Stephen Hawking 1942-2018

Depressing, though not entirely unexpected... still outlived all expectations.

Back to stardust...

o,0 T_T

So sad and upsetting.

Just saw it and was about to post. One of the people for whom the term "giant" can be applied without hesitation of modification. A man who not only had extraordinary brilliance, but the super-extraordinary will to overcome a devastating condition and excel beyond the dreams of just about everyone.

caw

Came over here to post about this.

A man who knew how to get to infinity and beyond, whose great experiment to dis/prove time travel was to throw a party and see if anyone showed up, who liked to run his students down in a souped up chair, who was beloved by his children's friends for never talking down to them and always answering their questions without berating them, who defied expectations, who made himself known and seen and heard, who poked fun at himself when afforded the opportunity, and who literally redefined the universe as we know it.

He was Riker's Data's poker buddy, Sheldon's nemesis / inspiration, and on occasion his own animated head.

This is how a titan falls.

Godspeed, sir. RIP.

Oh, damn...

Like Newton or Einstein passing. I saw him at a talk in Seattle and was ecstatic to see people in front of the theater with signs begging for tickets. Made me proud.

From Crosby, Stills, and Nash:
"We are stardust, we are golden
We are billion year old carbon
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden"
Farewell, Mr. Hawking, a majestic combination of stardust and carbon.

A giant. So sad, but he had outlived all expectations. His suffering must have been horrible.

Anyone see that movie released about him a coupla years back?

Rest In Peace.

I know I just read about it. Sad does not explain what I am feeling. Can you imagine being trapped in his body? All of that genius begging to come out. Imagine what he could have done for this world if free from his wheelchair and all of his motor skills. Look at what he did even with his limitations.

A giant, a legend, one of the greatest of our age or any. The world is considerably more empty without him.

"Life would be tragic if it weren't funny." -Hawking

He was inspirational in many ways.

I'm still weeping at the news. I haven't been so profoundly moved from the loss of another person in a long time. I opened up my pdf of his thesis Properties of Expanding Universes that he graciously released to the public in October. I wish I could understand it.

Here is Stephen Hawking's version of the Galaxy song.

Goodbye to his sense of the universe, his sense of humour and joy, and a life fully lived.

RIP

shrimpsdad said:

I know I just read about it. Sad does not explain what I am feeling. Can you imagine being trapped in his body? All of that genius begging to come out. Imagine what he could have done for this world if free from his wheelchair and all of his motor skills. Look at what he did even with his limitations.

Click to expand...

When he appears in interviews or programs it always looks like he can reply in the same timeframe of normal speech. He can't. At the end of the program I saw him at, he took a few questions. It took him a very long time to construct the answers. Makes one appreciate even more what an incredible person he was.

This seems appropriate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgiXGELjbc

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

He lived a life that would (and does) break just about everyone else. Can't find it in me to be too sad when anyone is released from what he went through. Onward into the Universe!

I'm proud to tell you one of my cousins is married to the guy who designed the equipment that made it possible for him to write. (And cousin-in-law originally designed that equipment for my aunt, his wife's mother, who died in the early '90s of Lou Ehrig's disease.)

We'll chant for him.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

I don't know what Hawking's funeral arrangements are, but if he's to be cremated, I vote for having Elon Musk launch his ashes into the cosmos. Nothing would be a more fitting tribute to a great life greatly lived under the most trying of personal circumstances.

caw

A sobering article

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/stephen-hawking-free-from-his-wheelchair-ableist

MaeZe said:

Like Newton or Einstein passing. I saw him at a talk in Seattle and was ecstatic to see people in front of the theater with signs begging for tickets. Made me proud.

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This ^^^. One of the great minds in history (In addition to Newton and Einstein, I would add John Forbes Nash to this list.)

RedRajah said:

A sobering article

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/stephen-hawking-free-from-his-wheelchair-ableist

Click to expand...

I couldn't disagree more. Having grown up with a father whose physical condition debilitated to the point he had to use a wheelchair and communications computer, and one who wanted to be cremated because he had the fear (even though he admitted that it was irrational) that he'd be trapped in his body if it wasn't destroyed, death was absolutely freedom from his condition. Most of those images on Twitter have shown Hawking made of stars, becoming part of the universe. It's not ableist, it's hope, and memorials are about hope.