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Stephen Hawking has died

bbc.com

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Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#441

Post by nbdev »

palimpsests wrote: post #383
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…

Thanks for posting - I'm more or less with you. As evidenced by this thread - he was inspirational, and I appreciate that so many people here got that from him. And, yeah, I've heard a number of stories about how he treated women and his first wife that are just disturbing and sadly completely unsurprising, given the norms of our society (that are thankfully being shaken and revisited at this stage of human developme…

Thank you for posting too. I have a tiny glimmer of hope because of it.

HN, you call yourself scientists? You pursue the truth? You have an open mind? I call bullshit on you HN visitors. Shame on you. I hope I never act as you have done here.

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#442

Post by nbdev »

TickleSteve wrote: post #288
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.

You prove the necessity by trying to shoehorn this into "nobody's perfect." This "tech & science literate" mob circle jerk enables bad science and bad behavior. I doubt many here even know what Hawking really contributed. He simply embodies some need to worship a disabled genius. No one wants to hear it from me. I get it, but I thought just one person should speak up.

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#443

Post by nbdev »

castis wrote: post #320
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…

This sort of behavior may earn points on facebook or reddit, but no one here is impressed with classless posturing.

I'm not impressed with your posturing, at least.

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#444

Post by slavik81 »

comboy wrote: post #424
slavik81 wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hawking's condition worsened steadily throughout his life. While he was wheelchair-bound by the end of the 1960s, he was still capable of speaking until the 1980s. In the 1970s, he was already an accomplished scientist and would probably have been capable of eating a normal lunch. The timing would even work for the incident to involve the real Richard Feynman. Though, I can't find anything to suggest the story is tru…

It seems that in 1970s when he was at Caltech he already barely could talk, but who knows.

By the late 1970s he was quite difficult to understand, but consider that he began his graduate studies in 1962.

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#445

Post by whatyoucantsay »

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…

> It is how they inspire an entire generation to seek out knowledge, understanding and fill us all with a sense of humility, awe and wonder.

It's one of the finest things one can do. In today's climate of dystopian science fiction, we could all use some awe and wonder.

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#446

Post by rdlecler1 »

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…

The hero’s get smaller. I remember talking to my advisor, a Macarthur fellow, and he wondered why we didn’t have any giants today.

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#447

Post by icc97 »

A quote I got from my Harvest timer this morning:

> “The past, like the future, is indefinite and exists only as a spectrum of possibilities.”

> – Stephen Hawking

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#448

Post by troymc »

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 ?

The others are suggesting Bill Bryson, Brian Greene, Lee Smolin and Leonard Susskind books but they came quite a bit later. Good suggestions though.

What stands out that I could read in the 1980s? I mentioned George Gamow's little book: One Two Three . . . Infinity: Facts and Speculations of Science.

Many Carl Sagan books were available by then. Ask Google.

Isaac Asimov wrote about everything, but his monthly essays in the Fantasy & Science Fiction (magazine) often covered some physics topic. I love how he tells the story: Always about the person, the time, the ideas, the meanings of the words, good analogies. He made it all seem so simple, but I know now that he was a master and loved it (and bragged about it too). Those essays were often collected into paperback collections, and my high school library got them.

Asimov also wrote a History of Physics book. Really thick and long. I read it for a book report for English class, because I was a total nerd and it seemed like a fun project. Most others read a comic book because those passed as "non-fiction" (for real).

One of the better textbooks is Introduction to Electrodynamics by David J. Griffiths. That one stands out in my mind.

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#449

Post by troymc »

jonathanstrange wrote: post #250
o2l wrote: post #196

Earlier 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. :/

I've heard good things about that one. I should get it. It came much later than the 1980s, of course.

Re: Stephen Hawking has died

#450

Post by gowld »

skookumchuck wrote: post #386
spike021 wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar issue with Bill Nye, I think, though he's definitely not on the same level.

Nye acted for years on Almost Live, a comedy show. He's also got an ME degree, not an advanced science degree. It's just hard to take him seriously as a science spokesman.

ME is an advanced science degree.
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