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RIP Stephen Hawking


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RIP.

Like most, I knew of him by reputation only. For those who are more familiar with his comparative achievements, can you give some insight into his true stature as a scientist first and foremost? Was his renown partly linked to the challenges he had to overcome, thus making his achievements extraordinary for someone with his disabilities? Or were his achievements extraordinary in their own right, warranting the popular title of "greatest physicist alive", as he was frequently described in general conversation?

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8 minutes ago, Free Northman Reborn said:

RIP.

Like most, I knew of him by reputation only. For those who are more familiar with his comparative achievements, can you give some insight into his true stature as a scientist first and foremost? Was his renown partly linked to the challenges he had to overcome, thus making his achievements extraordinary for someone with his disabilities? Or were his achievements extraordinary in their own right, warranting the popular title of "greatest physicist alive", as he was frequently described in general conversation?

His achievements in physics, particularly his analysis of black hole behaviour and the fact that they can evaporate,  were groundbreaking. The fact that he could do this work, with his severe physical limitations, made him truly astonishing.

Not only that but appearing on the Simpsons, Star Trek:TNG, and Big Bang Theory also showed that he had a very good sense of humour.

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5 hours ago, Free Northman Reborn said:

RIP.

Like most, I knew of him by reputation only. For those who are more familiar with his comparative achievements, can you give some insight into his true stature as a scientist first and foremost? Was his renown partly linked to the challenges he had to overcome, thus making his achievements extraordinary for someone with his disabilities? Or were his achievements extraordinary in their own right, warranting the popular title of "greatest physicist alive", as he was frequently described in general conversation?

His work on black holes and the Big Bang was groundbreaking and would have been of epochal importance even without his disabilities.

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A great mind who contributed a lot to physics and so a loss to humanity that he is now gone. But a boon to humanity that he lived and was highly productive for 50 years with a disease that frequently kills within 10.

But I think he was overly paranoid about the danger to humanity from aliens. If aliens were going to wipe us out and take our resources I think they would have done it already.

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22 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

A great mind who contributed a lot to physics and so a loss to humanity that he is now gone. But a boon to humanity that he lived and was highly productive for 50 years with a disease that frequently kills within 10.

But I think he was overly paranoid about the danger to humanity from aliens. If aliens were going to wipe us out and take our resources I think they would have done it already.

They wait for us to destroy each other first. Less mess for the aliens.

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48 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

But I think he was overly paranoid about the danger to humanity from aliens. If aliens were going to wipe us out and take our resources I think they would have done it already.

Maybe, maybe not. He also said that AI was a likely threat. He mentioned computer viruses behave a lot like life, and that means that, "Humans made life in their own image. Destructive."

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3 hours ago, Which Tyler said:

I'm going straight to hell for this, but...

Has someone tried turning him off and on again ?

As has already been noted, the man had a great sense of humour. He'd have laughed at that one, I'm sure.

 

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Now who will save us from the first wave of A.I. ?     An aging George Wendt?    

worst pi day ever

It's like he went deeper into solving pi than the rest of us, and disappeared into it. He didn't stop at the first 5 decimal places. Hey the glasses guy from Lost, Person of Interest, and Arrow once said pi eventually gets around to including every possible set of numbers, like it contains every string of digits you could shout out. I'd like to think Hawking's essense merged with pi and became encoded in it, or maybe all our personal info is already in there since the dawn of time 600 years ago. Well, fare ye well, Steven. As a fellow frequent sitter, I felt a kinship with you and was always amazed by the flushing action and the swirling motion of my local black hole.

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On 3/14/2018 at 9:30 AM, Free Northman Reborn said:

RIP.

Like most, I knew of him by reputation only. For those who are more familiar with his comparative achievements, can you give some insight into his true stature as a scientist first and foremost? Was his renown partly linked to the challenges he had to overcome, thus making his achievements extraordinary for someone with his disabilities? Or were his achievements extraordinary in their own right, warranting the popular title of "greatest physicist alive", as he was frequently described in general conversation?

Lol. One of the great scientific minds of our generation passes and one of your first thoughts is "I wonder if he was really that great, or if all the praise he gets is just 'cuz he was all DisAbled and ppl felt sorry for him..." 

What a strange way of thinking. I don't even know what you hoped to get from this post that you couldn't have just gotten by doing some cursory google searching yourself. 

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1 hour ago, IamMe90 said:

Lol. One of the great scientific minds of our generation passes and one of your first thoughts is "I wonder if he was really that great, or if all the praise he gets is just 'cuz he was all DisAbled and ppl felt sorry for him..." 

What a strange way of thinking. I don't even know what you hoped to get from this post that you couldn't have just gotten by doing some cursory google searching yourself. 

Sigh. I hoped to get exactly the responses I got upthread, which were simply answers to my question.

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21 minutes ago, Free Northman Reborn said:

Sigh. I hoped to get exactly the responses I got upthread, which were simply answers to my question.

No, you're right.  That was totally a question worth asking.  I mean, libruls these days, probably try to give the man a Nobel Peace Participation Prize or something.  Amirite?

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4 hours ago, Free Northman Reborn said:

Sigh. I hoped to get exactly the responses I got upthread, which were simply answers to my question.

Stephen Hawking muse a few times that it's possible that his disability was the stimulus for much of his genius, rather than an inhibition to it. He said that being paralysed gave him much more time to think. He also suggested that thinking he was about to die in a few years spurred him to achieve as much as he could in (what he thought was) the little time he had left.

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