Physicist Stephen Hawking dies at 76

According to the British Sky TV news on the 14th: The famous British physicist Stephen Hawking passed away at the age of 76. Professor Hawking's children Lucy, Robert and Tim said in a statement: "We are extremely sad that our beloved father has passed away today. He was a great scientist and a remarkable person. The success of his work will live on for many years to come. His courage and persistence as well as his genius and humor inspired people from all over the world. He once said: 'If you can't provide a home for the people you love, The universe means nothing. 'We will miss him forever."

Hawking suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease) when he was 21 years old. He was paralyzed, unable to speak, and only three fingers on his hands could move. He served as Lucas Professor of Mathematics from 1979 to 2009. His main research areas were cosmology and black holes. He proved the singularity theorem and black hole area theorem of general relativity, proposed the black hole evaporation theory and the boundaryless Hawking universe model, and unified the 20th century. An important step has been taken in the two basic theories of physics - the theory of relativity founded by Einstein and the quantum mechanics founded by Planck. In addition, he has also received CH (British Lord of Honor), CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire), FRS (Member of the Royal Society), FRSA (Member of the Royal Society of Arts) and other honors.

Having been committed to exploring the mysteries of the universe, what predictions has Hawking made?

Hawking Quote 1: "Aliens" are watching you

At the launch ceremony of the Royal Society of Science in London in 2015 to search for signs of extraterrestrial life, Hawking said: "In infinity There must be other forms of life in the vast universe."

He said: "Perhaps alien life will be staring at us." "Whether extraterrestrial intelligent life ultimately exists or not, Now it’s time for someone to officially get involved. We have to figure this out.”

According to reports, this project will use some of the largest telescopes in the world to go deeper into the universe to capture any radio. Waves and laser signals.

Hawking Quotations 2: Humanity must immigrate to aliens within a thousand years or else become "extinct"

When Hawking gave a speech in Los Angeles, USA, he believed that within the next 1,000 years, it is basically certain that the earth will Destroyed by some catastrophe, such as nuclear war or the greenhouse effect. Therefore, he emphasized that humans must move to other planets. NASA Administrator Griffin also said that it is impossible for species on a single planet to survive permanently.

In the solar system, Mars is the best choice for human habitation besides Earth. However, it will take decades for manned exploration of Mars to be implemented, and a round trip takes 450 days.

Hawking said: "Human extinction is possible, but it is not inevitable. I am an optimist. I believe that the development and progress of science and technology can eventually take humans out of the solar system and reach higher places in the universe. A distant place.”

Hawking’s Quote 3: Intelligent machines are the real “terminators” of mankind

Hawking has said many times that “the complete development of artificial intelligence may lead to the destruction of mankind.”

According to Hawking, artificial intelligence technology does bring convenience to human life in its initial stage of development, but machines will likely redesign themselves at an ever-accelerating speed. Human beings, on the other hand, are limited by the speed of biological evolution and cannot compete with them, and are eventually surpassed. The scientific community has named this turning point when artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence the "singularity."

In fact, Elon Musk, CEO of Space "hazard". MIT professors, scientists, employees of Google, IBM, Microsoft and other companies, as well as investors related to the field of artificial intelligence, also jointly issued an open letter expressing the same concerns.

Hawking’s Quote 4: “Black holes” don’t exist? Only "grey holes"?

In a paper "Black Hole Information Preservation and Weather Forecasting", Hawking pointed out that black holes actually "do not exist", but "grey holes do exist", once again shocking the physics community.

Hawking proposed the famous "Hawking Radiation" theory in 1976, that is, while the mass of a black hole decreases during its formation, it continues to emit radiation to the outside world in the form of energy. But once the black hole condenses and evaporates, all the information in it disappears, contradicting the theory of quantum mechanics that holds that this type of material information will never completely disappear. This is the so-called "black hole paradox."

For more than 30 years, Hawking has tried to explain this contradictory view with various speculations. Now it seems that he gave a more convincing answer. Hawking admitted that his initial understanding of the "event horizon" at the boundary of a black hole was flawed, and that light can actually pass through the event horizon. He said that black holes never completely close themselves, and matter and energy will be released into the universe again after being trapped in the black hole for a period of time.