Stephen Hawking’s Final Book: No God, Extraterrestrials, Time Travel, AI
(The AEGIS Alliance) – Stephen Hawking came to the conclusion that there is no God, whose very last book is published on Tuesday.
The book was completed by his family following his death, and presents answers to some questions that Hawking has said he’s received the most during his time on this world.
There were other explosive answers the British scientists left his readers with, which include the belief that extraterrestrial life exists, that artificial intelligence may one day outsmart humans, and time travel cannot be ruled out.
Hawking, who is considered one of the foremost brilliant scientists of his generation, had passed away in March at age 76.
“There is no God. No one directs the universe,” he wrote in “Brief Answers to the Big Questions.”
“For centuries, it was believed that disabled people like me were living under a curse that was inflicted by God,” he added. “I prefer to think that everything can be explained another way, by the laws of nature.”
Hawking was suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or (ALS), which is a neuro-degenerative disorder, well known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, for most of his life as an adult.
Hawking died while still working on writing the book. His colleagues and family completed the book with the assistance of his vast personal archives.
‘Increasingly looking inward’
Hawking did speak of his lack of a belief in God throughout his life. Several of his other answers to questions are more surprising.
“There are forms of intelligent life out there,” he wrote. “We need to be wary of answering back until we have developed a bit further.”
Hawking also left open possibilities of other phenomena.
“Travel back in time can’t be ruled out according to our present understanding,” he stated. He also predicted that “within the next hundred years we will be able to travel to anywhere in the Solar System.”
“He realized that people specifically wanted his answers to these questions,” Lucy Hawking, the scientist’s daughter, who helped complete the book, said to CNN.
Hawking viewed the world as being on the brink of a “vast transformative change” when he passed away, she notes, and added that:“He’s asking us not to go into the future blindly. How good is the track record of the human race in using advances in technology for the good of ordinary people?”
Hawking prepared remarks that were played at the launch of his book in London on Monday, the renowned scientist also turned his attention towards the world he was leaving behind.
“With Brexit and Trump now exerting new forces in relation to immigration and the development of education, we are witnessing a global revolt against experts, and that includes scientists,” Hawking stated.
Hawking was a critic of the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union, and even called President Trump a “demagogue” during 2016.
His daughter’s greatest concern, she said, “is how divided we’ve become,” and adds: “He makes this comment about how we seem to have lost the ability to look outward, and we are increasingly looking inward to ourselves.”
Stephen Hawking’s final message to his readers, however, is hopeful.
Attempting to give an answer to the question “How do we shape the future?” in the book’s final chapter, he wrote: “Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet.”
Kyle James Lee – The AEGIS Alliance – This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
