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Though We Feel We Can Choose What We Do, Our Understanding Of The Molecular Basis Of Biology Shows That Biological Processes Are Governed By The Laws Of Physics And Chemistry And Therefore Are As Determined As The Orbits Of The Planets.

-Stephen Hawking

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Though We Feel We

Stephen Hawking

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Though We Feel We Can Choose What We Do, Our Understanding Of The Molecular Basis Of Biology Shows That Biological Processes Are Governed By The Laws Of Physics And Chemistry And Therefore Are As Determined As The Orbits Of The Planets.

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Of Course It Is Possible That Ufo's Really Do Contain Aliens As Many People Believe, And The Government Is Hushing It Up

The Rate Of Progress Is So Rapid That What One Learns At School Or University Is Always A Bit Out Of Date.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.

What I Meant By 'we Would Know The Mind Of God' Is, We Would Know Everything That God Would Know, If There Were A God. Which There Isn't. I'm An Atheist.

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Is God Omnipotent ? If He Is, Can He Create A Rock So Heavy He Can't Lift It ?

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.

If I Had To Choose A Superhero To Be, I Would Pick Superman. He's Everything That I'm Not.

We Only Have To Look At Ourselves To See How Intelligent Life Might Develop Into Something We Wouldnt Want To Meet. I Imagine They Might Exist In Massive Ships, Having Used Up All The Resources From Their Home Planet. Such Advanced Aliens Would Perhaps Become Nomads, Looking To Conquer And Colonize Whatever Planets They Can Reach.

One, Remember To Look Up At The Stars And Not Down At Your Feet. Two, Never Give Up Work. Work Gives You Meaning And Purpose And Life Is Empty Without It. Three, If You Are Lucky Enough To Find Love, Remember It Is There And Don't Throw It Away.

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Though We Feel We Can Choose What We Do, Our Understanding Of The Molecular Basis Of Biology Shows That Biological Processes Are Governed By The Laws Of Physics And Chemistry And Therefore Are As Determined As The Orbits Of The Planets.

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Hang In There, Retirement Is Only Thirty Years Away!

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.

I Want My Books Sold On Airport Bookstalls.

The Real Challenge Is To Work Out What Aliens Might Actually Be Like.

Not To Take This Web Of Dualities As A Sign We Are On The Right Track Would Be A Bit Like Believing That God Put Fossils Into The Rocks In Order To Mislead Darwin About The Evolution Of Life.

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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.

If There Is A God

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.

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.

What I Have Done Is To Show That It Is Possible For The Way The Universe Began To Be Determined By The Laws Of Science. In That Case, It Would Not Be Necessary To Appeal To God To Decide How The Universe Began. This Doesn't Prove That There Is No God, Only That God Is Not Necessary.

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.

Because There Is A Law Such As Gravity, The Universe Can And Will Create Itself From Nothing.

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

Not To Leave Planet Earth Would Be Like Castaways On A Desert Island Not Trying To Escape...sending Humans To Other Planets ... Will Shape The Future Of The Human Race In Ways We Don't Yet Understand, And May Determine Whether We Have Any Future At All.

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.

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?

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

Although September 11 Was Horrible, It Didn't Threaten The Survival Of The Human Race, Like Nuclear Weapons Do.

Nothing Is Fool-proof To A Sufficiently Talented Fool.

Perhaps We Could Write Code To Optimize Code, Then Run That Code Through The Code Optimizer?

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.

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.

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.

Any Physical Theory Is Always Provisional, In The Sense That It Is Only A Hypothesis: You Can Never Prove It. No Matter How Many Times The Results Of Experiments Agree With Some Theory, You Can Never Be Sure That The Next Time The Result Will Not Contradict The Theory.

Think Of Our Dna. In The Last Million Years, Our Dna Hasn't Changed At All. It's Really Much The Same As It Was In The Jungle, A Million, Two Millions Years Ago. But In The Last 200 Years, Our Destructive Capacities Have Increased Many, Many Millions Of Times Over. Why Don't We See Intelligent Signals From Outer Space? Because In All Likelihood, Once The Civilization Reaches The Point Our Civilization Has Reached, It Destroys Itself.

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

When I Hear Of Schrödinger's Cat, I Reach For My Pistol.

I Don't Believe That The Ultimate Theory Will Come By Steady Work Along Existing Lines. We Need Something New. We Can't Predict What That Will Be Or When We Will Find It Because If We Knew That, We Would Have Found It Already!

Obviously, Because Of My Disability, I Need Assistance. But I Have Always Tried To Overcome The Limitations Of My Condition And Lead As Full A Life As Possible. I Have Traveled The World, From The Antarctic To Zero Gravity.

Science Is Beautiful When It Makes Simple Explanations Of Phenomena Or Connections Between Different Observations.

Love The Neighbor. But Don't Get Caught.

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

God Abhors A Naked Singularity.

Philosophers Have Not Kept Up With Modern Developments In Science. Particularly Physics.

Exploration By Real People Inspires Us.

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.

Gravity Is So Strong That Space Is Bent Round Onto Itself, Making It Rather Like The Surface Of The Earth. If One Keeps Traveling In A Certain Direction On The Surface Of The Earth, One Never Comes Up Against An Impassable Barrier Or Falls Over The Edge, But Eventually Comes Back To Where One Started.

Government Works Best Under The Glare Of Public Scrutiny. Absent Such Scrutiny, Abuses Occur.

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.

I Put A Lot Of Effort Into Writing 'a Briefer History' At A Time When I Was Critically Ill With Pneumonia Because I Think That It's Important For Scientists To Explain Their Work, Particularly In Cosmology. This Now Answers Many Questions Once Asked Of Religion.

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

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

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

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

I Think Those Who Have A Terminal Illness And Are In Great Pain Should Have The Right To Choose To End Their Own Life, And Those That Help Them Should Be Free From Prosecution.

A Person Who Smiles In The Face Of Adversity...probably Has A Scapegoat.

Inspirational Office

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.

What Could Define God, [is Thinking Of God] As The Embodiment Of The Laws Of Nature. However, This Is Not What Most People Would Think Of That God. They Made A Human-like Being With Whom One Can Have A Personal Relationship. When You Look At The Vast Size Of The Universe And How Insignificant An Accidental Human Life Is In It, That Seems Most Impossible.

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

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.

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

Mathematical Models

There Is Nothing Bigger Or Older Than The Universe.

Religion Believes In Miracles, But These Aren't Compatible With Science.

Believe In Miracles

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.

Computers Double Their Performance Every Month.

Chaos, When Left Alone, Tends To Multiply.

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

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

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

One Cannot Really Argue With A Mathematical Theorem.

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

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.

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.

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

We Live In The Most Probable Of All Possible Worlds.

People Who Boast About Their I.q. Are Losers.

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

I Don't Fear God- I Fear His Believers.

What You Have Told Us Is Rubbish. The World Is Really A Flat Plate Supported On The Back Of A Giant Tortoise.

The Universe Doesn't Allow Perfection.

Scientific Discovery May Not Be Better Than Sex, But The Satisfaction Lasts Longer.

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.

We Shouldn't Be Surprised That Conditions In The Universe Are Suitable For Life, But This Is Not Evidence That The Universe Was Designed To Allow For Life. We Could Call Order By The Name Of God, But It Would Be An Impersonal God. There's Not Much Personal About The Laws Of Physics.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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