Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking
Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSAis an English theoretical 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 forth a theory of cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth8 January 1942
CityOxford, England
As Irving Good realised in 1965, machines with superhuman intelligence could repeatedly improve their design even further, triggering what Vernor Vinge called a 'singularity.'
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.
But a machine that was powerful enough to accelerate particles to the grand unification energy would have to be as big as the Solar System - and would be unlikely to be funded in the present economic climate.
It is tribute to how far we have come in theoretical physics that it now takes enormous machines and a great deal of money to perform experiments whose results we can not predict.
Perhaps one day I will go into space.
It now appears that the way the universe began can indeed be determined, using imaginary time.
If you understand the universe, you control it, in a way.
I think the discovery of supersymmetric partners for the known particles would revolutionize our understanding of the universe.
I have wanted to fly into space for many years, but never imagined it would really be feasible.
Wagner manages to convey emotion with music better than anyone, before or since.
Time can behave like another direction in space under extreme conditions.
My wife and I love each other very much.
I had a bet with Gordon Kane of Michigan University that the Higgs particle wouldn't be found.
What I'd really like to control is not machines, but people.