Stephen Hawking
We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet.
Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing.
The universe is not indifferent to our existence - it depends on it.
We think we have solved the mystery of creation. Maybe we should patent the universe and charge everyone royalties for their existence.
No one undertakes research in physics with the intention of winning a prize. It is the joy of discovering something no one knew before.
So long as the universe had a beginning, we could suppose it had a creator. But if the universe is really completely self-contained, having no boundary or edge, it would have neither beginning nor end: it would simply be. What place, then, for a creator?
There are no black holes in the sense of regimes from which light can't escape to infinity.
If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans.
So remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and hold on to that childlike wonder about what makes the universe exist.Collection: Stars
We are very, very small, but we are profoundly capable of very, very big things.Collection: Bigs
Quiet people have the loudest minds.Collection: Quiet People
The thing about smart people is that they seem like crazy people to dumb people.Collection: Crazy
It is all right to make mistakes; nothing is perfect because with perfection, we would not exist.Collection: Mistake
It is very important for young people keep their sense of wonder and keep asking why.Collection: Asking Why
One of the basic rules of the universe is that nothing is perfect. Perfection simply doesn't exist.....Without imperfection, neither you nor I would existCollection: Perfect
When something is made idiot proof, they will just make better idiots.Collection: Idiot
It is my view that the simplest explanation is there is no God. No one created the universe and no one directs our fate. This leads me to a profound realization. There is probably no heaven, and no afterlife either. We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe, and for that, I am extremely grateful.Collection: Motivational
I don't fear God- I fear His believers.Collection: Fear God
Half the battle is just showing up.Collection: Battle
One, remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Two, never give up work. Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it. Three, if you are lucky enough to find love, remember it is there and don't throw it away.Collection: Love
Its a crazy world out there. Be curious.Collection: Crazy
Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge.Collection: Reading
If at first you don't succeed, try management.Collection: Success
What is important is that we have the ability to create.Collection: Important
What I have learned from life is to make the most of what you have got.Collection: Life
The more you learn, the more you know. The more you know, the more you forget. The more you forget, the less you know. So why bother to learn.Collection: Forget
Disability need not be an obstacle to success.Collection: Needs
Nothing is fool-proof to a sufficiently talented fool.Collection: Fool Proof
It's clearly possible for a something to acquire higher intelligence than its ancestors: we evolved to be smarter than our ape-like ancestors, and Einstein was smarter than his parents.Collection: Parent
My expectations were reduced to zero when I was 21. Everything since then has been a bonus.Collection: Zero
It was recently discovered that research causes cancer in rats.Collection: Cancer
Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain lurking on planet Earth, but to spread out into space.Collection: Space
If you understand how the universe operates, you control it in a way.Collection: Spring
Religion believes in miracles, but these aren't compatible with science.Collection: Believe
It would be very difficult to explain why the universe should have begun in just this way, except as the act of a God who intended to create beings like us.Collection: Should Have
Because imaginary time behaves like another direction in space, histories in imaginary time can be closed surfaces, like the surface of the Earth, with no [existential] beginning or end.Collection: Space
It is impossible to imagine a four-dimensional space. I personally find it hard enough to visualize a three-dimensional space!Collection: Space
Why do we remember the past, but not the future?Collection: Past
The laws of science, as we know them at present, contain many fundamental numbers, like the size of the electric charge of the electron and the ratio of the masses of the proton and the electron .... The remarkable fact is that the values of these numbers seem to have been finely adjusted to make possible the development of life.Collection: Law
A model is a good model if first it interprets a wide range of observations in terms of a simple and elegant model, and second if the model makes definite predictions that can be tested, and possibly falsified, by observation.Collection: Simple
I’m the archetype of a disabled genius, or should I say a physically challenged genius, to be politically correct. At least I’m obviously physically challenged. Whether I’m a genius is more open to doubt.Collection: Doubt
Everything that civilisation has to offer is a product of human intelligence; we cannot predict what we might achieve when this intelligence is magnified by the tools that AI may provide, but the eradication of war, disease, and poverty would be high on anyone's list. Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history. Unfortunately, it might also be the last.Collection: War
A picture is worth a thousand words...and uses up a thousand times the memory.Collection: Memories
I think the universe was spontaneously created out of nothing, according to the laws of science. It has no beginning and no end.Collection: Thinking
One might think this means that imaginary numbers are just a mathematical game having nothing to do with the real world. From the viewpoint of positivist philosophy, however, one cannot determine what is real. All one can do is find which mathematical models describe the universe we live in. It turns out that a mathematical model involving imaginary time predicts not only effects we have already observed but also effects we have not been able to measure yet nevertheless believe in for other reasons. So what is real and what is imaginary? Is the distinction just in our minds?Collection: Philosophy
Thirty years ago I was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, and given two and a half years to live. I have always wondered how they could be so precise about the half.Collection: Years
If you are lucky enough to find love, remember it is there and don't throw it away.Collection: Finding Love
Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the Universe going.Collection: Light
The rate of progress is so rapid that what one learns at school or university is always a bit out of date. Only a few people can keep up with the rapidly advancing frontier of knowledge, and they have to devote their whole time to it and specialize in a small area. The rest of the population has little idea of the advances that are being made or the excitement they are generating.Collection: School