Stephen William Hawking (8 January 1942 – 14 March 2018)
Stephen Hawking completed a theory outlining his prediction for the end of the world just two weeks before his death, it has emerged.
The world-famous physicist, who died at age 76, was a co-author to a mathematical paper in which he sought to prove the so-called “multiverse” theory, and according to a report by U.K. newspaper The Sunday Times. His theory imagines the existence of many separate universes other than our own.
Hawking’s final work — titled “A Smooth Exit From Eternal Inflation” — is being reviewed by a leading scientific journal. In it, he predicted how our universe would eventually fade to darkness as the stars run out of energy.
Alongside Professor Thomas Hertog of Belgium’s KU Leuven University, Mr. Hawking also proposed a way in which scientists might be able to find alternate universes by using probes on space ships. This would allow humans to attain a more accurate understanding of our own universe, decipher what else is out there and ultimately realize our place in the cosmos.
“He has often been nominated for the Nobel and should have won it. Now he never can,” Hertog told The Sunday Times in an interview published Sunday.
‘Intelligent life may be watching’
Hawking, who was perhaps best known for his work on black holes and the theory of relativity, had previously posited the idea that Earth would turn into a giant ball of fire by 2600. Therefore, humans would eventually need to colonize another planet or face extinction, he said.
In 2015, Hawking joined Russian billionaire Yuri Milner to launch a project that aimed to use high-powered computers to listen for aliens. The project, known as Breakthrough Initiatives, supports SETI@home, a scientific experiment based at the University of California, Berkeley. It uses computers to scan the skies to look for life.
“Somewhere in the cosmos, perhaps, intelligent life may be watching these lights of ours aware of what they mean,” Hawking said. “Or do our lights wander a lifeless cosmos, unseen beacons announcing that here on our rock, the universe discovered its existence?”
Suppose the beginning of the universe was like the South Pole of the earth, with degrees of latitude playing the role of time. The universe would start as a point at the South Pole. As one moves north, the circles of constant latitude, representing the size of the universe, would expand. To ask what happened before the beginning of the universe would become a meaningless question, because there is nothing south of the South Pole.
Time, as measured in degrees of latitude, would have a beginning at the South Pole, but the South Pole is much like any other point, at least so I have been told. I have been to Antarctica, but not to the South Pole. The same laws of Nature hold at the South Pole as in other places. This would remove the age-old objection to the universe having a beginning; that it would be a place where the normal laws broke down.
The irregularities in the early universe will mean that some regions will have slightly higher density than others. The gravitational attraction of the extra density will slow the expansion of the region, and can eventually cause the region to collapse to form galaxies and stars. So look well at the map of the microwave sky. It is the blue print for all the structure in the universe. We are the product of quantum fluctuations in the very early universe. God really does play dice.
We have made tremendous progress in cosmology in the last hundred years. The General Theory of Relativity and the discovery of the expansion of the universe shattered the old picture of an ever existing and ever lasting universe. Instead, general relativity predicted that the universe, and time itself, would begin in the big bang. It also predicted that time would come to an end in black holes. The discovery of the cosmic microwave background and observations of black holes support these conclusions.
This is a profound change in our picture of the universe and of reality itself. Although the General Theory of Relativity predicted that the universe must have come from a period of high curvature in the past, it could not predict how the universe would emerge from the big bang.
Thus general relativity on its own cannot answer the central question in cosmology: Why is the universe the way it is? However, if general relativity is combined with quantum theory, it may be possible to predict how the universe would start. It would initially expand at an ever increasing rate.
During this so called inflationary period, the marriage of the two theories predicted that small fluctuations would develop and lead to the formation of galaxies, stars, and all the other structure in the universe. This is confirmed by observations of small non uniformities in the cosmic microwave background, with exactly the predicted properties. So it seems we are on our way to understanding the origin of the universe, though much more work will be needed.
A new window on the very early universe will be opened when we can detect gravitational waves by accurately measuring the distances between space craft. Gravitational waves propagate freely to us from earliest times, unimpeded by any intervening material. By contrast, light is scattered many times by free electrons. The scattering goes on until the electrons freeze out, after 300,000 years.
Despite having had some great successes, not everything is solved. We do not yet have a good theoretical understanding of the observations that the expansion of the universe is accelerating again, after a long period of slowing down.
Without such an understanding, we cannot be sure of the future of the universe. Will it continue to expand forever? Is inflation a law of Nature? Or will the universe eventually collapse again? New observational results and theoretical advances are coming in rapidly. Cosmology is a very exciting and active subject. We are getting close to answering the age old questions. Why are we here?
“All my life, I have been fascinated by the big questions that face us, and have tried to find scientific answers to them. If, like me, you have looked at the stars, and tried to make sense of what you see, you too have started to wonder what makes the universe exist. The questions are clear, and deceptively simple. But the answers have always seemed well beyond our reach. Until now.
“The ideas which had grown over two thousand years of observation have had to be radically revised. In less than a hundred years, we have found a new way to think of ourselves. From sitting at the center of the universe, we now find ourselves orbiting an average-sized sun, which is just one of millions of stars in our own Milky Way galaxy.
And our galaxy itself is just one of billions of galaxies, in a universe that is infinite and expanding. But this is far from the end of a long history of inquiry. Huge questions remain to be answered, before we can hope to have a complete picture of the universe we live in.
“I want you to share my excitement at the discoveries, past and present, which have revolutionized the way we think. From the Big Bang to black holes, from dark matter to a possible Big Crunch, our image of the universe today is full of strange sounding ideas, and remarkable truths. The story of how we arrived at this picture is the story of learning to understand what we see.”
What will happen to our planet in the next 200 years? The most famous scientist since Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, who has made profound and inspiring discoveries, predicted an extremely dark and pessimistic future to the Earth and its inhabitants. Here are some of Hawking’s most terrifying predictions on how and when our world will meet its demise.
Since scientists started toying with genetically engineered viruses to treat human illnesses, they’ve also discovered other possible uses for them.Nowadays, pharmacists are even combining several deadly viruses into a single shot and doing some weird stuff with DNA mixing. Hawking was a firm believer in extraterrestrial life, and he was convinced that they will eventually invade our planet. And no, unfortunately, they probably won’t come in peace.
In his final work, A Smooth Exit from Eternal Inflation, completed just two weeks before he died, Hawking predicted that our universe will eventually fade into darkness as all the stars run out of energy.
Although Hawking’s life basically depended on artificial intelligence, he didn’t trust it at all. He once said that it might just be “the worst invention in the history of our civilization” because it’ll probably replace humans altogether. Hawking added that global warming will make the conditions on Earth similar to those on Venus. To save ourselves from problems like overpopulation (and the scarcity of resources that comes with it), pandemics, and pollution, we have to discover new worlds and become a multi-planetary species.
There is gonna be a flame
Where there is a flame
Someone’s bound to get burned
But just because it burns
Doesn’t mean you’re gonna die
You’ve gotta get up and try, and try, and try
Gotta get up and try, and try, and try
You gotta get up and try, and try, and try!!
Thank you for listening to me.
