Above the morning lark.
– Shakespeare
Is this the fastest upvoted HN thread? I don't think I've ever seen a discussion go up to +200 upvotes in under 10 minutes.
He will not be forgotten.
Rest in peace.
To think when he started out black holes were just a myth. He got to witness not only their acceptance and his own vindication but actual gravitational waves as well!
"The diagnosis of motor neurone disease came when Hawking was 21, in 1963. At the time, doctors gave him a life expectancy of two years.[253][254]"
It must be quite taxing to have been given that diagnosis at such a young age, and then live to a relatively old age. I wonder how that marginally impacted his view on life, work and relationships.
Sad he didn't get the Nobel.
Rest in peace.
It's a sad loss for science, but he's also now freed from a body he was becoming increasingly locked in, with less and less ability to communicate over time.
His passing is perhaps more humane - I don't know though, humaneness is in the eye of the person living it.
-- Stephen Hawking
Rest in peace, good sir. You’ve earned it.
After a pause, the answer came: “They both suck.”
Stephen's sense of humor has always cracked me up.
Rest in peace Mr.Hawking.
Rest in peace. https://www.amazon.com/Universe-Nutshell-Stephen-William-Haw...
"Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge" - Stephen Hawking
His life and work will continue to ripple the very fabric of our civilization.
And now that his task is done, He will take his place... amongst the legends of the past.
- Stephen Hawking
I'm just one of many, but he unmistakably and uniquely affected my life for the better.
Growing up, I read Brief History of Time and Universe In A Nutshell dozens of times each. I relished the jokes I got, and I won't forget him.
I also weep for him, knowing he never got the Nobel prize he wanted so very much.
I haven't shed a tear for many people in their passing, but I have for him.
Thank you for opening my eyes to the wonders of the universe. You are an irreplaceable part of who I have become today.
-- Stephen Hawking
Up to now, most scientists have been too occupied with the development of new theories that describe what the universe is to ask the question why. On the other hand, the people whose business it is to ask why, the philosophers, have not been able to keep up with the advance of scientific theories. In the eighteenth century, philosophers considered the whole of human knowledge, including science, to be their field and discussed questions such as: did the universe have a beginning? However, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, science became too technical and mathematical for the philosophers, or anyone else except a few specialists. Philosophers reduced the scope of their inquiries so much that Wittgenstein, the most famous philosopher of this century, said, “The sole remaining task for philosophy is the analysis of language.” What a comedown from the great tradition of philosophy from Aristotle to Kant!
However, if we do discover a complete theory, it should in time be understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – for then we would know the mind of God.
-- Stephen Hawking
A wonderful, somehow fitting, celebration.
He showed ALS who's boss! He demonstrated that when you have a purpose and the will to live one can overcome their limitations.
He inspired me and countless of others.
R.I.P. Dr. Hawking.
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 childhood heroes will drift away until there's none left. Then it will be my turn to drift away.
I miss him already. The world is always going to be a little sadder without him. Though, maybe I can still make it to his party.
A RECEPTION FOR TIME TRAVELLERS
Hosted by
PROFESSOR STEPHEN HAWKING
To be held in the past, at
THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Gonville & Caius College, Trinity Street, Cambridge
Location: 52˚ 12' 21" N, 0˚ 7' 4.7" E
12:00 UT 28 JUNE 2009
NO RSVP REQUIREDHe will be missed, dearly.
He has changed everything for humanity time and again. We owe him the best future we can possibly make.
I'm going to rewatch Hawking tonight (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0395571/).
"If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed. Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality."
https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/3nyn5i/comment/cvs...
I had a close friend of mine who was wheel chair bound. For him Hawking demonstrated the possibility of people accepting him for who he was and enjoying his company irrespective of any perceived differences. He wanted to interact, have friends, build relationships, and this was something that was more expected as a result of Hawking's public profile.
Ultimately he served as not just a role model, but someone who expanded awareness that those in wheelchairs were people too.
I'd read and listened to it before, but sitting there watching my brother listen to it for the first time, I realised just how clearly and succinctly Hawking mapped out the ideas and way of thinking I use to try and find my place in the universe.
I'm quite grateful I had the opportunity to read it.
[1] Maybe not the "entire" world, but all the news orgs I checked had news of his death on their front page as of 2-3 minutes ago:
Al Jazeera // CNN // Fox News // ABC (Australia) // France 24 // DW (Germany) // reddit // HN // NY Times // BBC // WaPo // the Guardian // the Japan Times // Xinhua (China)
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Theory_of_Everything_(2014...
RIP.
Let's look at a different angle: He lived to 76 years old, a man with a disease that once gave you a few years at most. 76 is more or less a full life today. With all the challenges and stresses, we (or a lot of us) do live in great times. Even the greatest King could have died from a cut on his finger a few centuries ago...now penicillin is given for free even in USA.
It seems somehow unfair to have him taken away in the middle of all that.
EDIT: Fond memories of walking around Cambridge University two decades ago with my cousin, and she casually pointed to a building and said "Oh, Stephen Hawking works in there". Seemed so mundane to think that such important works were going on in some nondescript building that I just happened to be walking past. I always envisaged him working on a totally different plane from the rest of us mere peons.
This deserves a black bar. This man I’m sure inspired almost everyone here in some way. Odd to think he’s dead. I thought he’d live forever...
They did several more parabolas than planned, 8-10 min of weightlessness each time. He loved it. Still images only, but it's great to see him out of his wheelchair and floating in space.
"In fact, my disability has been a help in a way, it has freed me from teaching or sitting on boring committees and given me more time to think and do research. Theoretical physics is one of the few fields in which being disabled is no handicap — it is all in the mind." -Stephen Hawking
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 life. It's not the only book that affected me, but it was pivotal. George Gamow's little book also was available, and some good Asimov stuff, but otherwise nothing really.
So I went to university in the big city (Saskatoon!) and studied physics, and they had a whole library of physics books! You'd think it was like heaven, but a lot of those books were crap or hard to read. Hawking showed how one can aim for a book that's interesting-and-good and actually achieve it. A few others managed to do the same. There are probably 20 actually-good and readable physics books in the whole world, and his books are a few of them.
'Stars were aligned' :) I guess.
Rest in peace Dr. Hawking, the scientific community and all the science enthusiasts in the world will hold your contributions and the story of your life dearly in their hearts.
He has died on the date of Albert Einstein's birth, the 14th of March.
Source:- https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/973807157182332928
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.
This mission statement for humanity is what I will keep with my inner compass.
RIP Stephen Hawking
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. Emotion based on truth I can stand, but the outpouring in this thread is ridiculous.
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 planet together and can do amazing things if we choose to put our energy towards it.
It's just like Hawking to check out on Pi Day.
https://open.spotify.com/track/2HZEJcDdPUh1umsw4qcY1X?si=3Vf...
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 keyhole to get established. Another change that has happened since then has been a profound disconnect between theory and experiment. Back in the day, Einstein could make a prediction about light being bent by the Sun and have it be confirmed in his own lifetime.
The "modern" physics superstar like Hawking or Witten just doesn't do that. When neutron oscillations were finally detected after years, it is almost forgotten who to give credit for for the theory because it is really just a conjecture that some matrix element isn't zero. Even in condensed matter there is the spectacle of seeing theoreticians dogpile on the problem of cuprate oxide superconductivity for 20 years without making any progress until an experimentalist noted stripes in the electron density.
The result of it is that you get ahead by getting the approval of much older physicists, not by understanding the world.
As for Hawking himself, his ideas about information loss in black holes, the wavefunction not being unitary and all that were just plain bad ideas that held back quantum gravity by 30 years or so.
You reminded us what makes a man, Comes from deep inside. With your wicked sense of humour, And your persistence to survive.
We thank you for all that you did, And for all that you will do. You may no longer live amongst us, But we will still look up to you.
RIP Stephen Hawking, 1942-2018.
I've seen a lot of people talking about how his death was such a horrible thing, how it saddens them. I don't see it that way. Sure, the world was a better place with his expertise, but the man had been suffering for decades with one of the most horrifying diseases in the world, and in the end I'm just glad that he's not suffering anymore. I hope that, wherever he is, he's finally free.
He was a great man, and a true inspiration to all of us. May he rest in peace. It's weird now, because I feel like the generation of physicists who were able to get close to people and think about the really important problems, is simply gone.
His death reminded me how much enthusiastic I was about the origin(s) of the universe and such fundamental questions. But like many others, I couldn't find my way in science and am now millions of miles away from that. Maybe everyone has a path (destiny) and mine wasn't in science.
One of my close friend recently lost his entire vision due to optic nerve atrophy. And since then he is sort of lost and we used Stephen Hawking example many times to cheer him and overcome his new disability. And it works as well.
It hurts me a lot to realise now that one of the greatest dreamer of our time is simply gone now.
Sadly his brief period has come to an end.
RIP Stephen Hawking.
Straight to the point. Easy to navigate. The most modern addition is the facebook like button, but even that is unobtrusive.
> “The past, like the future, is indefinite and exists only as a spectrum of possibilities.”
> – Stephen Hawking
-- Stephen Hawking
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