Stephen Hawking Quotes - Page 16

I think the next century will be the century of complexity.

There is a real danger that computers will develop intelligence and take over. We urgently need to develop direct connections to the brain so that computers can add to human intelligence rather than be in opposition.

I do not believe in a personal God.

We see the universe the way it is because we exist.

Children in backseats cause accidents. Accidents in backseats cause children.

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.

A million million million million (1 with twenty-four zeros after it) miles, the size of the observable universe.

The progress of the human race in understanding the universe has established a small corner of order in an increasingly disordered universe.

To boldly go where no one has gone before

"Sooner or later disasters such as an asteroid collision or a nuclear war could wipe us all out, But once we spread out into space and establish independent colonies, our future should be safe."

Only a very few would allow creatures like us to exist. Thus our presence selects out from this vast array only those universes that are compatible with our existence. Although we are puny and insignificant on the scale of the cosmos, this makes us in a sense the lords of creation.

For years, my early work with Roger Penrose seemed to be a disaster for science. It showed that the universe must have begun with a singularity, if Einstein's general theory of relativity is correct. That appeared to indicate that science could not predict how the universe would begin.

At times, I get very lonely because people are afraid to talk to me or don't wait for me to write a response. I'm shy and tongue-tied at times. I find it difficult to talk to people who I don't know.

The human race shouldn't have all its eggs in one basket, or on one planet. Let's hope we can avoid dropping the basket until we have spread the load.

I wouldnt be here today if it were not for the NHS, I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived.

Working with my father [Stephen Hawking ] is a great thrill - he has the amazing ability to hold enormous amounts of information in his head.

If you lined up all the cars in the world end to end, someone would try to pass them.

Observations indicate that the universe is expanding at an ever-increasing rate. It will expand forever, getting emptier and darker. Although the universe doesn’t have an end, it had a beginning in the Big Bang. One might ask what is before that but the answer is that there is nowhere before the Big Bang just as there is nowhere south of the South Pole.

If human life were long enough to find the ultimate theory, everything would have been solved by previous generations. Nothing would be left to be discovered.

The doctor who diagnosed me with ALS, or motor neuron disease, told me that it would kill me in two or three years.

thus, in a sense, we are all doomed. even if we stay away from black holes

If it were only a few degrees, that would be serious, but we could adapt to it. But the danger is the warming process might be unstable and run away. We could end up like Venus, covered in clouds and with the surface temperature of 400 degrees. It could be too late if we wait until the bad effects of warming become obvious. We need action now to reduce emission of carbon dioxide.

Observations indicate that the universe is expanding at an ever increasing rate. It will expand forever, getting emptier and darker.

The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like.

I want my books sold on airport bookstalls.