The world is now diminished by the loss of this brilliant mind. Though I take comfort that he enriched humanity for all time.
Stephen Hawking has died
251–260 of 468 posts
Re: Stephen Hawking has died
#252Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you share the names of other physics books that you think are good & readable ?
I've been told that Roger Penrose's The Road to Reality is awesome if you already know enough math. If you're an engineer, for example, you shouldn't have problems. Unfortunately, my personal level of mathematical maturity is too low and I've never made it past the first ten chapters. Maybe some day with more effort. :/
Second that. It's an awesome book that explains pretty much everything when it comes to physics. As for the math, it's true that they're hard but you should really give it another try since the second part of the book has less equations and more text.
Re: Stephen Hawking has died
#253Growing 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…
Can you share the names of other physics books that you think are good & readable ?
"Chaos" by James Gleick is about the same age as Hawking's book. The story of discovery there gives a great idea of the adventure in science.
Re: Stephen Hawking has died
#254RIP Stephen Hawking
I'm one of those million of lives you have inspired. I brought A Brief History of Time with my first salary. Thank you for everything.
Re: Stephen Hawking has died
#255"I don’t think we will survive another 1,000 years without escaping beyond our fragile planet,..."
This mission statement for humanity is what I will keep with my inner compass.
RIP Stephen Hawking
Re: Stephen Hawking has died
#256Earlier quoted context omitted.
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)
To an atheist physicist God probably means the universe or the forces that govern the universe. They share many of the same properties, like being all powerful†, outside of time and space and being creators, not the created. † within the constraints of some universal logic
I agree, though to be clear - the difference between religion and science is that religion affords god with cognitive intent. I'd be surprised to hear if Hawking believed that the force that we might describe as god has qualities of compassion and judgement as well as having set forth the rules that govern atomic motion.
Re: Stephen Hawking has died
#257Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
14/03/2018?
depends on how you do your date formats, march 14, 3.14.
Re: Stephen Hawking has died
#258Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your comment illustrates perfectly why the black bar is a bad idea... unless it gets used for every death posted here someone will feel discriminated against and offended that it was omitted for someone they like. And if it is used for everyone, people will feel that its meaning has been degraded, because the black bar has become a status symbol - something to be "earned" or "deserved". And inevitably there will be t…
Someones death should 100% be a distraction over our daily lives to remind us all on the impeding doom. People getting hurt and distracted over who gets a black bar or not is better than nothing at all IMO.
>Someones death should 100% be a distraction over our daily lives to remind us all on the impeding doom.
People die all the time ... according to Wikipedia, about 105,000 per day, every day... yet I would bet those deaths don't distract you at all, if they did, you would be spending your life in a corner paralyzed with fear.
Life is for the living, life is not for the dead.
>People getting hurt and distracted over who gets a black bar or not is better than nothing at all IMO.
Better at what? At reminding people of their own mortality? Better than the thread itself, or the posted obituary, or the experience of merely living as a human being? Nonsense.
Re: Stephen Hawking has died
#259“I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I’m not afraid of death, but I’m in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first.” -- Stephen Hawking
He died in π-day that also happens to be Albert Einstein's birthday.
It would destroy my sense of Hawking's rationally to imagine him using a month-day-year date ordering. ;o)
Re: Stephen Hawking has died
#260Earlier quoted context omitted.
Shouldn't downvote this. Carl Sagan is nowhere as famous as the other three, probably except the US.
Sagan is a special case. Will be remembered (mainly) as a very good science communicator. Not so many people connect it with a famous and top-class scientist woman. The work of his first wife, Lynn Margulis, changed forever the concept of evolution. If we put Sagan with Darwin we should not forget to add Margulis to this list also.
> Not so many people connect it
I wanted to say: connect him, obviously