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A Theory Is A Good Theory If It Satisfies Two Requirements: It Must Accurately Describe A Large Class Of Observations On The Basis Of A Model That Contains Only A Few Arbitrary Elements, And It Must Make Definite Predictions About The Results Of Future Observations.

-Stephen Hawking

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A Theory Is A

Stephen Hawking

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A Theory Is A Good Theory If It Satisfies Two Requirements: It Must Accurately Describe A Large Class Of Observations On The Basis Of A Model That Contains Only A Few Arbitrary Elements, And It Must Make Definite Predictions About The Results Of Future Observations.

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One Can Imagine That God Created The Universe At Literally Any Time In The Past. On The Other Hand, If The Universe Is Expanding, There May Be Physical Reasons Why There Had To Be A Beginning. One Could Imagine That God Created The Universe At The Instant Of The Big Bang, Or Even Afterwards In Just Such A Way As To Make It Look As Though There Had Been A Big Bang, But It Would Be Meaningless To Suppose That It Was Created Before The Big Bang. An Expanding Universe Does Not Preclude A Creator, But It Does Place Limits On When He Might Have Carried Out His Job!

Expanding Universe

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For Years, My Early Work With Roger Penrose Seemed To Be A Disaster For Science. It Showed That The Universe Must Have Begun With A Singularity, If Einstein's General Theory Of Relativity Is Correct. That Appeared To Indicate That Science Could Not Predict How The Universe Would Begin.

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The Life We Have On Earth Must Have Spontaneously Generated Itself. It Must Therefore Be Possible For Life To Generate Spontaneously Elsewhere In The Universe.

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It Is All Right To Make Mistakes; Nothing Is Perfect Because With Perfection, We Would Not Exist.

One Could Imagine Such Technology Outsmarting Financial Markets, Out-inventing Human Researchers, Out-manipulating Human Leaders, And Developing Weapons We Cannot Even Understand.

We Live In The Most Probable Of All Possible Worlds.

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Although Quantum Mechanics Has Been Around For Nearly 70 Years, It Is Still Not Generally Understood Or Appreciated, Even By Those That Use It To Do Calculations.

Only Time - Whatever That May Be - Will Tell.

We Won't Know For A Few Years.

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I Was Not A Good Student. I Did Not Spend Much Time At College; I Was Too Busy Enjoying Myself.

The Moment You Understand The Whole Universe, Is The Moment You Slightly Begin To Understand The Way God's Mind Works

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?

What Was God Doing Before The Divine Creation?

Computers Double Their Performance Every Month.

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There Is No Heaven Or Afterlife For Broken Down Computers; That Is A Fairy Story For People Afraid Of The Dark.

We Don't Let Animals Suffer, So Why Humans?

I Do Not Believe In A Personal God.

One Can't Prove That God Doesn't Exist. But Science Makes God Unnecessary. The Laws Of Physics Can Explain The Universe Without The Need For A Creator.

I Am Discounting The Reports Of Ufos. Why Would They Appear Only To Cranks And Weirdos?

In A Brief History Of Time I Used The Word "god" Like Einstein Did As A Shorthand For The Laws Of Physics. However, This Is Not What Most People Mean By God, So I Have Decided Not To Use The Term. The Laws Of Physics Can Explain The Universe Without The Need For A God.

Then We Shall... 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.

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Money Is Not Everything. There's Master Card & Visa.

So Einstein Was Wrong When He Said, "god Does Not Play Dice." Consideration Of Black Holes Suggests, Not Only That God Does Play Dice, But That He Sometimes Confuses Us By Throwing Them Where They Can't Be Seen.

Although I Cannot Move, And I Have To Speak Through A Computer, In My Mind, I Am Free.

If Any One Of About 40 Physical Qualities Had More Than Slightly Different Values, Life As We Know It Could Not Exist.

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Every Man Should Marry. After All, Happiness Is Not The Only Thing In Life.

We Think We Have Solved The Mystery Of Creation. Maybe We Should Patent The Universe And Charge Everyone Royalties For Their Existence.

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Eternity Is A Long Time, Especially Towards The End.

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Equations Are Just The Boring Part Of Mathematics. I Attempt To See Things In Terms Of Geometry.

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. I Regard The Brain As A Computer Which Will Stop Working When Its Components Fail. There Is No Heaven Or Afterlife For Broken Down Computers; That Is A Fairy Story For People Afraid Of The Dark.

We Got Through All Of Genesis And Part Of Exodus Before I Left. One Of The Main Things I Learned From This Exercise Was Not To Begin A Sentence With "and." When I Pointed Out That Most Sentences In The Bible Began With "and," I Was Told That English Had Changed Since The Time Of King James. In That Case, I Argued, Why Make Us Read The Bible? But It Was In Vain. Robert Graves At That Time Was Very Keen On The Symbolism And Mysticism In The Bible.

One Is Always A Long Way From Solving A Problem Until One Actually Has The Answer.

The Wise Never Marry, And When They Marry They Become Otherwise.

If At First You Don't Succeed, Try Management.

If A Superior Alien Civilization Sent Us A Message Saying, 'we'll Arrive In A Few Decades', Would We Just Reply, 'ok, Call Us When You Get Here - We'll Leave The Lights On'? Probably Not - But This Is More Or Less What Is Happening With Ai.

I Would Like Nuclear Fusion To Become A Practical Power Source. It Would Provide An Inexhaustible Supply Of Energy, Without Pollution Or Global Warming.

Bodies Like The Earth Are Not Made To Move On Curved Orbits By A Force Called Gravity; Instead, They Follow The Nearest Thing To A Straight Path In A Curved Space, Which Is Called A Geodesic. A Geodesic Is The Shortest (or Longest) Path Between Two Nearby Points.

[on President Bush's Plan To Get To Mars In 10 Years] Stupid. Robots Would Do A Better Job And Be Much Cheaper Because You Don't Have To Bring Them Back.

There Is A Real Danger That Computers Will Develop Intelligence And Take Over.

I Have Noticed Even People Who Claim Everything Is Predestined, And That We Can Do Nothing To Change It, Look Before They Cross The Road.

Ever Since The Dawn Of Civilization, People Have Not Been Content To See Events As Unconnected And Inexplicable. They Have Craved An Understanding Of The Underlying Order In The World. Today We Still Yearn To Know Why We Are Here And Where We Came From. Humanity's Deepest Desire For Knowledge Is Justification Enough For Our Continuing Quest. And Our Goal Is Nothing Less Than A Complete Description Of The Universe We Live In.

There Is A Fundamental Difference Between Religion, Which Is Based On Authority, [and] Science, Which Is Based On Observation And Reason. Science Will Win Because It Works.

If What We Regard As Real Depends On Our Theory, How Can We Make Reality The Basis Of Our Philosophy? But We Cannot Distinguish What Is Real About The Universe Without A Theory. It Makes No Sense To Ask If It Corresponds To Reality, Because We Do Not Know What Reality Is Independent Of A Theory.

Do You Believe In First Love - Or Should I Pass By Again?

Theology Is Unnecessary.

To Confine Our Attention To Terrestrial Matters Would Be To Limit The Human Spirit.

The Meaning In Life Is Not Out There But Inbetween Our Ears. In Many Ways This Makes Us The Lords Of Creation.

In This Way, Edwin Hubble Worked Out The Distances To Nine Different Galaxies. We Now Know That Our Galaxy Is Only One Of Some Hundred Thousand Million That Can Be Seen Using Modern Telescopes, Each Galaxy Itself Containing Some Hundred Thousand Million Stars.

Its A Crazy World Out There. Be Curious.

There Is No Way That We Can Predict The Weather Six Months Ahead Beyond Giving The Seasonal Average.

I Don't Think The Human Race Will Survive The Next Thousand Years, Unless We Spread Into Space.

Most Sets Of Values Would Give Rise To Universes That, Although They Might Be Very Beautiful, Would Contain No One Able To Wonder At That Beauty.

The Victim Should Have The Right To End His Life, If He Wants. But I Think It Would Be A Great Mistake. However Bad Life May Seem, There Is Always Something You Can Do, And Succeed At. While There's Life, There Is Hope.

When Something Is Made Idiot Proof, They Will Just Make Better Idiots.

It Is No Good Getting Furious If You Get Stuck. What I Do Is Keep Thinking About The Problem But Work On Something Else. Sometimes It Is Years Before I See The Way Forward. In The Case Of Information Loss And Black Holes, It Was 29 Years.

The Human Race Shouldn't Have All Its Eggs In One Basket, Or On One Planet. Let's Hope We Can Avoid Dropping The Basket Until We Have Spread The Load.

I Have To Speak Through A Computer... In My Mind, I Am Free. Free To Explore The Universe And Ask The Big Questions...

We Are Entering An Increasingly Dangerous Period Of Our History. But I'm An Optimist.

You Cannot Predict The Future.

Mankind's Greatest Achievements Have Come About By Talking And Its Greatest Failures By Not Talking. It Doesn’t Have To Be Like This.

What Is Important Is That We Have The Ability To Create.

I Think Computer Viruses Should Count As Life.

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