Stephen Hawking Quotes - Page 11

No one undertakes research in physics with the intention of winning a prize. It is the joy of discovering something no one knew before.

While physics and mathematics may tell us how the universe began, they are not much use in predicting human behavior because there are far too many equations to solve. I'm no better than anyone else at understanding what makes people tick, particularly women.

We are all different. There is no such thing as a standard or run-of-the-mill human being, but we share the same human spirit.

Why are we here? Where do we come from? Traditionally, these are questions for philosophy, but philosophy is dead.

I think computer viruses should count as life ... I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We've created life in our own image.

If a superior alien civilization sent us a message saying, 'We'll arrive in a few decades', would we just reply, 'OK, call us when you get here - we'll leave the lights on'? Probably not - but this is more or less what is happening with AI.

I was not a good student. I did not spend much time at college; I was too busy enjoying myself.

Maxwell is the physicist's physicist.

Disorder increases with time because we measure time in the direction in which disorder increases.

Someone told me that each equation I included in my book would halve the sales. I did put in one equation, Einstein's famous equation, E = MC squared. I hope that this will not scare off half of my potential readers.

In this way, Edwin Hubble worked out the distances to nine different galaxies. We now know that our galaxy is only one of some hundred thousand million that can be seen using modern telescopes, each galaxy itself containing some hundred thousand million stars.

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.

God not only plays dice, he throws them in the corner where you can't see them.

I don't think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space.

I don't want to write an autobiography because I would become public property with no privacy left.

The increase of disorder or entropy with time is one example of what is called an arrow of time, something that distinguishes the past from the future, giving a direction to time.

Science predicts that many different kinds of universe will be spontaneously created out of nothing. It is a matter of chance which we are in.

The media need superheroes in science just as in every sphere of life, but there is really a continuous range of abilities with no clear dividing line.

God abhors a naked singularity.

We find ourselves in a bewildering world. We want to make sense of what we see around us and to ask: What is the nature of the universe? What is our place in it and where did it and we come from? Why is it the way it is?

Simplicity is a matter of taste

The human capacity for guilt is such that people can always find ways to blame themselves

It [AI] would take off on its own and redesign itself at an ever increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete and would be superseded.

In his eyes shone the reflection of the most beautiful planet in the Universe---a planet that is not too hot and not too cold; that has liquid water on the surface and where the gravity is just right for human beings and the atmosphere is perfect for them to breathe; where there are mountains and deserts and oceans and islands and forests and trees and birds and plants and animals and insects and people---lots and lots of people. Where there is life. Some of it, possibly, intelligent.

The question is: is the way the universe began chosen by God for reasons we can't understand, or was it determined by a law of science? I believe the second. If you like, you can call the laws of science 'God', but it wouldn't be a personal God that you could meet, and ask questions.