Spouse: Elaine Mason (m.
1995–2006), Jane Hawking (m.
1965–1995)
Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.
The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the
illusion of knowledge.
I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined,
and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.
END
END
15 March 2018 - Professor Hawking is undoubtedly one of the most inspiring people who have decided to spend at least one lifetime on Planet Earth. He is, and will continue to be, ranked among the Heroes and The Greats as his life-force follows his life's work, and is broadcast and resounds for eons to come throughout the cosmos. His most notable achievement is that when medical science and all common-sense gave him "but a short time to live" to the age of 22, he laughed in the face of the unrelenting grim-reaper for another 54 years. We, humans, I believe, and Stephen is a case in point, choose the manner and the time of our departures.
His example to all humans, and in particular to all with disabilities, to everyone who finds their personal problems overwhelming and might be tempted to end it all, echoes Winston Churchill's advice "KBO ! Keep Buggering On". Despite being paralyzed by Motor-Neurone Disease, unable to even speak, he persisted with his family life and his work and his demanding social and media life. He bore all the humiliations of being unable to tend to his own bodily functions - or breathe without mechanical aid. Stephen intelligently adapted and applied technology to allow himself to live. Science, intellect and utter determination overcame his almost, to many of us, unbearable fate as a completly disabled man.
Years ago, at the Sheldonian Theater in Oxford, UK, a University Don put a question to The Dalai Lama who had spoken of reincarnation. "I have a friend who is very depressed..." the several hundred members of the academic audience all suppressed knowing smiles "...and he has several times said he would commit suicide. ...In the light of reincarnation - should he end this life and be reborn?" After a suitable pause, The Dalai Lama replied, cautiously, "Although my faith in reincarnation is total - I haven't met anyone who has actually claimed to recall having died and been reborn - with one-hundred percent certainty. ...I would therefore suggest to your friend that he does not take that risk. He should perhaps let nature and life take its course."
Stephen Hawking was a humanist. He expressed no belief in an afterlife. But just in case he was not one-hundred-percent correct about Life The Universe and Everything, his extra-special and extraordinary energy just might be recycled - leaving the Motor-Neurone Disease behind - via a Black Hole, emerging appropriately as Hawking Radiation - at which time his theory will have practically demonstrated his predicted phenomena, and he could collect his Nobel Prize. As he reassembles his organism from the stream of radiation, ready for another stint on Earth - he will also know the answer to the conundrum he posed "is information destroyed or preserved as it enters and eventually leaves a Black Hole". But it could take more than a Brief History of Time to recycle the brilliant and brave Professor Hawking.
In the meantime, while we wait and see, his insights, science and mathematics will help to move Physics on from Newton and Einstein and The Standard Model. The current and coming generations of scientists will benefit from standing on the shoulders of all the giants who precede them.
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