Author | Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow |
---|---|
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Publisher | Bantam Books |
Publication date | September 7, 2010 |
Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
Pages | 208 |
ISBN | 0-553-80537-1 |
Preceded by | God Created the Integers |
Followed by | The Dreams That Stuff Is Made Of |
The Grand Design is a popular-sciencebook written by physicistsStephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow and published by Bantam Books in 2010. The book examines the history of scientific knowledge about the universe and explains 11 dimension M-theory. The authors of the book point out that a Unified Field Theory (a theory, based on an early model of the universe, proposed by Albert Einstein and other physicists) may not exist.[1]
It argues that invoking God is not necessary to explain the origins of the universe, and that the Big Bang is a consequence of the laws of physics alone.[2] In response to criticism, Hawking said: 'One can't prove that God doesn't exist, but science makes God unnecessary.'[3] When pressed on his own religious views by the Channel 4 documentary Genius of Britain, he clarified that he did not believe in a personal God.[4][5]
Published in the United States on September 7, 2010, the book became the number one bestseller on Amazon.com just a few days after publication.[6][7]It was published in the United Kingdom on September 9, 2010, and became the number two bestseller on Amazon.co.uk on the same day. It topped the list of adult non-fiction books of The New York Times Non-fiction Best Seller list in Sept-Oct 2010.[8]
- 2Reactions
Stephen Hawking in “The Grand Design” “As recent advances in cosmology suggest, the laws of gravity and quantum theory allow universes to appear spontaneously from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. The Grand Design is a popular-science book written by physicists Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow and published by Bantam Books in 2010. The book examines the history of scientific knowledge about the universe and explains 11 dimension M-theory. The authors of the book point out that a Unified Field Theory may not exist. It argues that invoking God is not necessary to explain the origins of the universe, and that the Big Bang is a consequence of the laws of physics alone. In response to crit.
Synopsis[edit]
The book examines the history of scientific knowledge about the universe. It starts with the IonianGreeks, who claimed that nature works by laws, and not by the will of the gods. It later presents the work of Nicolaus Copernicus, who advocated the concept that the Earth is not located in the center of the universe.[9]
The authors then describe the theory of quantum mechanics using, as an example, the probable movement of an electron around a room. The presentation has been described as easy to understand by some reviewers, but also as sometimes 'impenetrable,' by others.[6][9]
The central claim of the book is that the theory of quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity together help us understand how universes could have formed out of nothing.[9]
The authors write:
“ | 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. | ” |
— Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow, The Grand Design, 2010[10] |
The authors explain, in a manner consistent with M-theory, that as the Earth is only one of several planets in our solar system, and as our Milky Waygalaxy is only one of many galaxies, the same may apply to our universe itself: that is, our universe may be one of a huge number of universes.[9]
The book concludes with the statement that only some universes of the multiple universes (or multiverse) support life forms and that we are located in one of those universes. The laws of nature that are required for life forms to exist appear in some universes by pure chance[clarification needed], Hawking and Mlodinow explain (see Anthropic principle).[9]
Reactions[edit]
Positive reactions[edit]
Evolutionary biologist and advocate for atheismRichard Dawkins welcomed Hawking's position and said that 'Darwinism kicked God out of biology but physics remained more uncertain. Hawking is now administering the coup de grace.'[11]
Theoretical physicist Sean M. Carroll, writing in The Wall Street Journal, described the book as speculative but ambitious: 'The important lesson of The Grand Design is not so much the particular theory being advocated but the sense that science may be able to answer the deep 'Why?' questions that are part of fundamental human curiosity.'[12]
CosmologistLawrence Krauss, in his article 'Our Spontaneous Universe', wrote that 'there are remarkable, testable arguments that provide firmer empirical evidence of the possibility that our universe arose from nothing. ... If our universe arose spontaneously from nothing at all, one might predict that its total energy should be zero. And when we measure the total energy of the universe, which could have been anything, the answer turns out to be the only one consistent with this possibility. Coincidence? Maybe. But data like this coming in from our revolutionary new tools promise to turn much of what is now metaphysics into physics. Whether God survives is anyone's guess.'[13]
James Trefil, a professor of physics at George Mason University, said in his Washington Post review: 'I've waited a long time for this book. It gets into the deepest questions of modern cosmology without a single equation. The reader will be able to get through it without bogging down in a lot of technical detail and will, I hope, have his or her appetite whetted for books with a deeper technical content. And who knows? Maybe in the end the whole multiverse idea will actually turn out to be right!'[9]Canada Press journalist Carl Hartman said: 'Cosmologists, the people who study the entire cosmos, will want to read British physicist and mathematician Stephen Hawking's new book. The Grand Design may sharpen appetites for answers to questions like 'Why is there something rather than nothing?' and 'Why do we exist?' – questions that have troubled thinking people at least as far back as the ancient Greeks.'
Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Michael Moorcock praised the authors: 'their arguments do indeed bring us closer to seeing our world, universe and multiverse in terms that a previous generation might easily have dismissed as supernatural. This succinct, easily digested book could perhaps do with fewer dry, academic groaners, but Hawking and Mlodinow pack in a wealth of ideas and leave us with a clearer understanding of modern physics in all its invigorating complexity.'[1]
German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung devoted the whole opening page of its culture section to The Grand Design. CERN physicist and novelist Ralf Bönt reviews the history of the theory of everything from the 18th century to M-theory, and takes Hawking's conclusion on God's existence as a very good joke which he obviously welcomes very much.[14]
Best selling author Deepak Chopra in an interview with CNN said: 'We have to congratulate Leonard and Stephen for finally, finally contributing to the climatic overthrow of the superstition of materialism. Because everything that we call matter comes from this domain which is invisible, which is beyond space and time. All religious experience is based on just three basic fundamental ideas...And nothing in the book invalidates any of these three ideas'.[15]
Critical reactions[edit]
Roger Penrose in the FT doubts that adequate understandings can come from this approach, and points out that 'unlike quantum mechanics, M-theory enjoys no observational support whatsoever'.[16]Joe Silk in Science suggests that 'Some humbleness would be welcome here...A century or two hence...I expect that M-theory will seem as naïve to cosmologists of the future as we now find Pythagoras's cosmology of the harmony of the spheres'.[17]
Gerald Schroeder in 'The Big Bang Creation: God or the Laws of Nature' explains that 'The Grand Design breaks the news, bitter to some, that … to create a universe from absolute nothing God is not necessary. All that is needed are the laws of nature. … [That is,] there can have been a big bang creation without the help of God, provided the laws of nature pre-date the universe. Our concept of time begins with the creation of the universe. Therefore if the laws of nature created the universe, these laws must have existed prior to time; that is the laws of nature would be outside of time. What we have then is totally non-physical laws, outside of time, creating a universe. Now that description might sound somewhat familiar. Very much like the biblical concept of God: not physical, outside of time, able to create a universe.'[18]
Dwight Garner in The New York Times was critical of the book, saying: 'The real news about The Grand Design is how disappointingly tinny and inelegant it is. The spare and earnest voice that Mr. Hawking employed with such appeal in A Brief History of Time has been replaced here by one that is alternately condescending, as if he were Mr. Rogers explaining rain clouds to toddlers, and impenetrable.'[6]
Craig Callender, in the New Scientist, was not convinced by the theory promoted in the book: 'M-theory ... is far from complete. But that doesn't stop the authors from asserting that it explains the mysteries of existence ... In the absence of theory, though, this is nothing more than a hunch doomed – until we start watching universes come into being – to remain untested. The lesson isn't that we face a dilemma between God and the multiverse, but that we shouldn't go off the rails at the first sign of coincidences.[19]
Paul Davies in The Guardian wrote: 'The multiverse comes with a lot of baggage, such as an overarching space and time to host all those bangs, a universe-generating mechanism to trigger them, physical fields to populate the universes with material stuff, and a selection of forces to make things happen. Cosmologists embrace these features by envisaging sweeping 'meta-laws' that pervade the multiverse and spawn specific bylaws on a universe-by-universe basis. The meta-laws themselves remain unexplained – eternal, immutable transcendent entities that just happen to exist and must simply be accepted as given. In that respect the meta-laws have a similar status to an unexplained transcendent god.' Davies concludes 'there is no compelling need for a supernatural being or prime mover to start the universe off. But when it comes to the laws that explain the big bang, we are in murkier waters.'[20]
Dr. Marcelo Gleiser, in his article 'Hawking And God: An Intimate Relationship', stated that 'contemplating a final theory is inconsistent with the very essence of physics, an empirical science based on the gradual collection of data. Because we don’t have instruments capable of measuring all of Nature, we cannot ever be certain that we have a final theory. There’ll always be room for surprises, as the history of physics has shown again and again. In fact, I find it quite pretentious to imagine that we humans can achieve such a thing. ... Maybe Hawking should leave God alone.'[21]
Physicist Peter Woit, of Columbia University, has criticized the book: 'One thing that is sure to generate sales for a book of this kind is to somehow drag in religion. The book's rather conventional claim that 'God is unnecessary' for explaining physics and early universe cosmology has provided a lot of publicity for the book. I'm in favor of naturalism and leaving God out of physics as much as the next person, but if you're the sort who wants to go to battle in the science/religion wars, why you would choose to take up such a dubious weapon as M-theory mystifies me.'[22]
In Scientific American, John Horgan is not sympathetic to the book: 'M-theory, theorists now realize, comes in an almost infinite number of versions, which 'predict' an almost infinite number of possible universes. Critics call this the 'Alice's Restaurant problem,' a reference to the refrain of the old Arlo Guthrie folk song: 'You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant.' Of course, a theory that predicts everything really doesn't predict anything...The anthropic principle has always struck me as so dumb that I can't understand why anyone takes it seriously. It's cosmology's version of creationism. ... The physicist Tony Rothman, with whom I worked at Scientific American in the 1990s, liked to say that the anthropic principle in any form is completely ridiculous and hence should be called CRAP. ...Hawking is telling us that unconfirmable M-theory plus the anthropic tautology represents the end of that quest. If we believe him, the joke’s on us.'[23]
The Economist is also critical of the book: Hawking and Mlodinow '...say that these surprising ideas have passed every experimental test to which they have been put, but that is misleading in a way that is unfortunately typical of the authors. It is the bare bones of quantum mechanics that have proved to be consistent with what is presently known of the subatomic world. The authors' interpretations and extrapolations of it have not been subjected to any decisive tests, and it is not clear that they ever could be. Once upon a time it was the province of philosophy to propose ambitious and outlandish theories in advance of any concrete evidence for them. Perhaps science, as Professor Hawking and Mr Mlodinow practice it in their airier moments, has indeed changed places with philosophy, though probably not quite in the way that they think.'[24]
The Bishop of Swindon, Dr. Lee Rayfield, said, 'Science can never prove the non-existence of God, just as it can never prove the existence of God.'[25]Anglicanpriest, Cambridgetheologian and psychologistRev. Dr. Fraser N. Watts[26] said 'a creator God provides a reasonable and credible explanation of why there is a universe, and ... it is somewhat more likely that there is a God than that there is not. That view is not undermined by what Hawking has said.'[2]
British scientist Baroness Greenfield also criticized the book in an interview with BBC Radio: 'Of course they can make whatever comments they like, but when they assume, rather in a Taliban-like way, that they have all the answers, then I do feel uncomfortable.' She later claimed her Taliban remarks were 'not intended to be personal', saying she 'admired Stephen Hawking greatly' and 'had no wish to compare him in particular to the Taliban'.[27]
Denis Alexander responded to Stephen Hawking's The Grand Design by stating that 'the 'god' that Stephen Hawking is trying to debunk is not the creator God of the Abrahamic faiths who really is the ultimate explanation for why there is something rather than nothing', adding that 'Hawking's god is a god-of-the-gaps used to plug present gaps in our scientific knowledge.' 'Science provides us with a wonderful narrative as to how [existence] may happen, but theology addresses the meaning of the narrative'.[28]
Mathematician and philosopher of scienceWolfgang Smith wrote a chapter-by-chapter summary and critique of the book, first published in Sophia: The Journal of Traditional Studies,[29] and subsequently published as 'From Physics to Science Fiction: Response to Stephen Hawking' in the 2012 edition of his collection of essays, Science & Myth.
See also[edit]
- A Brief History of Time – Classic 1988 book by Stephen Hawking
- A Briefer History of Time – 2005 popular science book by Stephen Hawking
- Brief Answers to the Big Questions – 2018 popular science book by Stephen Hawking
References[edit]
- ^ abMichael Moorcock (2010-09-05). 'Book review: 'The Grand Design' by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow'. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-09-03.
- ^ abRichard Allen Greene (2010-09-02). 'Stephen Hawking: God didn't create universe'. CNN. Retrieved 2010-09-04.
- ^Nick Watt (2010). 'Stephen Hawking: 'Science Makes God Unnecessary''. ABC News. Retrieved 2015-05-01.
- ^Laura Roberts (2010-09-02). 'Stephen Hawking: God was not needed to create the Universe'. The Telegraph. Retrieved 2015-05-01.
- ^Graham Farmello (2010-09-03). 'Has Stephen Hawking ended the God debate?'. The Telegraph. Retrieved 2015-05-01.
- ^ abcDwight Garner (2010-09-07). 'Many Kinds of Universes, and None Require God'. New York Times. Retrieved 2010-09-09.
- ^Nate Freeman (2010-09-03). 'Hawking's Book Shoots to Top of Amazon Sales After He Denies God's Existence'. The New York Observer. Retrieved 2015-05-01.
- ^'Hardcover Nonfiction'. NYTimes.com. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
- ^ abcdefJames Trefil (2010-09-05). 'Review of 'The Grand Design,' by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow'. Washington Post. Retrieved 2010-09-05.
- ^Michael Holden (2010-09-02). 'God did not create the universe, says Hawking'. Reuters. Retrieved 2010-10-17.
- ^'Another ungodly squabble'. The Economist. 2010-09-05. Retrieved 2010-09-06.
- ^Sean M. Carroll (2010-09-24). 'The 'Why?' Questions, Chapter and Multiverse'. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2011-10-02.
- ^Lawrence Krauss (2010-09-08). 'Our Spontaneous Universe'. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2010-09-13.
- ^Ralf Bönt (September 2010). 'A Brief History of the Theory of Everything: Stephen Hawking Makes a Joke, and it Works'. Süddeutsche Zeitung. Retrieved 2010-11-19.
- ^CNN LARRY KING LIVE Interview With Stephen Hawking; Science and Religion Aired September 10, 2010 - 21:00 ET
- ^Roger Penrose (4 September 2010). 'The Grand Design'. Financial Times. Retrieved 2015-05-01.
- ^One Theory to Rule Them All by Joe SilkScience 8 October 2010: Vol. 330 no. 6001 pp. 179-180 doi:10.1126/science.1197317
- ^Gerald Schroeder. 'The Big Bang Creation: God or the Laws of Nature'. Retrieved 2015-05-01.
- ^Craig Callender (2010-09-02). 'Stephen Hawking says there's no theory of everything'. New Scientist. Retrieved 2010-09-09.
- ^Paul Davies (2010-09-04). 'Stephen Hawking's big bang gaps'. The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2010-09-12.
- ^Marcelo Gleiser (2010-09-09). 'Hawking And God: An Intimate Relationship'. National Public Radio. Retrieved 2010-09-09.
- ^Woit, Peter (2010-09-08). 'Hawking Gives Up'. Retrieved 2010-09-15.
- ^John Horgan (2010-09-13). 'Cosmic Clowning: Stephen Hawking's 'new' theory of everything is the same old CRAP'. Scientific American. Retrieved 2015-05-01.
- ^'Understanding the universe - Order of creation'. The Economist. 2010-09-09. Retrieved 2010-09-18.
- ^'Stephen Hawking: God did not create Universe'. BBC. 2010-09-02. Retrieved 2010-09-03.
- ^Dr Fraser Watts Archived 2010-09-06 at the Wayback Machine, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge
- ^Alastair Jamieson (2010-09-08). 'Baroness Greenfield criticises 'Taliban-like' Stephen Hawking'. The Telegraph. Retrieved 2015-05-01.
- ^Richard Allen Greene, CNN (2 September 2010). 'Stephen Hawking: God didn't create universe'. CNN.com. Retrieved 12 December 2010.
- ^Sophia: The Journal of Traditional Studies, Volume 16, No 2, 2011,pp. 5-48.
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Grand_Design_(book)&oldid=896579248'
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.
Stephen William HawkingCHCBEFRS (8 January1942 - 14 March2018) was a Britishtheoretical physicist, cosmologist, author and Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge.
His scientific works include a collaboration with Roger Penrose on gravitational singularity theorems in the framework of general relativity and the theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation, often called Hawking radiation. Hawking was the first to set out a theory of cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. He was a vigorous supporter of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. Hawking was an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States.
- 1Quotes
Quotes[edit]
Many people would claim that the boundary conditions are not part of physics but belong to metaphysics or religion. They would claim that nature had complete freedom to start the universe off any way it wanted. That may be so, but it could also have made it evolve in a completely arbitrary and random manner. Yet all the evidence is that it evolves in a regular way according to certain laws. It would therefore seem reasonable to suppose that there are also laws governing the boundary conditions.
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.
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!
Although September 11 was horrible, it didn't threaten the survival of the human race, like nuclear weapons do.
I don't think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space...
I'm sorry to disappoint science fiction fans, but if information is preserved, there is no possibility of using black holes to travel to other universes. If you jump into a black hole, your mass energy will be returned to our universe but in a mangled form which contains the information about what you were like but in a state where it can not be easily recognized.
Equations are just the boring part of mathematics. I attempt to see things in terms of geometry.
Black holes ain't as black as they are painted. They are not the eternalprisons they were once thought. Things can get out of a black hole, both to the outside, and possibly to another universe. So if you feel you are in a black hole, don't give up. There's a way out.
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.
- in chronological order
- The subject of this book is the structure of space-time on length-scales from 10-13cm, the radius of an elementary particle, up to 1028cm, the radius of the universe. ...we base our treatment on Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. This theory leads to two remarkable predictions about the universe: first, that the final fate of massive stars is to collapse behind an event horizon to form a 'black hole' which will contain a singularity; and secondly, that there is a singularity in our past which constitutes, in some sense, a beginning to the universe.
- with G.F.R. Ellis, 'The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time' (1973) Preface
- I regard [the many worlds interpretation] as self-evidently correct. [T.F.: Yet some don't find it evident to themselves.] Yeah, well, there are some people who spend an awful lot of time talking about the interpretation of quantum mechanics. My attitude — I would paraphrase Goering—is that when I hear of Schrödinger's cat, I reach for my gun.
- In a conversation with Timothy Ferris (4 April 1983), as quoted in The Whole Shebang (1998) by Timothy Ferris, p. 345
- Many people would claim that the boundary conditions are not part of physics but belong to metaphysics or religion. They would claim that nature had complete freedom to start the universe off any way it wanted. That may be so, but it could also have made it evolve in a completely arbitrary and random manner. Yet all the evidence is that it evolves in a regular way according to certain laws. It would therefore seem reasonable to suppose that there are also laws governing the boundary conditions.
- 'The Quantum State of the Universe', Nuclear Physics (1984)
- If you are disabled, it is probably not your fault, but it is no good blaming the world or expecting it to take pity on you. One has to have a positive attitude and must make the best of the situation that one finds oneself in; if one is physically disabled, one cannot afford to be psychologically disabled as well. In my opinion, one should concentrate on activities in which one's physical disability will not present a serious handicap. I am afraid that Olympic Games for the disabled do not appeal to me, but it is easy for me to say that because I never liked athletics anyway. On the other hand, science is a very good area for disabled people because it goes on mainly in the mind. Of course, most kinds of experimental work are probably ruled out for most such people, but theoretical work is almost ideal. My disabilities have not been a significant handicap in my field, which is theoretical physics. Indeed, they have helped me in a way by shielding me from lecturing and administrative work that I would otherwise have been involved in. I have managed, however, only because of the large amount of help I have received from my wife, children, colleagues and students. I find that people in general are very ready to help, but you should encourage them to feel that their efforts to aid you are worthwhile by doing as well as you possibly can.
- 'Handicapped People and Science' by Stephen Hawking, Science Digest 92, No. 9 (September 1984): 92 (details of citation from here).
- My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all.
- As quoted in Stephen Hawking's Universe (1985) by John Boslough, Ch. 7 : The Final Question, p. 77
- There ought to be something very special about the boundary conditions of the universe and what can be more special than that there is no boundary?
- As quoted in The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (1986) by John D. Barrow and Frank J. Tipler. p. 444
- Einstein is the only figure in the physical sciences with a stature that can be compared with Newton. Newton is reported to have said 'If I have seen further than other men, it is because I stood on the shoulders of giants.' This remark is even more true of Einstein who stood on the shoulders of Newton. Both Newton and Einstein put forward a theory of mechanics and a theory of gravity but Einstein was able to base General Relativity on the mathematical theory of curved spaces that had been constructed by Riemann while Newton had to develop his own mathematical machinery. It is therefore appropriate to acclaim Newton as the greatest figure in mathematical physics and the Principia is his greatest achievement.
- 'Newton's Principia' in 300 Years of Gravitation. (1987) by S. W. Hawking and W. Israel, p. 4 Cambridge University Press, CambridgeISBN 0521343127
- 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.
- Der Spiegel (17 October 1988)
- 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.
- Der Spiegel (17 October 1988)
- On seeing the Enterprise's warp engine while visiting the set of Star Trek: The Next Generation (where he would briefly play himself in the 1993 episode Descent, Part I), Hawking smiled and said: I'm working on that.
- Quoted in The Star Trek Encyclopedia (1999) by Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda, p. 185
- 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. Speech has allowed the communication of ideas, enabling human beings to work together to build the impossible. Mankind's greatest achievements have come about by talking, and its greatest failures by not talking.It doesn't have to be like this. Our greatest hopes could become reality in the future. With the technology at our disposal, the possibilities are unbounded. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking.
- British Telecom advertisement (1993), part of which was used in Pink Floyd's Keep Talking (1994) and Talkin' Hawkin' (2014)
- [discussing Roger Penrose] These lectures have shown very clearly the difference between Roger and me. He's a Platonist and I'm a positivist. He's worried that Schrödinger's cat is in a quantum state, where it is half alive and half dead. He feels that can't correspond to reality. But that doesn't bother me. I don't demand that a theory correspond to reality because I don't know what it is. Reality is not a quality you can test with litmus paper. All I'm concerned with is that the theory should predict the results of measurements. Quantum theory does this very successfully. It predicts that the result of an observation is either that the cat is alive or that it is dead. It is like you can't be slightly pregnant: you either are or you aren't.
- During a debate with Roger Penrose in 1994 at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge, transcribed in The Nature of Space and Time (1996) by Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose, p. 121
- 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.
- During the same 1994 exchange with Penrose as the previous quote, transcribed in The Nature of Space and Time (1996) by Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose, p. 26 and also in 'The Nature of Space and Time' (online text)
- Unsourced variants: Not only does God play dice with the Universe; he sometimes casts them where they can't be seen.
Not only does God play dice, but... he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen.
- 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! It could come in the next 20 years, but we might never find it.
- Science Watch (September 1994)
- 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.
- Interview with Ken Campbell on Reality on the Rocks: Beyond Our Ken (1995)
- I think computer viruses should count as life … I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We've created life in our own image.
- Speech at Macworld Expo in Boston, as quoted in The Daily News (4 August 1994). A nearly identical quote can be found at the end of the second paragraph of his lecture Life in the Universe (1996).
- It is not clear that intelligence has any long-term survival value.
- From the lecture Life in the Universe (1996)
- Einstein was confused, not the quantum theory.
- Lecture at the Amsterdam Symposium on Gravity, Black Holes, and String Theory (21 June 1997)
- All my life, I have been fascinated by the big questions that face us, and have tried to find scientific answers to them.
- From the 1997 television program Stephen Hawking's Universe
- Unsourced variant: All of my life, I have been fascinated by the big questions that face us, and have tried to find scientific answers to them. Perhaps that is why I have sold more books on physics than Madonna has on sex. This quote seems to combine the above sentence from Stephen Hawking's Universe with a statement from the Foreword to The Illustrated Brief History of Time: As Nathan Myhrvold of Microsoft (a former post-doc of mine) remarked: I have sold more books on physics than Madonna has on sex.
- The world has changed far more in the past 100 years than in any other century in history. The reason is not political or economic but technological — technologies that flowed directly from advances in basic science.
- From Hawking's article A Brief History of Relativity, in Time magazine (31 December 1999)
- One might think this means that imaginary numbers are just a mathematical game having nothing to do with the real world. From the viewpoint of positivist philosophy, however, one cannot determine what is real. All one can do is find which mathematical models describe the universe we live in. It turns out that a mathematical model involving imaginary time predicts not only effects we have already observed but also effects we have not been able to measure yet nevertheless believe in for other reasons. So what is real and what is imaginary? Is the distinction just in our minds?
- The Universe in a Nutshell (2001), p. 59
- Although September 11 was horrible, it didn't threaten the survival of the human race, like nuclear weapons do.
- 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.
- 'Colonies in space may be only hope, says Hawking' by Roger Highfield in Daily Telegraph (16 October 2001).
- 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.
- Quoted in 'Leaping the Abyss' (April 2002) by Gregory Benford, in Reason Magazine
- [on the possibility of contact with an alien civilization]: I think it would be a disaster. The extraterrestrials would probably be far in advance of us. The history of advanced races meeting more primitive people on this planet is not very happy, and they were the same species. I think we should keep our heads low.
- Appearance in the National Geographic Channel program Naked Science: Alien Contact, as quoted in The New York Times (24 November 2004) and a CNN transcript of an interview with Seth Shostak from Anderson Cooper 360 (26 November 2004)
- I have no idea. People who boast about their IQ are losers.
- Response upon being questioned as to his IQ, in interview with Deborah Solomon 'The Science of Second-Guessing', The New York Times (12 December 2004)
- Life would be tragic if it weren't funny.
- As quoted in 'The Science of Second-Guessing', The New York Times (12 December 2004)
- I am discounting reports of UFOs. Why would they appear only to cranks and weirdos?
- As quoted in a TED talk, 'Asking Big Questions about the Universe'
- My expectations were reduced to zero when I was 21. Everything since then has been a bonus.
- As quoted in 'The Science of Second-Guessing', The New York Times (12 December 2004)
- Unsourced variant: 'When one's expectations are reduced to zero, one really appreciates everything one does have.'
- 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.
- From an appearance in the Discovery Channel program Alien Planet (14 May 2005)
- I'm sorry to disappoint science fiction fans, but if information is preserved, there is no possibility of using black holes to travel to other universes. If you jump into a black hole, your mass energy will be returned to our universe but in a mangled form which contains the information about what you were like but in a state where it can not be easily recognized. It is like burning an encyclopedia. Information is not lost, if one keeps the smoke and the ashes. But it is difficult to read. In practice, it would be too difficult to re-build a macroscopic object like an encyclopedia that fell inside a black hole from information in the radiation, but the information preserving result is important for microscopic processes involving virtual black holes.
- 'Information Loss in Black Holes' (July 2005)
- 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.
- As quoted in 'Return of the time lord' in The Guardian (27 September 2005)
- I think that it's important for scientists to explain their work, particularly in cosmology. This now answers many questions once asked of religion.
- As quoted in 'Return of the time lord' in The Guardian (27 September 2005)
- It is a waste of time to be angry about my disability. One has to get on with life and I haven't done badly. People won't have time for you if you are always angry or complaining.
- As quoted in 'Return of the time lord' in The Guardian (27 September 2005)
- Equations are just the boring part of mathematics. I attempt to see things in terms of geometry.
- As quoted in Stephen Hawking: A Biography (2005) by Kristine Larsen, p. 43
- 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.
- On voluntary euthanasia as quoted in People's Daily Online (14 June 2006)
- The danger is that global warming may become self-sustaining, if it has not done so already. The melting of the Arctic and Antarctic ice caps reduces the fraction of solar energy reflected back into space, and so increases the temperature further. Climate change may kill off the Amazon and other rain forests, and so eliminate once one of the main ways in which carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere. The rise in sea temperature may trigger the release of large quantities of carbon dioxide, trapped as hydrides on the ocean floor. Both these phenomena would increase the greenhouse effect, and so global warming further. We have to reverse global warming urgently, if we still can.
- ABC News interview (16 August 2006)
- As scientists, we understand the dangers of nuclear weapons and their devastating effects, and we are learning how human activities and technologies are affecting climate systems in ways that may forever change life on Earth. As citizens of the world, we have a duty to alert the public to the unnecessary risks that we live with every day, and to the perils we foresee if governments and societies do not take action now to render nuclear weapons obsolete and to prevent further climate change... There’s a realization that we are changing our climate for the worse. That would have catastrophic effects. Although the threat is not as dire as that of nuclear weapons right now, in the long term we are looking at a serious threat.
- At a press conference for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, as the Doomsday Clock is moved forward by two minutes to five minutes to midnight, as quoted in 'Nukes, climate push 'Doomsday Clock' forward' MSNBC (1 January 2007)
- The downside of my celebrity is that I cannot go anywhere in the world without being recognized. It is not enough for me to wear dark sunglasses and a wig. The wheelchair gives me away.
- Interview on Israeli television, as quoted in 'Happy 65th Birthday to Prof. Stephen Hawking!' at StarTrek.com (8 January 2007)
- I'm not religious in the normal sense. I believe the universe is governed by the laws of science. The laws may have been decreed by God, but God does not intervene to break the laws.
- Quoted in 'Stephen Hawking prepares for weightless flight', New Scientist (26 April 2007)
- The zero-G part was wonderful and the higher-G part was no problem. I could have gone on and on. Space, here I come!
- After completing a zero-gravity flight in a specially modified plane, as quoted in 'Hawking takes zero-gravity flight' BBC News (27 April 2007)
- In a world that is in chaos politically, socially and environmentally, how can the human race sustain another 100 years?
- Open question, posted to the Internet, as quoted in The Guardian, and 'Watching the World' in Awake! magazine (June 2007); a month after posting the question he explained: I don’t know the answer. That is why I asked the question, to get people to think about it, and to be aware of the dangers we now face.
- To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit.
- Foreword to The Physics of Star Trek by Lawrence Krauss (2007), p. xiii
- I imagine what happens to human consciousness when we die is much like turning off a computer. I don’t believe in a heaven for computers. I think the after-life is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.
- Answering a question by Pik Botha about the fate of human consciousness at death, 50/50 (7 July 2008)
- 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.
- Interview with Diane Sawyer, as quoted in 'Stephen Hawking on Religion: 'Science Will Win' on ABC World News (7 June 2010)
- 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.
- As quoted in 'Stephen Hawking: 'There is no heaven; it's a fairy story' by Ian Sample, in The Guardian (15 May 2011)
- The Dreams that Stuff is Made of
- Title of a collection, by Hawking, of the most significant papers in Quantum mechanics: The Dreams That Stuff Is Made of : The Most Astounding Papers of Quantum Physics and How They Shook the Scientific World (2011)
- We should seek the greatest value of our action.
- Response to a question on how we should live, in an interview with The Guardian (15 May 2011)
- 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.
- Interview with The Guardian (15 May 2011)
- I used to think that information was destroyed in black holes. But the AdS/CFT correspondence led me to change my mind. This was my biggest blunder, or at least my biggest blunder in science.
- 'Stephen Hawking at 70: Exclusive interview' in New Scientist, (4 January 2012). In his comment that he 'used to think that information was destroyed in black holes', he is referring to the black hole information paradox.
- Women. They are a complete mystery.
- Response when asked what he thinks about most during the day, 'Stephen Hawking at 70: Exclusive interview' in New Scientist (4 January 2012)
![Free Free](/uploads/1/2/5/6/125632221/801338023.jpg)
- I believe that disabled people should concentrate on things that their handicap doesn’t prevent them from doing and not regret those they can’t do … I visited the Soviet Union seven times. The first time I went with a student party in which one member, a Baptist, wished to distribute Russian-language Bibles and asked us to smuggle them in. We managed this undetected, but by the time we were on our way out the authorities had discovered what we had done and detained us for a while. However, to charge us with smuggling Bibles would have caused an international incident and unfavorable publicity, so they let us go after a few hours.
- The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. We cannot quite know what will happen if a machine exceeds our own intelligence, so we can't know if we'll be infinitely helped by it, or ignored by it and sidelined, or conceivably destroyed by it.
- Black holes ain't as black as they are painted. They are not the eternal prisons they were once thought. Things can get out of a black hole, both to the outside, and possibly to another universe. So if you feel you are in a black hole, don't give up. There's a way out.
- Reith Lecture 2 : Black holes ain’t as black as they are painted (2015) · BBC Radio 4 audio file
- 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.
- 'Science AMA Series: Stephen Hawking AMA Answers!', reddit.com (8 October 2015); also quoted in 'Stephen Hawking Says We Should Really Be Scared Of Capitalism, Not Robots' Huffington Post (8 October 2015)
A Brief History of Time (1988)[edit]
The whole history of science has been the gradual realization that events do not happen in an arbitrary manner, but that they reflect a certain underlying order, which may or may not be divinely inspired.
I still believe there are grounds for cautious optimism that we may now be near the end of the search for the ultimate laws of nature.
- Someone told me that each equation I included in the book would halve the sales. I therefore resolved not to have any equations at all. In the end, however, I did put in one equation, Einstein's famous equation, . I hope that this will not scare off half of my potential readers.
- 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. On the other hand, you can disprove a theory by finding even a single observation that disagrees with the predictions of the theory. As philosopher of science Karl Popper has emphasized, a good theory is characterized by the fact that it makes a number of predictions that could in principle be disproved or falsified by observation. Each time new experiments are observed to agree with the predictions the theory survives, and our confidence in it is increased; but if ever a new observation is found to disagree, we have to abandon or modify the theory.
- Ch. 1
- It has certainly been true in the past that what we call intelligence and scientific discovery have conveyed a survival advantage. It is not so clear that this is still the case: our scientific discoveries may well destroy us all, and even if they don’t, a complete unified theory may not make much difference to our chances of survival. However, provided the universe has evolved in a regular way, we might expect that the reasoning abilities that natural selection has given us would be valid also in our search for a complete unified theory, and so would not lead us to the wrong conclusions.
- Ch. 1
- 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.
- Ch. 2
- The whole history of science has been the gradual realization that events do not happen in an arbitrary manner, but that they reflect a certain underlying order, which may or may not be divinely inspired.
- Ch. 8
- Galileo, perhaps more than any other single person, was responsible for the birth of modern science.
- p. 179
- 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.
- Ch. 8
- Just like a computer, we must remember things in the order in which entropy increases. This makes the second law of thermodynamics almost trivial. Disorder increases with time because we measure time in the direction in which disorder increases. You can’t have a safer bet than that!
- Ch. 9
- As I shall describe, the prospects for finding such a theory seem to be much better now because we know so much more about the universe. But we must beware of overconfidence - we have had false dawns before! At the beginning of this century, for example, it was thought that everything could be explained in terms of the properties of continuous matter, such as elasticity and heat conduction. The discovery of atomic structure and the uncertainty principle put an emphatic end to that. Then again, in 1928, physicist and Nobel Prize winner Max Born told a group of visitors to Gottingen University, 'Physics, as we know it, will be over in six months.' His confidence was based on the recent discovery by Dirac of the equation that governed the electron. It was thought that a similar equation would govern the proton, which was the only other particle known at the time, and that would be the end of theoretical physics. However, the discovery of the neutron and of nuclear forces knocked that one on the head too. Having said this, I still believe there are grounds for cautious optimism that we may now be near the end of the search for the ultimate laws of nature.
- Ch. 11
- Maybe that is our mistake: maybe there are no particle positions and velocities, but only waves. It is just that we try to fit the waves to our preconceived ideas of positions and velocities.The resulting mismatch is the cause of the apparent unpredictability.
- Ch. 12
- 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? 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?
- Ch. 12
Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays (1993)[edit]
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.
- The ultimate objective test of free will would seem to be: Can one predict the behavior of the organism? If one can, then it clearly doesn't have free will but is predetermined. On the other hand, if one cannot predict the behavior, one could take that as an operational definition that the organism has free will … The real reason why we cannot predict human behavior is that it is just too difficult. We already know the basic physical laws that govern the activity of the brain, and they are comparatively simple. But it is just too hard to solve the equations when there are more than a few particles involved … So although we know the fundamental equations that govern the brain, we are quite unable to use them to predict human behavior. This situation arises in science whenever we deal with the macroscopic system, because the number of particles is always too large for there to be any chance of solving the fundamental equations. What we do instead is use effective theories. These are approximations in which the very large number of particles are replaced by a few quantities. An example is fluid mechanics … I want to suggest that the concept of free will and moral responsibility for our actions are really an effective theory in the sense of fluid mechanics. It may be that everything we do is determined by some grand unified theory. If that theory has determined that we shall die by hanging, then we shall not drown. But you would have to be awfully sure that you were destined for the gallows to put to sea in a small boat during a storm. I have noticed that even people who claim everything is predetermined and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road. … One cannot base one's conduct on the idea that everything is determined, because one does not know what has been determined. Instead, one has to adopt the effective theory that one has free will and that one is responsible for one's actions. This theory is not very good at predicting human behavior, but we adopt it because there is no chance of solving the equations arising from the fundamental laws. There is also a Darwinian reason that we believe in free will: A society in which the individual feels responsible for his or her actions is more likely to work together and survive to spread its values.
- pp. 133–135.
- 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.
- Last lines. Hawking later wrote: 'In the proof stage I nearly cut the last sentence in the book... Had I done so, the sales might have been halved.
- Science could predict that the universe must have had a beginning.
The Beginning of Time (1996)[edit]
- Online text
To show this diagram properly, I would really need a four dimensional screen. However, because of government cuts, we could manage to provide only a two dimensional screen.
- When I gave a lecture in Japan, I was asked not to mention the possible re-collapse of the universe, because it might affect the stock market. However, I can re-assure anyone who is nervous about their investments that it is a bit early to sell: even if the universe does come to an end, it won't be for at least twenty billion years. By that time, maybe the GATT trade agreement will have come into effect.
- The Steady State theory was what Karl Popper would call a good scientific theory: it made definite predictions, which could be tested by observation, and possibly falsified. Unfortunately for the theory, they were falsified.
- To show this diagram properly, I would really need a four dimensional screen. However, because of government cuts, we could manage to provide only a two dimensional screen.
- The universe would have expanded in a smooth way from a single point. As it expanded, it would have borrowed energy from the gravitational field, to create matter. As any economist could have predicted, the result of all that borrowing, was inflation. The universe expanded and borrowed at an ever-increasing rate. Fortunately, the debt of gravitational energy will not have to be repaid until the end of the universe.
The Universe in a Nutshell (2001)[edit]
- We hold these truths to be self-evident that all P-brains are created equal.
God Created the Integers (2007)[edit]
Full title: God Created the Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs That Changed History (2007).
- Mathematics is more than a tool and language for science. It is also an end in itself, and as such, it has, over the centuries, affected our worldview in its own right.
- Preface
Into The Universe with Stephen Hawking (2010)[edit]
- So next time someone complains that you have made a mistake, tell him that may be a good thing. Because without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist.
- If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans. … We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet.
- Also quoted in 'Stephen Hawking warns over making contact with aliens' at BBC News (25 April 2010).[1]
The Grand Design (2010)[edit]
- 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.
Curiosity (2011)[edit]
- We are each free to believe what we want and 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. (Quoted from the Discovery Channel, 15 August 2011.)
- 'Stephen Hawking There is no God. There is no Fate.' from episode 1 · Curiosity: Did God Create the Universe?. Discovery Communications, LLC. (7 August 2011). Retrieved on 4 July 2013.
Hawking (2013)[edit]
- We are all different — but we share the same human spirit. Perhaps it's human nature that we adapt — and survive.
- Official Trailer
Attributed[edit]
- It matters if you don't just give up.
- Attributed in Going Within (1990) by Shirley MacLaine, p. 303
- I now predict that I was wrong.
- Attributed in the movie The Theory of Everything (2014)
Misattributed[edit]
- I have hardly ever known a mathematician who was able to reason.
- Plato, The Republic, Book VII, 531-E
- The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance. It is the illusion of knowledge.
- Sometimes attributed to Hawking without a source, but originally from historian Daniel J. Boorstin. It appears in different forms in The Discoverers (1983), Cleopatra's Nose (1995), and introduction to The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1995)
Quotes about Hawking[edit]
- On the whole, the public shows good taste in its choice of idols. Einstein and Hawking earned their status as superstars, not only by their scientific discoveries but by their outstanding human qualities. Both of them fit easily into the role of icon, responding to public adoration with modesty and good humor and with provocative statements calculated to command attention. Both of them devoted their lives to an uncompromising struggle to penetrate the deepest mysteries of nature, and both still had time left over to care about the practical worries of ordinary people. The public rightly judged them to be genuine heroes, friends of humanity as well as scientific wizards.
- Freeman Dyson, 'The ‘Dramatic Picture’ of Richard Feynman', The New York Review of Books (July 14, 2011)
- Hawking's intitial foray into quantum gravity was more modest than Wheeler's and other[s]... a sneak approach. He first wanted to know what the effect was of an ordinary, classic, curved-space gravitational field on a quantum system. He called this the semiclassical approach. Until that day, most quantum calculations had been done as if gravity didn't exist — they were hard enough without it in normal flat space-time... [Hawking accomplished this by] envisioning an 'atom' whose nucleus was a catastrophically powerful black hole... Starobinsky ventured the opinion that rotating black holes would spray elementary particles. ...It was known from Penrose's work, among others, that you could extract energy from the spin of a black hole just like any other dynamo... in particles and radiation just like it did from a particle generator. ... But Hawking ... resolved to redo the calculation for himself ...he decided to warm up first, by calculating the rate of emission from a nonrotating quantum hole. He knew the answer should be no emission. ... his results were embarrassing. His imaginary black hole was spewing matter and radiation ... he was reluctant to tell anybody but his closest friends; he was afraid Bekenstein would hear about it. ... It meant that holes had temperatures, just as Bekenstein's work implied.
- Dennis Overbye, Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos: The Scientific Quest for the Secrets of the Universe (1992)
References[edit]
- ↑Staff (April 25, 2010). 'Stephen Hawking warns over making contact with aliens'. BBC News. Retrieved on February 12, 2015.
External links[edit]
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