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Stephen Hawking has died

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Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#431

Post by kolleykibber »

o2l wrote: post #196
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…

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

I haven't seen Carlo Rovelli's books mentioned. Especially 'Seven brief lessons on physics'.

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#432

Post by jxramos »

state_less wrote: post #347
yesbabyyes wrote: post #232

Earlier 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.

"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 a…

I've been long familiar with that poem, but for the first time today I realize that its connected to our nature in how we're brought into the world. The long succession of mother and fathers springing forth new life. No human has ever just sprung up independent from prior human life or some lesser organism.

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#433

Post by drawkbox »

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…

Maybe I should have said Feynman but Musk definitely has done great things and is making people think that Mars travel might be a reality. He is making us look up, making people dream and working to make it a reality.

The booster rockets returning to Earth in unison and on the barge originally, both were amazing moments that were almost as impactful as the space race accomplishments during the Apollo program. Definitely exciting that it is a reality that is happening not just hope, Musk has amazing teams and funding but he is using all that to accomplish these things instead of just getting richer, risking his personal wealth many times over for these goals.

Sagan would probably be thrilled with SpaceX.

Then you have Tesla electric cards rocking the electric car / battery industry and making it business ready today.

Nikola Tesla would be thrilled with Tesla and battery power to lessen reliance on the electric grid.

Then you got solar homes and batteries along with the SpaceX accomplishments in rocketry, that you can start to put together and see the uses for interstellar travel and harsh planet settlement.

Hawking would be thrilled at the interstellar travel part as he has been warning humans to look for other places for years and thinks we must be interstellar within hundreds of years to survive.

Musk is more of a business focused guy but he is making people look up and is accomplishing these tasks by challenging big competitors and ultimately his products will be good for Earth. That is amazing in my book.

Feynman liked making everyone interested in science and talked to people with the aims of understanding not just being smart, he'd be thrilled that Musk is bringing amazing scientific achievement to regular people's lives.

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#434

Post by jxramos »

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…

wow, what a 100,000ft view of that timeline. He definitely had rich rich perspective on things. Thanks for sharing.

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#435

Post by BeetleB »

thanatropism wrote: post #388
dbingham wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like this might have more to do with modern social media and celebrity culture, especially Twitter culture, than with Tyson himself. It's toxic. It's really hard to move in that realm with out adopting some of its sensibilities and tone. In Tyson's defense, the new Cosmos was damn near perfect and had none of the elitism that I detected. Just a love of knowledge and history.

Tyson is intellectually underwhelming and doesn't seem to understand the limitations of his own knowledge. He's made his fame for speaking with the mannerisms of a preacher; and for remaking (in science a necessity) the Carl Sagan classic. He's already being forgotten by mainstream culture, which is not worse for it.

>Tyson is intellectually underwhelming

Only to intellectuals.

He may not have been a great researcher, but his ability to explain to the common person (impromptu) is a lot better than Hawking's. Other than Sagan, I cannot think of anyone that good. Their styles are different, but both are/were great.

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#436

Post by luckydude »

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…

That was hard to read, your love for the man is so clear.

Good luck in your goal to accomplish what you can.

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#438

Post by madengr »

nickbauman wrote: post #419
Raidion wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tyson doesn't have the academic credentials that Hawking or someone like Richard Feynman does. The power of Hawking and Feynman is that they both were at the top of their fields, but took the time to make the foundations of their science accessible to the common man. Tyson has done great things, but he's not quite there.

I thought Tyson's COSMOS was really well done but doesn't hit its stride until the 4th episode or so. I loved it almost as much as Sagan's COSMOS. The only "problem" with it was that the original was so good, and such a first of its kind, it's virtually impossible to top. I think Tyson's version was as good as it could be.

I couldn’t watch it. Too much hype. Sagan was so much more relaxing to listen too.

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#439

Post by madengr »

o2l wrote: post #196
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…

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

Asimov on Physics. Pretty much Asimov on anything.

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#440

Post by madengr »

Liron wrote: post #366
RayVR wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Musk is an incredible self-promoter. He talks about how he is going to save the world, critics just don’t understand or just want to see him fail, and his words bounce around an ideological echo chamber where the facts of his claims don’t matter. IMO, the google founders have had a far larger impact on the world than Elon, however, they don’t promote themselves endlessly.

Without Elon Musk, do you think humanity would currently be in possession of reusable rocket boosters? (Regardless of Page and Brin's accomplishments.)

Yes. The space shuttle had reusable boosters. Retro rockets for landings were used in th Apollo and Viking programs.
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