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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.

-Stephen Hawking

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In A Brief History

Stephen Hawking

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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.

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The Initial Configuration Of The Universe May Have Been Chosen By God, Or It May Itself Have Been Determined By The Laws Of Science. In Either Case, It Would Seem That Everything In The Universe Would Then Be Determined By Evolution According To The Laws Of Science, So It Is Difficult To See How We Can Be Masters Of Our Fate.

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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.

I Used To Think Information Was Destroyed In Black Hole. This Was My Biggest Blunder, Or At Least My Biggest Blunder In Science.

I Don't Think The Human Race Will Survive The Next Thousand Years, Unless We Spread Into Space. There Are Too Many Accidents That Can Befall Life On A Single Planet. But I'm An Optimist. We Will Reach Out To The Stars.

If I Knew What Was Going To Happen In Ten Years I Would Do It Now. I Just Follow My Nose.

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

The Laws Of Science, As We Know Them At Present, Contain Many Fundamental Numbers, Like The Size Of The Electric Charge Of The Electron And The Ratio Of The Masses Of The Proton And The Electron .... The Remarkable Fact Is That The Values Of These Numbers Seem To Have Been Finely Adjusted To Make Possible The Development Of Life.

Theology Is Unnecessary.

Everything That Civilisation Has To Offer Is A Product Of Human Intelligence; We Cannot Predict What We Might Achieve When This Intelligence Is Magnified By The Tools That Ai May Provide, But The Eradication Of War, Disease, And Poverty Would Be High On Anyone's List. Success In Creating Ai Would Be The Biggest Event In Human History. Unfortunately, It Might Also Be The Last.

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.

In Fact, If One Considers The Possible Constants And Laws That Could Have Emerged, The Odds Against A Universe That Produced Life Like Ours Are Immense.

Maxwell Is The Physicist's Physicist.

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

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

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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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.

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.

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[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.

God Not Only Plays Dice, He Throws Them In The Corner Where You Can't See Them.

The Intelligent Beings In These Regions Should Therefore Not Be Surprised If They Observe That Their Locality In The Universe Satisfies The Conditions That Are Necessary For Their Existence. It Is A Bit Like A Rich Person Living In A Wealthy Neighborhood Not Seeing Any Poverty.

If The Government Is Covering Up Knowledge Of Aliens, They Are Doing A Better Job Of It Than They Do At Anything Else.

Because There Is A Law Such As Gravity, The Universe Can And Will Create Itself From Nothing. Spontaneous Creation Is The Reason There Is Something Rather Than Nothing, Why The Universe Exists, Why We Exist. It Is Not Necessary To Invoke God To Light The Blue Touch Paper And Set The Universe Going.

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.

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We Each Exist For But A Short Time, And In That Time Explore But A Small Part Of The Whole Universe

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

It Often Happens That I Have An Idea, But Then I Try To Fill In The Intermediate Steps And Find They Don't Work, So I Have To Give It Up.

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

Among Physicists, I'm Respected I Hope.

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Science Predicts That Many Different Kinds Of Universe Will Be Spontaneously Created Out Of Nothing. It Is A Matter Of Chance Which We Are In.

All That My Work Has Shown Is That You Don't Have To Say That The Way The Universe Began Was The Personal Whim Of God.

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Life Would Be Tragic If It Weren't Funny.

We Live In The Most Probable Of All Possible Worlds.

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

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I Believe Things Cannot Make Themselves Impossible.

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

Science Is Not Only A Disciple Of Reason But, Also, One Of Romance And Passion.

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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.

I Think Computer Viruses Should Count As Life.

The More You Learn, The More You Know. The More You Know, The More You Forget. The More You Forget, The Less You Know. So Why Bother To Learn.

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The Universe Is Governed By Science. But Science Tells Us That We Can't Solve The Equations, Directly In The Abstract.

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The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves.

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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.

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It's The Gravity That Shapes The Large Scale Structure Of The Universe, Even Though It Is The Weakest Of Four Categories Of Forces

The Doctor Who Diagnosed Me With Als, Or Motor Neuron Disease, Told Me That It Would Kill Me In Two Or Three Years.

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.

Time Travel Was Once Considered Scientific Heresy, And I Used To Avoid Talking About It For Fear Of Being Labelled A 'crank.'

No One Undertakes Research In Physics With The Intention Of Winning A Prize. It Is The Joy Of Discovering Something No One Knew Before.

Plagiarism Saves Time.

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.

Many People Do Not Like The Idea That Time Has A Beginning, Probably Because It Smacks Of Divine Intervention.

I Would Rather Be Right Than Rigorous.

Being Confined To A Wheelchair Doesn't Bother Me As My Mind Is Free To Roam The Universe, But It Felt Wonderful To Be Weightless.

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

In His Eyes Shone The Reflection Of The Most Beautiful Planet In The Universe---a Planet That Is Not Too Hot And Not Too Cold; That Has Liquid Water On The Surface And Where The Gravity Is Just Right For Human Beings And The Atmosphere Is Perfect For Them To Breathe; Where There Are Mountains And Deserts And Oceans And Islands And Forests And Trees And Birds And Plants And Animals And Insects And People---lots And Lots Of People. Where There Is Life. Some Of It, Possibly, Intelligent.

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

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.

In A World That Is In Chaos Politically, Socially And Environmentally, How Can The Human Race Sustain Another 100 Years?

Before We Understand Science, It Is Natural To Believe That God Created The Universe. But Now Science Offers A More Convincing Explanation.

The Simpsons Is The Best Thing On American Television.

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[in The Universe It May Be That] Primitive Life Is Very Common And Intelligent Life Is Fairly Rare. Some Would Say It Has Yet To Occur On Earth.

Please Join Me In Applauding The Esa - European Space Agency’s Historic Efforts With The Rosetta Mission And Landing A Spacecraft On Rotating Comet. It May Seem Like A Work Of Fiction, But It Is Very Real, Very Impressive, And Will Help Us To Further Uncover The Mysteries Surrounding The Formation Of The Solar System. They Made A Beautiful Short Film Using An Imaginary Landscape To Illustrate Today’s Historic Feat.

It Is Said That There's No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. But The Universe Is The Ultimate Free Lunch.

I'm Really Easy To Get Along With Once You See It My Way.

The Universe In A Nutshell

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.

Sometimes I Wonder If I'm As Famous For My Wheelchair And Disabilities As I Am For My Discoveries.

The Idea Of 10 Dimensions Might Sound Exciting, But They Would Cause Real Problems If You Forget Where You Parked Your Car.

It Surprises Me How Disinterested We Are Today About Things Like Physics, Space, The Universe And Philosophy Of Our Existence, Our Purpose, Our Final Destination. Its A Crazy World Out There. Be Curious.

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

There Is No Unique Picture Of Reality.

The Boundary Condition Of The Universe Is That It Has No Boundary.

Science Can Lift People Out Of Poverty And Cure Disease. That, In Turn, Will Reduce Civil Unrest.

The Progress Of The Human Race In Understanding The Universe Has Established A Small Corner Of Order In An Increasingly Disordered Universe.

What Was God Doing Before The Divine Creation? Was He Preparing Hell For People Who Asked Such Questions?

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

It Would Be Very Difficult To Explain Why The Universe Should Have Begun In Just This Way, Except As The Act Of A God Who Intended To Create Beings Like Us.

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.

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.

My Goal Is Simple. It Is A Complete Understanding Of The Universe, Why It Is As It Is And Why It Exists At All.

Not Only That God Does Play Dice, But That He Sometimes Confuses Us By Throwing Them Where They Can't Be Seen.

You Cannot Predict The Future.

I Think The Universe Was Spontaneously Created Out Of Nothing, According To The Laws Of Science. It Has No Beginning And No End.

Observations Indicate That The Universe Is Expanding At An Ever-increasing Rate. It Will Expand Forever, Getting Emptier And Darker. Although The Universe Doesn’t Have An End, It Had A Beginning In The Big Bang. One Might Ask What Is Before That But The Answer Is That There Is Nowhere Before The Big Bang Just As There Is Nowhere South Of The South Pole.

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.

It Is Not Clear That Intelligence Has Any Long-term Survival Value.

Succeed In Spite Of Management.

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.

We Are Just An Advanced Breed Of Monkeys On A Minor Planet Of A Very Average Star. But We Can Understand The Universe. That Makes Us Something Very Special.

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

If It Were Only A Few Degrees, That Would Be Serious, But We Could Adapt To It. But The Danger Is The Warming Process Might Be Unstable And Run Away. We Could End Up Like Venus, Covered In Clouds And With The Surface Temperature Of 400 Degrees. It Could Be Too Late If We Wait Until The Bad Effects Of Warming Become Obvious. We Need Action Now To Reduce Emission Of Carbon Dioxide.

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 So Much That I Want To Do. I Hate Wasting Time.

Thirty Years Ago I Was Diagnosed With Motor Neurone Disease, And Given Two And A Half Years To Live. I Have Always Wondered How They Could Be So Precise About The Half.

We Explore Because We Are Human And We Want To Know. I Hope That Pluto Will Help Us On That Journey.

As A Child, I Wanted To Know How Things Worked And To Control Them. With A Friend, I Built A Number Of Complicated Models That I Could Control. It Was A Natural Next Step To Want To Know How The Universe Works.

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.

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

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.

To Understand Recursion, One Must First Understand Recursion.

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.

So Remember To Look Up At The Stars And Not Down At Your Feet. Try To Make Sense Of What You See And Hold On To That Childlike Wonder About What Makes The Universe Exist.

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.

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

You Can't Regulate Every Lab In The World.

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

To My Mathematical Brain, The Numbers Alone Make Thinking About Aliens Perfectly Rational.

I Want To Encourage Public Interest In Space. I Have Never Let My Condition Stop Me. You Only Live Once.

You Only Live Once

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

There Is No Prescribed Route To Follow To Arrive At A New Idea. You Have To Make The Intuitive Leap. But The Difference Is That Once You've Made The Intuitive Leap You Have To Justify It By Filling In The Intermediate Steps. N My Case, It Often Happens That I Have An Idea, But Then I Try To Fill In The Intermediate Steps And Find That They Don't Work, So I Have To Give It Up.

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

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.

Nothing Is Fool-proof To A Sufficiently Talented Fool.

We've Created Life In Our Own Image.

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