I'm sure some, if not most, of you have heard the news that Stephen Hawking has passed away. Everywhere you look you see large displays of sadness at his passing, but I'm curious... how many of you know anything more than "he was a smart dude in a wheelchair who died"? Do you feel any kind of personal impact, or is it just part of the collective mourning of someone who was revered as being super smart? FOCUS: What is your take on Hawking? Have you read his books, and if so, what was your takeaway?
I'll be honest... I bought his book, a Brief History of Time, and read about half of it... I just wasn't interested, and never got through the whole thing, even though it still sits on my bookshelf. I've heard stories about him being a dick to his wife, and him being considered very smart by people who are much smarter than I am, but really, I couldn't tell you what he was working on, or why it was so important. I can't even point to any general concept and say, "that's part of what he gave us." Einstein, everyone knows the E=MCC... Hawking? No clue. The biggest piece of trivia I know about him is that he did his own voiceover cameos in cartoons and shows like The Big Bang Theory.
Yeah he was apparently verbally abusive to his wife and an overall asshole to a lot of people. I think the biggest takeaway from his work was Hawking Radiation, which helped move blackholes from theory to more provable/measurable.
I read A Brief History of Time, but it was hard to follow. I had to read each page 2 or 3 times because about halfway through the page my mind would wander away and I was reading words, not ideas, and I'd have to start all over again. That was 25 years ago and I really can't recall much, or anything, about the book other then it was some really dry reading.
Yeah but he might furrow his eyebrows in a threatening way at you, expressing his contempt/displeasure.
Generally, I guess I just find it sad when a respected and renowned scientific figure passes away. There a few enough scientific thought leaders whose names are well-known to the public. The increasing wave of people who think their opinions matter in the face of empirical science, or who believe that high intelligence or significant education is to be disdained, anything that chips away at the general public's regard of the scientific community is depressing. More specifically, the length of time he survived with ALS is pretty incredible.
I read a few days ago that he once had a party and didn't announce it until after the party had ended, hoping a time traveler would show up.
I feel about him the same as I did about Steve Jobs. We've lost another genius, and any advancement they might've helped bring about will be delayed that much longer. Who is coming up behind them? I guess Elon Musk is one, but there must be others? Are they going thru our educational system as we speak? I almost hope not.
I mean do we really need charismatic pop culture scientists? How much innovation has been accomplished because of the hard work and toil of the quite unknown scientists?
In the case of Elon Musk, absolutely. People need motivation and inspiration to follow those pursuits. Better that than some skanky Kardashian.
Doesn't seem like there was much for him to be dodging. An accusation 30 years ago, from a person who's less than credible at the best of times, based on very vague memories, and to my knowledge the only accusation to have been made against Tyson so far (correct me if I'm wrong). I'm sure he's no saint, but I have a hard time believing he's a rapist.
I have read A Brief History of Time, as well as The Universe in a Nutshell. I don't get why you guys are saying they were dry and difficult. I thought they were not only easy to follow for laymen, and funny. Hawking was funny. But yeah, also kind of a dick. The Theory of Everything was a good (albeit fictionalized) look at his life and accomplishments.
I tried with A Brief History of Time. Couldn't wrap my mind around it much like toytoy, reading words that didn't sink in. Then I found the illustrated version and for the first time began to understand the cusp of string theory. More than the theories and explanations that the book presented, what it did for me was began to pry open my mind to the idea of concepts beyond my experience. It made me more curious about the world. Even if an idea couldn't be immediately understood, that someone did, meant that if I worked hard enough, I could too. Breaking this initial barrier of 'not being smart enough to understand', I started to believe that I could do anything and I think that made a lot of difference for me.