Stephen hawking dies at 76

[ivwshane]

windows_shutdown.wav


I think we won't fully realize how amazing he was for at least a few generations.

Now that was a more apt response and one I think hawkings would not only approve of but laugh at.

 

[Noah Abrams]

Intellect and intelligence does not necessarily equate to goodness. Or greatness. But that is what the modern world believes in. The worship of intellect in itself, as a goal in itself.


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[Chaotic42]

Intellect and intelligence does not necessarily equate to goodness. Or greatness. But that is what the modern world believes in. The worship of intellect in itself, as a goal in itself.


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Applying this to Hawking, how would you measure him?

 

[Commodus]

Intellect and intelligence does not necessarily equate to goodness. Or greatness. But that is what the modern world believes in. The worship of intellect in itself, as a goal in itself.

He significantly advanced humanity's understanding of physics and the universe, which in turn helped us understand something about ourselves. I'd say that amounts to greatness.

And remember, science isn't a handful of whopping, completely revolutionary breakthroughs. It's an unbroken chain of discoverers gradually pushing science forward. Hawking built on top of work from the likes of Einstein; there are already astrophysicists building on top of Hawking's work. There's a real chance that we'll be citing Hawking as an important influence a hundred years from now.

 

[MomentsofSanity]

Anything is possible but I haven't seen more recent studies. BWT, Hawking proposed a possible mechanism that might offer a solution to the information paradox, but arrived at an incontrovertible solution is most likely too much.

You might be surprised at how active he has been.

http://www.hawking.org.uk/publications.html

 

[mikeymikec]

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friend...stephen-hawking-is-currently-burning-in-hell/

"A Bunch of Religious People Think Stephen Hawking Is Currently Burning in Hell"

 

[boomerang]

I guess the world is lucky that a test while in the womb showing that he would develop the debilitating disease he had did not cause his mother to abort him.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friend...stephen-hawking-is-currently-burning-in-hell/

"A Bunch of Religious People Think Stephen Hawking Is Currently Burning in Hell"

Yeah but they also think a man who is his own son yet distinct was born from a virgin, killed, dead long enough to start stinking, and then came back a zombie messiah.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friend...stephen-hawking-is-currently-burning-in-hell/

"A Bunch of Religious People Think Stephen Hawking Is Currently Burning in Hell"

They cited the Westboro Baptist Church?

 

[Brainonska511]

A sad day, but he lived a full life and contributed greatly to science in both knowledge and as a spokesperson.

I guess the world is lucky that a test while in the womb showing that he would develop the debilitating disease he had did not cause his mother to abort him.

Considering that only ~10% of ALS cases are familial, and the majority are sporadic, I don't think there was anything to worry about. Now I'll just sit back and wait for someone else to come along and yell at you for making this all political...

 

[mikeymikec]

They cited the Westboro Baptist Church?

Among others, yes.

I guess the world is lucky that a test while in the womb showing that he would develop the debilitating disease he had did not cause his mother to abort him.

Unless you're also actively supporting every possible measure to ensure that everyone gets the same chances and medical support as Stephen Hawking did, it's more than a little disingenuous to take a swipe at the right to abort. Stephen Hawking was an extremely lucky man to have developed the disease after he showed great potential in his field. If he had developed it before then, he would likely have barely reached adulthood (the estimates I've heard is age 25, another source I just checked says that for his condition the average life expectancy is 2-5 years from the onset of symptoms). He also received external funding to help cover his extraordinary needs.

 

[sdifox]

RIP

 

[bshole]

They cited the Westboro Baptist Church?

State Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, an outspoken member of the Texas House Freedom Caucus, tweeted his condolences Tuesday night on the death of world-acclaimed physicist Stephen Hawking, sort of.

“Stephen Hawking now knows the truth about how the universe was actually made,” Cain tweeted at 11:34 p.m. Tuesday. “My condolences to his family.”

What a blithering tactless dumb shit. Perhaps he should do something productive like burn his mixed fabric clothing and leave assertions about material reality to those with the evidence and data.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

What a blithering tactless dumb shit. Perhaps he should do something productive like burn his mixed fabric clothing and leave assertions about material reality to those with the evidence and data.

It was tasteless no doubt, but again there are people of faith who harbor no ill will against him, but I was quite specific in pointing out the use of the WBC as a representative, which is tantamount to picking ISIS as typical of Islam. I don't happen to feel a sword at my neck.

 

[bshole]

It was tasteless no doubt, but again there are people of faith who harbor no ill will against him, but I was quite specific in pointing out the use of the WBC as a representative, which is tantamount to picking ISIS as typical of Islam. I don't happen to feel a sword at my neck.

I remember when Christopher Hitchens pissed all over Rev Falwell's grave on Hannity's show. Holy shit were the fundamentalists upset! The difference was that Rev Falwell made a fortune peddling lies while Hawking pursued truth.

 

[Thebobo]

 

[Muse]

This one resonates with me. I was a physics/math major about the same time and for the same reasons as Hawking. There are many of his fantastic quotations here. I was unaware of this stuff before.

I really should read his books, I guess, and I'm looking into it.

 

[zinfamous]

Intellect and intelligence does not necessarily equate to goodness. Or greatness. But that is what the modern world believes in. The worship of intellect in itself, as a goal in itself.


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that is all better than the ignorance, idiocy, purposeless accumulation of wealth, banal sportsing events, and murder fetishing that we currently worship as goals in themselves, don't you think?

 

[Paratus]

For those who are interested and have the intellect and intelligence and curiosity here’s a great explanation of Hawking Radiation or how black holes radiate and evaporate.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

 

[Perknose]

It was tasteless no doubt, but again there are people of faith who harbor no ill will against him, but I was quite specific in pointing out the use of the WBC as a representative, which is tantamount to picking ISIS as typical of Islam. I don't happen to feel a sword at my neck.

Didn't you sport as your avatar for quite some time a satirical portrait of Mohammed, which was a direct and grievous insult to ALL of Islam, because you didn't like the actions of some of Islam?

Anyway, back on topic, Hawking responding to John Oliver's question if there was a universe in which he was smarter than Hawking, "And one in which you are funny"

 

[mikeymikec]

but I was quite specific in pointing out the use of the WBC as a representative

I'm just not sure why you did that. Neither the article or I made any attempt to disparage say Christians in general, so I'm a bit confused.

 

[Commodus]

I guess the world is lucky that a test while in the womb showing that he would develop the debilitating disease he had did not cause his mother to abort him.

There's a certain irony to your attempt to derail this, because Hawking was an atheist and called Trump a "demagogue" who appealed to the "lowest common denominator." You revere him, but he was opposed to virtually everything you support. Given that he was one of the most intelligent and well-respected people in human history, you might want to reflect on what that says about your views.

 

[cytg111]

I guess the world is lucky that a test while in the womb showing that he would develop the debilitating disease he had did not cause his mother to abort him.

CRISPR-Cas9 for the win baby, we will edit those genes out while still in the womb ... Or is that unholy too?

 

[zinfamous]

CRISPR-Cas9 for the win baby, we will edit those genes out while still in the womb ... Or is that unholy too?

Hmm, it might be. It's a complicated subject and the thing is, I rather agree with boomerang and his comment. Genetic testing (which is possible as early as the 8-cell stage) has certainly tossed a major whammy into the ethics issue here. I don't have the numbers on hand or anything, but I recall many years ago when I was considering going into genetic counseling, that aborting fetuses with Trisomy 21 is, rather unsurprisingly, quite common. That was 10 years ago when I think the only other effective genetic screen you could run was for Cystic Fibrosis.

I don't think this is a simple issue where there is a solid "yes this is the right decision for you and humanity" or "no, it is absolutely monstrous." I think the answer can be both, for the same couple and for different reasons. Obviously plenty of kids born with Downs syndrome can lead rather happy, productive lives. Parents love their kids...but at the same time, a young couple with such a fetus probably have no idea what kind of commitment that means: financially, emotionally, energy--a complete lifestyle change that was never in the cards. Things happen between parents they never thought possible: One blames the other for the horrible genetic defect that has destroyed their child's life and wrecked their family. Yes, it happens, and if one understands human nature, these kind of awful thoughts occur when you cast about looking for explanations that don't really exist. So, is it better to decide to abort if you absolutely know you can't raise this kid and give them a good life? Maybe.

as for genetically-engineering away these awful problems....I find that nature has some clever ways of reducing an accumulation of lethal genes that can wreak havoc on populations. Spontaneous abortions and miscarriages happen all the time...but we don't realize it because so few couples really advertise these things. It's a stigma. A developing embryo could have all sorts of supposed problems that are, now, easy to see and target, but looking at one or two of them, you're only seeing 1% of the picture. What if we manage to knockout something like ALS or a nasty gene with a high probability of cardiac hypertrophy, et al? I bet the presence of just some of these issues is an indicator for potentially others. You might be able to target and eliminate one dastardly gene, but leave the embryo viable to come to term with a host of others that never would have manifest.

And as Boomerang mentioned, say we were able to do an embryonic screen for ALS (I don't think that is possible yet...is it?), then what if Hawking's parents had made that decision and this world would have existed without him? I know it's something of a weak thought experiment because the world is simply what it is, the result of natural process generally beyond our control and a cascade of decisions made by generations upon generations, and it is almost certainly true that another physicist would have made the same discoveries (It is commonly accepted that great discoveries and inventions are as much, if not more a product of the zeitgeist in which the individual works, not a singular, unique genius--hell, the steam engine was invented a handful of times, over generations, long before Watt came along)...but the point is that an individual's worth isn't simply their ability to contribute in standard, societal-defined ways.