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Stephen Hawking has died

bbc.com

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Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#341

Post by [deleted] »

intenseSpec wrote: post #295
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…

Serious question, why is Elon Musk lumped in with Tesla, Hawking, and Sagan? Musk's achievements are assisted by the fact that he has tens of thousands of engineers at his companies and he gets credit for every one of their ideas, all their work, and all the life they give up for his dreams. He didn't found Paypal (his company merged with it), he didn't found Tesla (kicked out one of the original founders), and he di…

[deleted]

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#342

Post by SuperPaintMan »

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…

MURRAY 5TH FLOOR QB981.H377 1998

Now I know what I'm doing this afternoon, thanks!

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#343

Post by [deleted] »

PaulHoule wrote: post #329

At risk of being voted down I will say that the time in which Hawking has worked has been a "dark ages" for physics in my mind. (As a physics PhD; and I don't blame Hawking for this, rather the rest of the environment.) Circa 1970 the number of physics PhD's produced has outstripped the number of permanent jobs in physics, sometimes by a factor of 30:1! One result of that is that physicists have to make it through a…

[deleted]

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#345

Post by gk1 »

dalbasal wrote: post #202
o2l wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you share the names of other physics books that you think are good & readable ?

'A short history of nearly everything' is extremely readable. Written by a comedic writer. It surveys much of scientific knowledge roughly narrated as a history of scientific discovery and the development of science. 'Elegant universe' is a little denser. It's about as accessible as string theory gets, and that's surprisingly accessible. It also surveys a lot of scientific knowledge. For example, it has a very intuit…

At risk of being pedantic, his name was Hawking, not Hawkins.

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#346

Post by erikpukinskis »

eloff wrote: post #326
jsolson wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Right now the only thing that somewhat limits the accumulation of wealth by the wealthiest in our society is that they eventually die. Even if they pass it on to their offspring, those offspring are often ill-equipped to run their parent's business empire. Eventually the dynastic wealth fades away and others can take their place. If people could live forever there would be no limits on how much wealth individuals cou…

The other huge check on older wealthy players is “the world moves on”. Often the latter phase of their life they are collecting rent on outdated business models. That is profitable for many years, but not forever. Later generations often switch to a forward thinking competitor.

Combined with cognitive decline, that makes it hard for 150 year old tycoons to grow new revenue...

Although under capitalism (property law) rent-based revenues will typically grow large scale holdings even without smart development.

Not sure if/how those two forces add up.

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#347

Post by state_less »

yesbabyyes wrote: post #232
slavik81 wrote: post #79

That man was my hero. If I achieve a fraction of what he accomplished in his life, I will be incredibly proud. Against all odds, he lived a full and amazing life. It somehow feels even more painful to lose a man who cheated death. It just gives you that feeling that they can somehow live forever, until the moment when the illusion is shattered. And underneath it all is that unshakable feeling. Memento mori. Slowly my…

He fooled Death, staved off it's dance it beat him yet, Longinus' Lance now the bet is in our hands perhaps we'll get another chance: Wise for ever, still funny now The party's on the day of Tau He chose a funny day to die A perfect day: the day of Pi.

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee." -John Donne

I'll miss him and his wonderful stories of the cosmos.

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#349

Post by erikpukinskis »

cgriswald wrote: post #327
simonh wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would like to live indefinitely, but I do not want to. The cost to human society and our natural resources of a species of immortals is too much. I want human society to include births, children, growing up, dating, marriage and raising families. I want my children and our species generally to have a dynamic, continuously renewing culture. I just don’t see how those things are compatible with immortality. Just don’…

Our existing lifespans are arbitrary. They are largely based on the length of time needed to procreate and ensure a successful subsequent generation or two; and on our ability to overcome that limitation. Saying, "I would not take immortality treatments if they were available" is different from "I will not accept medical help for my heart condition" only by a matter of scale. Having more humans on the planet and for…

If Einstein lived forever and society reorganized around sustaining the elderly instead of having children, there would be no Hawking.

That’s the point—there are dozens of Einsteins born every year, and growing up as children amidst the new theories actually makes them stronger than 130 year old Einstein would be.

If you are really concerned about Einstein’s immortal embodiment, you would see that he is alive, and he is 10 years old and he lives in an abusive household in a bad school district. Go find him (her?) and get her into a good physics classroom and make sure she has a safe place to eat dinner and do her homework.

Keeping Hawking alive is both harder and less valuable.

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#350

Post by nylonstrung »

mgolawala wrote: post #331
joshumax wrote: post #45

For a second I just couldn't believe this was real. Stephen Hawking was one of those people that inspired me towards a career in science, as well as a pursuit of discovering what mysteries of the universe I could uncover within my (cosmically short) lifetime. He did this not through some major life-altering speech I heard from him (although his talks and lectures were quite interesting), or through some grand quote t…

I agree completely. Who will take his place? Who will be the Stephen Hawking of my children's generation? As a society we should work hard to find, celebrate and give a platform to the Stephen Hawking-s and the Carl Sagan-s of tomorrow. The impact of such "celebrity scientists" (I do not use that term pejoratively) is far greater than the measure of the work they have done. It is how they inspire an entire generation…

Neil Degrasse Tyson is clearly vying for the slot but seems to make science seem more elitist, more pedantic (read literally any of his tweets) and thus appears to miss the point entirely
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