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I Think My Dad [ Stephen Hawking] Would Have Been Pleased If I Had Turned Out A Scientist Because He Truly Believes That Is The Most Interesting Career Open To Anyone. But He Also Believes That You Have To Follow Your Own Path In Life And So He Certainly Wasn't Going To Push Me Toward Theoretical Physics When It Didn't Look Like I Was Going In That Direction Naturally.

-Stephen Hawking

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I Think My Dad

Stephen Hawking

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I Think My Dad [ Stephen Hawking] Would Have Been Pleased If I Had Turned Out A Scientist Because He Truly Believes That Is The Most Interesting Career Open To Anyone. But He Also Believes That You Have To Follow Your Own Path In Life And So He Certainly Wasn't Going To Push Me Toward Theoretical Physics When It Didn't Look Like I Was Going In That Direction Naturally.

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I Am Damned If I'm Going To Die Before I Have Unraveled More Of The Universe

So Long As The Universe Had A Beginning, We Could Suppose It Had A Creator. But If The Universe Is Really Completely Self-contained, It Would Have Neither Beginning Or End, It Would Simply Be. What Place Then For A Creator?

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In Britain, Like Most Of The Developed World, Stem-cell Research Is Regarded As A Great Opportunity. America Will Be Left Behind If It Doesn't Change Policy.

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A Snooze Button Is A Poor Substitute For No Alarm Clock At All.

We Are In Danger Of Destroying Ourselves By Our Greed And Stupidity. We Cannot Remain Looking Inwards At Ourselves On A Small And Increasingly Polluted And Overcrowded Planet.

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?

One Could Say: "the Boundary Condition Of The Universe Is That It Has No Boundary." The Universe Would Be Completely Self-contained And Not Affected By Anything Outside Itself. It Would Neither Be Created Nor Destroyed. It Would Just Be.

In Real Time, The Universe Has A Beginning And An End At Singularities That Form A Boundary To Space-time And At Which The Laws Of Science Break Down.

Evolution Has Ensured That Our Brains Just Aren't Equipped To Visualise 11 Dimensions Directly. However, From A Purely Mathematical Point Of View It's Just As Easy To Think In 11 Dimensions, As It Is To Think In Three Or Four.

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.

A Model Is A Good Model If First It Interprets A Wide Range Of Observations In Terms Of A Simple And Elegant Model, And Second If The Model Makes Definite Predictions That Can Be Tested, And Possibly Falsified, By Observation.

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It Is My View That The Simplest Explanation Is There Is No God. No One Created The Universe And No One Directs Our Fate. This Leads Me To A Profound Realization. There Is Probably No Heaven, And No Afterlife Either. We Have This One Life To Appreciate The Grand Design Of The Universe, And For That, I Am Extremely Grateful.

The Increase Of Disorder Or Entropy With Time Is One Example Of What Is Called An Arrow Of Time, Something That Distinguishes The Past From The Future, Giving A Direction To Time.

Time And Space Are Finite In Extent, But They Don't Have Any Boundary Or Edge. They Would Be Like The Surface Of The Earth, But With Two More Dimensions.

The "powers That Be" Are Not Smart Enough To Engineer Armageddon, But They May Yet Be Stupid Enough. If Governments Are Involved In Covering Up The Knowledge Of Aliens, Then They Are Doing A Much Better Job Of It Than They Seem To Do At Anything Else.

All Of My Life, I Have Been Fascinated By The Big Questions That Face Us, And Have Tried To Find Scientific Answers To Them. If, Like Me, You Have Looked At The Stars, And Tried To Make Sense Of What You See, You Too Have Started To Wonder What Makes The Universe Exist.

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It Matters If You Don't Just Give Up.

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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.

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The Human Capacity For Guilt Is Such That People Can Always Find Ways To Blame Themselves

People Won't Have Time For You If You Are Always Angry Or Complaining.

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Why Does The Universe Go To All The Bother Of Existing?

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The Idea That We Are Alone In The Universe Seems To Me Completely Implausible And Arrogant, Considering The Number Of Planets And Stars That We Know Exist, It's Extremely Unlikely That We Are The Only Form Of Evolved Life.

Go The Extra Mile. It Makes Your Boss Look Like An Incompetent Slacker.

If Time Travel Is Possible, Where Are The Tourists From The Future?

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My First Popular Book, 'a Brief History Of Time,' Aroused A Great Deal Of Interest, But Many Found It Difficult To Understand.

Scientists Have Become The Bearers Of The Torch Of Discovery In Our Quest For Knowledge.

For Millions Of Years, Mankind Lived Just Like The Animals. Then Something Happened Which Unleashed The Power Of Our Imagination. We Learned To Talk And We Learned To Listen.

We See The Universe The Way It Is Because We Exist.

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Many People Find The Universe Confusing - It's Not.

Don't Be Disabled In Spirit As Well As Physically.

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Our Only Chance Of Long-term Survival Is Not To Remain Lurking On Planet Earth, But To Spread Out Into Space.

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?

Never Put Off The Work Till Tomorrow What You Can Put Off Today.

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Nothing Cannot Exist Forever.

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All My Adult Life People Have Been Helping Me.

Science Does Not Deny Religion, It Just Offers A Simpler Alternative.

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

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Time Travel Used To Be Thought Of As Just Science Fiction, But Einstein's General Theory Of Relativity Allows For The Possibility That We Could Warp Space-time So Much That You Could Go Off In A Rocket And Return Before You Set Out.

Or In Other Words, Why Does Disorder Increase In The Same Direction Of Time As That In Which The Universe Expands?

One Of The Basic Rules Of The Universe Is That Nothing Is Perfect. Perfection Simply Doesn't Exist.....without Imperfection, Neither You Nor I Would Exist

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Without Imperfection, You Or I Would Not Exist.

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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.

I Think The Human Race Doesn't Have A Future If We Don't Go Into Space. We Need To Expand Our Horizons Beyond Planet Earth If We Are To Have A Long-term Future. We Cannot Remain Looking Inward At Ourselves On A Small And Increasingly Polluted And Overcrowded Planet. We Need To Look Outward To The Wider Universe.

Any Physical Theory Is Always Provisional, In The Sense That It Is Only A Hypothesis: You Can Never Prove It.

I Don't Know What My Iq Is. People Who Gloat About Their Iq's Are Losers

As We Shall See, The Concept Of Time Has No Meaning Before The Beginning Of The Universe. This Was First Pointed Out By St. Augustine. When Asked: What Did God Do Before He Created The Universe? Augustine Didn't Reply: He Was Preparing Hell For People Who Asked Such Questions. Instead, He Said That Time Was A Property Of The Universe That God Created, And That Time Did Not Exist Before The Beginning Of The Universe.

While Physics And Mathematics May Tell Us How The Universe Began, They Are Not Much Use In Predicting Human Behavior Because There Are Far Too Many Equations To Solve. I'm No Better Than Anyone Else At Understanding What Makes People Tick, Particularly Women.

There Should Be A Better Way To Start A Day Than Waking Up Every Morning.

When I Was First Diagnosed With Als, I Was Given Two Years To Live. Now 45 Years Later, I Am Doing Pretty Well.

Real Science Can Be Far Stranger Than Science Fiction And Much More Satisfying.

So Great A Contribution To Physics Was Two New Sciences That Scholars Have Long Maintained That The Book Anticipated Isaac Newton's Laws Of Motion.

One Cannot Really Argue With A Mathematical Theorem.

The Rate Of Progress Is So Rapid That What One Learns At School Or University Is Always A Bit Out Of Date. Only A Few People Can Keep Up With The Rapidly Advancing Frontier Of Knowledge, And They Have To Devote Their Whole Time To It And Specialize In A Small Area. The Rest Of The Population Has Little Idea Of The Advances That Are Being Made Or The Excitement They Are Generating.

With Genetic Engineering, We Will Be Able To Increase The Complexity Of Our Dna, And Improve The Human Race. But It Will Be A Slow Process, Because One Will Have To Wait About 18 Years To See The Effect Of Changes To The Genetic Code. By Contrast, Computers Double Their Speed And Memories Every 18 Months. There Is A Real Danger That Computers Will Develop Intelligence And Take Over. We Urgently Need To Develop Direct Connections To The Brain So That Computers Can Add To Human Intelligence Rather Than Be In Opposition.

The Fact That No One Understands You Doesn't Mean You're An Artist.

I May Contradict Myself, But At Least I Don't Contradict Myself.

We Won't Know For A Few Years.

Someone Told Me That Each Equation I Included In My Book Would Halve The Sales. I Did Put In One Equation, Einstein's Famous Equation, E = Mc Squared. I Hope That This Will Not Scare Off Half Of My Potential Readers.

Do You Ever Wonder How Much Deeper The Ocean Would Be Without Sponges?

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The Lesson Of The Book Is That The Universe Is Governed By The Laws Of Science.

Maybe I'm Being A Bit Harsh On Philosophers, But They Have Not Been Very Kind To Me... I Have Been Variously Called Nominalist, An Instrumentalist, A Positivist, A Realist, And Several Other Ists. The Technique Seems Refutation By Denigration: If You Can Attach A Label To My Approach, You Don't Have To Say What Is Wrong With It... I Am Sure That Einstein, Heisenberg And Dirac Didn't Worry About Whether They Were Realists Or Instrumentalists.

There Are Too Many Accidents That Can Befall Life On A Single Planet.

Now, Radical Forward Thinking Is Offering Hope For The Future: Replacement Body Parts To Order. A Team Of Scientists In California Believe That If You Can Design Them On A Computer, You Should Be Able To Print Them Out.

It Is Impossible To Imagine A Four-dimensional Space. I Personally Find It Hard Enough To Visualize A Three-dimensional Space!

As Those Who Have Seen Jurassic Park Will Know, This Means A Tiny Disturbance In One Place, Can Cause A Major Change In Another. A Butterfly Flapping Its Wings Can Cause Rain In Central Park, New York. The Trouble Is, It Is Not Repeatable. The Next Time The Butterfly Flaps Its Wings, A Host Of Other Things Will Be Different, Which Will Also Influence The Weather. That Is Why Weather Forecasts Are So Unreliable.

I Have Sold More Books On Physics Than Madonna Has On Sex.

I'm Very Interested In Film Making. It's Telling A Story, Fiction Or Non-fiction. I Have Been Filmed Quite A Lot. Contrary To Popular Belief, Filming Isn't Glamorous. It Can Be Wearingly Repetitious, As The Same Shot Is Taken Over And Over Again.

If I Have Questions About The Universe On My Mind When I Go To Bed, I Can't Turn Off. I Dream Equations All Night.

There Is A Very Real Danger That We Will Kill Everything On This Planet Now That We Have The Technological Power To Do So.

I'm Not Afraid Of Death, But I'm In No Hurry To Die. I Have So Much I Want To Do First.

Why Do We Remember The Past, But Not The Future?

Thus, In A Sense, We Are All Doomed. Even If We Stay Away From Black Holes

But A Machine That Was Powerful Enough To Accelerate Particles To The Grand Unification Energy Would Have To Be As Big As The Solar System - And Would Be Unlikely To Be Funded In The Present Economic Climate.

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.

I'm Here To Chew Gum And Kick Some Ass, And I'm All Out Of Gum.

Theology Is Unnecessary.

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

I'm A Child Myself, In The Sense That I'm Still Looking. Children Are Fascinated By Black Holes And Ask Me Questions. I Find They Soon Get The Idea If It Is Explained In Nontechnical Language.

There Could Be Whole Antiworlds And Antipeople Made Out Of Antiparticles. However, If You Ever Meet Your Antiself, Don't Shake Hands! You Would Both Vanish In A Great Flash Of Light.

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

The Thing About Smart People Is That They Seem Like Crazy People To Dumb People.

Disability Can Be No Handicap.

Intelligence Is The Ability To Adapt To Change.

If The Rate Of Expansion One Second After The Big Bang Had Been Smaller By Even One Part In A Hundred Thousand Million Million, It Would Have Recollapsed Before It Reached Its Present Size. On The Other Hand, If It Had Been Greater By A Part In A Million, The Universe Would Have Expanded Too Rapidly For Stars And Planets To Form.

If We Do Discover A Complete Theory, It Should Be In Time Understandable In Broad Principle By Everyone. Then We Shall All, Philosophers, Scientists, And Just Ordinary People Be Able To Take Part In The Discussion Of Why We And The Universe Exist.

The Human Race Is Just A Chemical Scum On A Moderate-sized Planet, Orbiting Around A Very Average Star In The Outer Suburb Of One Among A Hundred Billion Galaxies. We Are So Insignificant That I Can't Believe The Whole Universe Exists For Our Benefit. That Would Be Like Saying That You Would Disappear If I Closed My Eyes.

I Wouldnt Be Here Today If It Were Not For The Nhs, I Have Received A Large Amount Of High-quality Treatment Without Which I Would Not Have Survived.

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.

I Don't Want To Write An Autobiography Because I Would Become Public Property With No Privacy Left.

Teamwork...means Never Having To Take All The Blame Yourself.

The Question Is: Is The Way The Universe Began Chosen By God For Reasons We Can't Understand, Or Was It Determined By A Law Of Science? I Believe The Second. If You Like, You Can Call The Laws Of Science 'god', But It Wouldn't Be A Personal God That You Could Meet, And Ask Questions.

Creation Of The Universe

If There Really Is A Complete Unified Theory That Governs Everything, It Presumably Also Determines Your Actions. But It Does So In A Way That Is Impossible To Calculate For An Organism That Is As Complicated As A Human Being. The Reason We Say That Humans Have Free Will Is Because We Can't Predict What They Will Do.

It Should Soon Be Possible Dramatically To Increase The Intelligence And Life Span Of A Few Individuals. They And Their Offspring Could Become A Master Race. Evolution Pays No Regard To Social Justice. It Was Not Fair On The Neanderthals They Were Replaced By Modern Humans.

When I Get To Heaven I'm Gonna Find The Guy In Charge Of The Weather And Kick His Rear.

Working With My Father [stephen Hawking ] Is A Great Thrill - He Has The Amazing Ability To Hold Enormous Amounts Of Information In His Head.

Save Water. Shower With Your Girlfriend.

Your Girlfriend

[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.

I Think My Dad [ Stephen Hawking] Would Have Been Pleased If I Had Turned Out A Scientist Because He Truly Believes That Is The Most Interesting Career Open To Anyone. But He Also Believes That You Have To Follow Your Own Path In Life And So He Certainly Wasn't Going To Push Me Toward Theoretical Physics When It Didn't Look Like I Was Going In That Direction Naturally.

There Are Grounds For Cautious Optimism That We May Now Be Near The End Ofthe Search For The Ultimate Laws Of Nature.

The Universe Does Not Behave According To Our Pre-conceived Ideas. It Continues To Surprise Us.

My Expectations Were Reduced To Zero When I Was 21. Everything Since Then Has Been A Bonus.

With Genetic Engineering, We Will Be Able To Increase The Complexity Of Our Dna, And Improve The Human Race. But It Will Be A Slow Process, Because One Will Have To Wait About 18 Years To See The Effect Of Changes To The Genetic Code.

I Believe That The Long-term Future Of The Human Race Must Be Space And That It Represents An Important Life Insurance For Our Future Survival, As It Could Prevent The Disappearance Of Humanity By Colonizing Other Planets.

Unless Mankind Redesigns Itself By Changing Our Dna Through Altering Our Genetic Makeup, Computer-genera Ted Robots Will Take Over Our World.

You May See A Cup Of Tea Fall Off A Table And Break Into Pieces On The Floor... But You Will Never See The Cup Gather Itself Back Together And Jump Back On The Table. The Increase Of Disorder, Or Entropy, Is What Distinguishes The Past From The Future, Giving A Direction To Time.

Many People Do Not Like The Idea That Time Has A Beginning, Probably Because It Smacks Of Divine Intervention. (the Catholic Church, On The Other Hand, Seized On The Big Bang Model And In 1951 Officially Pronounced It To Be In Accordance With The Bible.

Issuing An Insurance Policy Against Abduction By Aliens Seems A Pretty Safe Bet.

In Effect, We Have Redefined The Task Of Science To Be The Discovery Of Laws That Will Enable Us To Predict Events Up To The Limits Set By The Uncertainty Principle.

Uncertainty Principle

Nuclear Weapons Need Large Facilities, But Genetic Engineering Can Be Done In A Small Lab. You Can't Regulate Every Lab In The World. The Danger Is That Either By Accident Or Design, We Create A Virus That Destroys Us.

A Few Years Ago, The City Council Of Monza, Italy, Barred Pet Owners From Keeping Goldfish In Curved Bowls... Saying That It Is Cruel To Keep A Fish In A Bowl With Curved Sides Because, Gazing Out, The Fish Would Have A Distorted View Of Reality. But How Do We Know We Have The True, Undistorted Picture Of Reality?

It's Clearly Possible For A Something To Acquire Higher Intelligence Than Its Ancestors: We Evolved To Be Smarter Than Our Ape-like Ancestors, And Einstein Was Smarter Than His Parents.

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