Discussion:
A Star Is Gone
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Tiglath
2018-03-14 17:18:51 UTC
Permalink
What a contribution!!!

I don't know about you but being an amateur astronomer and all, I look up
quite a bit, which makes you ponder very big things.

We are so alone, thousands of gods notwithstanding, that understanding a little
bit our journey as universe, planet, and species all the way to here now,
is like the comfort of finding oneself on a map.

That is the comfort Stephen Hawkings gave us. It's time.

We are in such trouble to know more. None of us or those after us will know
how 'this' will end up and turn out. Perhaps there will be one last solitary
Sapiens who will know how it turns out, for one second, but not us.

It's daunting and numbers make it worse. What will happen in 100 years?
1000 years? Then it gets crazy.

Was the Big Bang another Pac-Man game, ongoing fun for a teenage god?

Language is no help. There is no "before" the Big Bang. You cannot assume time
outside of it. Same problem with 'outside' and space.

'Singularity' looked promising, but nah.

If there is 'no before the Big Bang' what preceded it. Yeah... 'precede' is
no good either. Hmmmm. I wanna see my mom.

It's a mess, but ever so slightly less so, thanks to this great man.

The Anti-Trump he was, through and through: he thought celebrity a drag
because he gets recognized everywhere he goes. Sun-glasses and wigs don't help,
wheelchair gives him away.

Asked if he was the most intelligent man in the world he said he would never
claim that, that whoever talks about his IQ is a loser.

Well Stephen, please tell the whizz-kid gods to send something, a meteor,
Zeus Pissed Off or what have you but, pretty please with sugar on top...
nudge that Trump moron to the moon.
Peter Jason
2018-03-14 20:45:28 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tiglath
What a contribution!!!
I don't know about you but being an amateur astronomer and all, I look up
quite a bit, which makes you ponder very big things.
We are so alone, thousands of gods notwithstanding, that understanding a little
bit our journey as universe, planet, and species all the way to here now,
is like the comfort of finding oneself on a map.
That is the comfort Stephen Hawkings gave us. It's time.
We are in such trouble to know more. None of us or those after us will know
how 'this' will end up and turn out. Perhaps there will be one last solitary
Sapiens who will know how it turns out, for one second, but not us.
It's daunting and numbers make it worse. What will happen in 100 years?
1000 years? Then it gets crazy.
Was the Big Bang another Pac-Man game, ongoing fun for a teenage god?
Language is no help. There is no "before" the Big Bang. You cannot assume time
outside of it. Same problem with 'outside' and space.
'Singularity' looked promising, but nah.
If there is 'no before the Big Bang' what preceded it. Yeah... 'precede' is
no good either. Hmmmm. I wanna see my mom.
It's a mess, but ever so slightly less so, thanks to this great man.
The Anti-Trump he was, through and through: he thought celebrity a drag
because he gets recognized everywhere he goes. Sun-glasses and wigs don't help,
wheelchair gives him away.
Asked if he was the most intelligent man in the world he said he would never
claim that, that whoever talks about his IQ is a loser.
Well Stephen, please tell the whizz-kid gods to send something, a meteor,
Zeus Pissed Off or what have you but, pretty please with sugar on top...
nudge that Trump moron to the moon.
.......hmmmm, but what was he like as a human being?
Tiglath
2018-03-14 21:19:29 UTC
Permalink
Post by Peter Jason
Post by Tiglath
What a contribution!!!
I don't know about you but being an amateur astronomer and all, I look up
quite a bit, which makes you ponder very big things.
We are so alone, thousands of gods notwithstanding, that understanding a little
bit our journey as universe, planet, and species all the way to here now,
is like the comfort of finding oneself on a map.
That is the comfort Stephen Hawkings gave us. It's time.
We are in such trouble to know more. None of us or those after us will know
how 'this' will end up and turn out. Perhaps there will be one last solitary
Sapiens who will know how it turns out, for one second, but not us.
It's daunting and numbers make it worse. What will happen in 100 years?
1000 years? Then it gets crazy.
Was the Big Bang another Pac-Man game, ongoing fun for a teenage god?
Language is no help. There is no "before" the Big Bang. You cannot assume time
outside of it. Same problem with 'outside' and space.
'Singularity' looked promising, but nah.
If there is 'no before the Big Bang' what preceded it. Yeah... 'precede' is
no good either. Hmmmm. I wanna see my mom.
It's a mess, but ever so slightly less so, thanks to this great man.
The Anti-Trump he was, through and through: he thought celebrity a drag
because he gets recognized everywhere he goes. Sun-glasses and wigs don't help,
wheelchair gives him away.
Asked if he was the most intelligent man in the world he said he would never
claim that, that whoever talks about his IQ is a loser.
Well Stephen, please tell the whizz-kid gods to send something, a meteor,
Zeus Pissed Off or what have you but, pretty please with sugar on top...
nudge that Trump moron to the moon.
.......hmmmm, but what was he like as a human being?
An example to follow and inspiration to all.

He could get by with just one hour study a day to keep up with physics and
math classes at university, so he was endowed with a great brain.

He could have wasted it and become a politician.

He could have spent much time feeling sorry for himself and bitching, with
plenty of reason. Instead, he figured out math proofs in his head of the theories he thought of.

I don't know his character much, but there are good signs: a sense of humor, and
an indomitable spirit in the face of adversity. I like those.
Tiglath
2018-03-14 23:52:11 UTC
Permalink
Think for a moment, mere mortals, the kind of skills Hawking developed...

Start with a Ph.D. in Physics held by a Special Individual.

Special Individuals manifest a vocation from an early age. The mind aligns
to set the person on a life track where little else matters to them other than
following the call. They forge friendships, family and associations according to
whether relationships impede or further their mission. It comes easy to them to
advance rapidly in their craft, as much by natural suitability as for the
constant intensity with which they practice it.

It's a common denominator among special individuals like Hawking, Sagan,
Hitchens, Miles, Clapton, Hendrix and millions of unknown others. It can be a blessing or a curse.

Now give that special individual time to think, like, all the time he is awake, which Hawking has by virtue of his disability.

How deep can he go? How long can he keep the flow on and on the through mental
landscapes born from his training and his dreaming? What harvest?

Now throw the Book of Job at that special individual and make him outwardly
INCOMMUNICADO 99.99%. It gives Stephen a lot of time to be lost in thought...

The Greatest Living Thinker now has to pass on his thoughts a character at a
time in a manner as inefficient as undignified. Stephen is unfazed.

But he does have the dire requirement of condensing his words as much as possible. On matters so deep that expanding on them is always required for
others to understand.

OK, but if he talks physics he can forgo natural language and talk math instead.

A lot can be said with a short equation or a mere change of the sign of a variable.

He also tries to condense the math. In other words, Hawking must have honed for
more than fifty years not only the condensation of words and the thoughts they
come from, but the very concepts from which thoughts arise.

That is, utter compression at each stage of the pipeline: concept, thought, words.

No wonder "A Brief History of Time" (13.8 billion years) was a thin book.

Perhaps even thinner had editors not fluffed up prose 'dense as a black-hole.'
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