STEPHEN HAWKING

Brief Answers to the Big Questions by Stephen Hawking; Published by Hachette India; Pages: 232; Price: Rs 650/ -

                             ***********************

Stephen  Hawking was born in Oxford on 8 January, 1942. His father was a research biologist. He grew up in London and, after gaining a first-class degree in physics from Oxford, went on to Cambridge for postgraduate research in cosmology. Hawking, who was wheelchair bound due to motor neurone disease, dedicated his life's work to unravelling the mysteries of the universe.

 The cosmologist was propelled to stardom by his 1988 book "A Brief History of Time", a worldwide bestseller. It sold more than 10 million copies. He appeared in a number of popular TV shows and lent his synthesised voice to various recordings.

Undeterred by his condition, he continued his work as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University—an earlier holder of the post  was Isaac Newton. In 2001, his second book – “Universe in a Nutshell” - was published.

 The book under review is a posthumous work  which tackles basic problems like God’s existence  and scope  time travel. Hawking started his last  work on "Brief Answers to the Big Questions" last year—but did not finish it before he died in March 2018, aged 76.

 This book are his final thoughts and is drawn  from his copious essays, keynote speeches and lectures that he wrote or delivered  and admirably summarises  his thoughts on some of the most earthshaking problems  that Hawking believed to be  crucial for our planet and humanity at large.

"He was regularly asked a set of questions; the book is an attempt to "bring together the most definitive, clearest, most authentic answers that he gave” according to his daughter Lucy Hawking .

The 10 big questions Hawking tackles are:

— Is there a God?

— How did it all begin?

— What is inside a black hole?

— Can we predict the future?

— Is time travel possible?

— Will we survive on Earth?

— Is there other intelligent life in the universe?

— Should we colonise space?

— Will artificial intelligence outsmart us?

— How do we shape the future?

According to Hawking  humans have no option but to leave Earth, risking being "annihilated" if they do not.

According to him computers will overtake humans in intelligence during the next 100 years, but "we will need to ensure that the computers have goals aligned with ours".

He says the human race had to improve its mental and physical qualities, but a genetically-modified race of superhumans, say with greater memory and disease resistance, would imperil the others.

Hawking says the simplest explanation is that God does not exist and there is no reliable evidence for an afterlife, though people could live on through their influence and genes.

He says that in the next 50 years, we will come to understand how life began and possibly discover whether life exists elsewhere in the universe. He declare,  “ I am optimistic that we will ultimately create viable habitats for the human race on other planets. We will transcend the Earth and learn to exist in Space”.

This  book is  a call to unity, to humanity, to bring ourselves back together and really face up to the challenges in front of us.

Hawking is able to address important, complicated ideas in simple language which is difficult and  he has a lucid style that is refreshingly unpretentious.

 Readers get a chance to see the real Hawking .  Hawking is asked about his dream as a child and whether it came true. His response provides a glimpse into the making of the man. "I wanted to be a great scientist. However, I wasn't a very good student at school, and was rarely more than halfway up my class. My work was untidy and my handwriting was not very good. But I had good friends at school. And we talked about everything and, specifically, the origin of the universe. This is where my dream began, and I am very fortunate that it has come true."

The book is replete with  personal notes affording us  an inkling of  how Hawking behaved or thought in his personal life and what contributed to  his extraordinary personality.

The scientist is  convinced that  population explosion and the rate at which we are exploiting the planet is making the end imminent. Referring to population, climate change, global warming, nuclear weapons and even political instability, Hawking contends that any of these, or the sum total of their results, may wipe out humanity from Earth. His scariest warning is that the Earth, if global warming persists, may become like Venus -- "boiling hot and raining sulphuric acid, but with a temperature of 250 degrees Celsius".

So the "Big Question" that arises from his conclusion is: What are humans to do to survive? The "Brief Answer" is: Venture out into space so as not to rely solely on one planet. If humanity is to survive, it must not keep all its eggs in one basket, he wrote. Hawking then hints that developments in science and technological advancements may enable the human race to survive -- but even if that were to happen, most other species on Earth will be destroyed, and "that will be on our conscience as a race". In a nutshell, he points out that humans have no other option but to colonise other planets and moons. He suggests that a long-term strategy should be devised for exploring other planets and moons in search of a new home, contending that planets in other solar systems may be a more viable option than ours.

Is God so unkind to allow the extinction of humans? The conclusion he had reached was that there is no God. "There is no God. No one directs the universe," he writes. "For centuries, it was believed that disabled people like me were living under a curse that was inflicted by God," he adds. "I prefer to think that everything can be explained another way, by the laws of nature."Discussing the beginning of the universe, Hawking says that there was no such thing as "time" before the Big Bang. "The role played by time at the beginning of the universe is, I believe, the final key to removing the need for a grand designer and revealing how the universe created itself," he says.

All in all, "Brief Answers to the Big Questions" is a delightful, yet significant read for anybody trying to understand our place in the Universe.

 Hawking was extremely grateful for the life he had been able to live, recognising that a part of his popularity may have had to do with his disability. Yet, he had one aim -- to find answers to all big questions that cropped up in his mind. And he lived his life pursuing this goal. Hawking did not believe in an after-life, but he will surely live permanently in our memory. He has a place with Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein as part of the “Three of the Greatest Scientists” of  Mother Earth.

Tit—Bits

1. In 2007, he became the first quadriplegic to experience weightlessness on board the so-called "vomit comet", a modified plane specially designed to simulate zero gravity. He said he did it to encourage interest in space travel.

2. He once wrote that he had motor neurone disease for practically all his adult life but said that it had not stopped him having an attractive family and being successful in his work.

"It shows," he said, "that one need not lose hope."

3.Hawking is interred in Westminster Abbey, between two of his scientific heroes, Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin.

                                  

P.P.Ramachandran

09/12/2018.