who has a PhD in electrical engineering. These are:
- What is inside a black hole?
- Can we predict the future?
- Is time travel possible?
The answers to the other big questions, which are among the biggest and most intriguing (Is there a God? Will we survive on Earth? Should we colonize space?) are easy to read and comprehensible. They contain keen observations, thoughtful warnings, humorous utterances, as well as serious advice to humankind. Below are examples in each category:
Keen Observations:
1. “I would like to speculate a little on the development of life in the universe, and in particular on the development of intelligent life. I shall take this to include the human race, even though much of its behavior throughout history has been pretty stupid and not calculated to aid the survival of the species.”
2. In January 2018, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the doomsday clock to two minutes to midnight. Hawking felt compelled to point out that such an alarming warning was prompted at least in part by the election of Donald Trump.
3. “We spend a great deal of time studying history, which, let’s face it, is mostly the history of stupidity”.
Serious Warnings:
1. “But we need to be wary of answering back to messages from intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe until we have developed a bit further”.
2. “Meeting a more advanced civilization, at our present stage, might be a bit like the original inhabitants of America meeting Columbus – and I don’t think they thought they were better off for it”.
Humorous Utterances:
1. “I was born exactly 300 years after the death of Galileo, and I would like to think that this coincidence has had a bearing on how my scientific life has turned out. However, I estimate that about 200,000 other babies were also born that day. I don’t know whether any of them were later interested in astronomy”.
2. “Yet the discovery of the New World made a profound difference to the Old. Just think, we wouldn’t have had the Big Mac or KFC”.
Fans of science fiction movies will be glad to know that Stephen was one of them. Star Trek, 2001 A Space Odessey, Back to the Future, and even Terminator were mentioned in the book. When there was a connection between a movie and a topic discussed in the book, Stephen would point it out. For example, he mentioned that the concept of alternative histories was central to Back to the Future.
Let me finish with two serious advice to humankind by Stephen Hawking and his answer to the biggest question “Is there a God?”
1. “Our future is a race between the growing power of our technology and the wisdom with which we use ii. Let’s make sure that wisdom wins”.
2. “Be brave, be curious, be determined, overcome the odds. It can be done”
3. “We are each free to believe what we want, and it’s my view that there is no God. I think belief in an afterlife is just wishful thinking…We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe, and for that I am extremely grateful.”
Coming from a severely disabled person living on borrowed time, these statements are nothing short of remarkable.
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