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Stephen Hawking has died

bbc.com

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Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#281

Post by ethbro »

NamTaf wrote: post #164
tintor wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"At least at the lecture I attended, he live keyed his entire speech. This meant the synthesizer would speak, followed by 20 or 30 seconds of absolute silence as he buffered the next few sentences." He was "typing" one bit at a time? How can he type the entire sentence so quickly?

Yes. Here's some info on his setup. It tracked the motion of his cheek, which he could still control, to stop on a letter. It scanned through the alphabet and he had to pull it up at the right time. http://www.hawking.org.uk/the-computer.html I also just started typing that in present tense ('tracks'...) and had to pull myself up. :(

My understanding is that over the years his input setup has changed as his physical capabilities deteriorated.

This would have been circa-2004, and I want to say at the time he had a less predictive but more physical system.

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#282

Post by tardo99 »

kunai wrote: post #276
drawkbox wrote: post #268

Sometimes the RNG of the Universe creates people with intelligence, innovation and insight that are one in a billion that make the world better than it was before in immense ways, Stephen Hawking is one of those mountain movers. People like Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Nikola Tesla and even Elon Musk today, that make us look up, innovate and think way out there, bring us together and remind us we are all on this plan…

> People like Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Nikola Tesla and even Elon Musk One of these is certainly not like the others.

I was scared no one would mention Elon Musk. I actually came to this thread, did cmd-f and typed Musk just to check.

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#283

Post by jug »

telesilla wrote: post #191
n17r4m wrote: post #73

Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe? The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the questions of why there should be a universe for the model to describe. Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing? Is the unified theory so…

A reminder he stated he was an atheist, so I take his words on god with a grain of salt. “We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.” (Hawking)

He has later clarified that ”mind of God” was figurative and from an atheist angle more like ”the reason for creation”.

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#284

Post by herbstein »

jsolson wrote: post #162
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was both Professor Hawking and Carl Sagan that tought me how brief and unlikely our lives truly are. It was their cosmic perspective that helped me end my fear of death. While we want more time and see the death of others as tragic, I do feel less afraid of that time coming knowing how fortunate I have been to live.

Interesting. I would like to attribute my desire to live "forever", at least to some extent, to cosmic perspective. One day the universe might make me bored, but today is not that day, and I suspect tomorrow isn't either. I don't ever expect that day to come, but if I thought it was near I'd be very afraid indeed.

Very well said. Really like the way you framed it.

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#285

Post by jug »

snarfy wrote: post #225
cgio wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Causality is an artefact of the universe. From a philosophical standpoint we would need to establish that why is the key question or we are chasing a socks theory of feet. And that is assuming that why is about causality rather than intention. To paraphrase this abstract's ending, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason - for then the mind of God would be knowable.

If we do come up with a grand unified theory that spawns the existence of everything that's completely self contained and self describing, and it ends up being something like x + y = z, what does that really explain? Why? It's because x + y = z, that's why! Once we boil it down to that why becomes meaningless. Everything ultimately has the same reason why.

I have a feeling that the deeper we get, the more physics will be based on “magical numbers”. We have already come across some. But yes, it is extraordinary how the most pure and simple physics with numbers from quantum randomness can create something like this. Very weird to me.

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#287

Post by purple-again »

mirkules wrote: post #112
satori99 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, two-way communication, sure. But his words and ideas will continue to be communicated for a very long time. He is one of the very rare human beings whose names will never be forgotten.

It is said that a person dies three deaths: First, when their body stops functioning. Second, when their body is buried (or cremated). And the third and final death is when their name is uttered for the very last time in human history. I am fairly confident Stephen Hawking will have only died two deaths.

I was under the impression it was:

1) When your body dies 2) When you the last person who remembers you dies 3) When the last thing you impacted is gone

Now existence has returned to a state as if you had never been at all.

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#288

Post by TickleSteve »

nbdev wrote: post #261

Not one negative comment in this whole thread. Everyone is enamoured with Hawking, huh? Ask the women in his life what they thought of him. Ask the scientists, including Peter Higgs, who complained about his undue credibility and attention given to him. Disagree with me? Think I'm speaking negative about the dead? If you call yourself inspired by a scientist, admiring a scientist, then you should seek the truth. Emot…

Its generally understood that no one is perfect...

Pointing this out while discussing the death of possibly the most respected scientist ever to a tech & science literate crowd is quite unnecessary.

RIP SH.

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#290

Post by dmix »

troymc wrote: post #190

Growing up in the middle of nowhere, Canada in the 1980s, the library didn't have many good science books. When Hawking's book got published, it was the only thing available like that anywhere around. Remember, this is before you could get any book in existence within one month via Amazon. There was no Amazon. I got A Brief History of Time and read it, and it's almost cliche to say so, but it changed the course of my…

> it was the only thing available like that anywhere around. Remember, this is before you could get any book in existence within one month via Amazon

This seems to still be the case, I recently spent some time visiting my moms place in a small town in Ontario, Canada and visited the old library. I was looking at the biography section of the local library and outside of the usual mob or famous actors selection the three choices among the "great minds" were bios of: Isaac Newton, Hypatia, and Stephen Hawking.

Even if his ideas may only be poorly grasped by the general population he still ranks among the greatest and most accessible minds in history wherever you may live, and we're all better off thanks to him.

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