BRIEF ANSWERS TO THE BIG QUESTIONS

This is the title of a book by Stephen Hawking. He wrote the book not long before his death, so the book was compiled and published shortly after he passed away. It is a series of questions and answers, and as the title implies, they are very important and vital questions. Stephen Hawking was born in 1942. When he was only 21 years old, he was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease. After discovering this mortal disorder doctors did not expect him to live much longer. However, because of his determination and love of living, he stayed alive and for much longer than he was expected to, until six years ago and at the age of 76.

This book, like all his other books, is filled with scientific information, combined with anecdotes which makes reading his writings much easier for non-scientists such as myself. In this book, he provides a major question in each chapter, and responds to those questions in detail and in a way which is easily understandable by a lay person.

The first section of the book titled “why we must ask the big questions” pretty much explains the purpose of the book. In the second paragraph of this chapter, we read: “I am a scientist. And a scientist with a deep fascination with physics, cosmology, the universe and the future of humanity (P. 3)”. The last three words, the future of humanity, can be said to be the mission of this book, as he predicted the future of humanity in various ways and shapes. He was extremely familiar with the history of science and its mission in simplifying and assisting human endeavors. However, the history of politics, especially politics of superpowers, that caused the doomsday clock to be moved to ninety seconds before midnight for this year, was not a subject of interest to him, and as a result his prediction of future is more optimistic, fascinating, and inspiring. It is a different subject however to discuss whether humanity can survive, considering all the signs of expanding a world war by super powers these days.

Speaking of his knowledge of history, what in fact attracted me to this book, in addition to his scientific writings, was a paragraph in the first chapter of the book about his trip to Iran: “In the summer of 1962 I set out, taking a train to Istanbul, then on to Erzuerum in eastern Turkey, then to Tabriz, Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz and Persepolis, the capital of the ancient Persian kings. On my way home, I and my travelling companion, Richard Chiin, were caught in the Bouin-Zahra earthquake, a massive 7.1 Richter quake that killed over 12,000 people (P. 8)”. I vividly remember that earthquake, that happened when I was only a child, which I believe it was one of the largest earthquakes hitting Iran.

Next chapter is titled “Is there a God?” As a progressive scientist, Hawking’s answer to this question is clearly negative. Of course, he goes further back to the beginning of this world and how it all came about: “The question is, ‘is the way the universe began chosen by God for reasons we can’t understand, or was it determined by a law of science?’ I believe the second. If you like, you can call the laws of science ‘God,’ but it wouldn’t be a personal God that you would meet and put questions to (P. 36)”.

“How did it all begin?” This is an interesting question which is covered in the next chapter. Considering that the universe is expanding, as Hubble discovered that galaxies were moving away from each other, and as they were moving their speed increased, Hawking’s views on this subject is very interesting. “The beginning of the universe itself in the Hot Big Bang is the ultimate high-energy laboratory for testing M-theory and our ideas about the building blocks of space-time and matter (P. 63)”.

“Is there other intelligent life in the universe?” is the title of the following section of the book. There are several assumptions and arguments as answers to this question. For example, consider travel time or the time it takes to travel from other universes. In this case there should not be a possibility of any life form out there with our genetic makeup, as the travel time would be so long that our genetic makeup would not allow living for that long. Therefore, if there is the same life form in the universe, we may not be able to see them considering our life span. Then he discusses various possibilities a life form would exist out there, and concludes: “I prefer a fourth possibility: that there are other forms of intelligent life out there, but that we have been overlooked (P. 85)”.

Next chapter is titled: “can we predict the future?”  In this chapter, Hawking mentions theories of several scientists, including the famous phrase of Einstein: “God does not play dice”. At the end he concludes: “Although quantum mechanics leads to uncertainty when we try to predict both the position and the speed, it still allows us to predict, with certainty, one combination of position and speed. However, even this degree of certainty seems to be threatened by more recent developments. The problem arises because gravity can warp space-time so much that there can be regions of space that we can’t observe (P. 96)”.

“What is inside a black hole?” talks about the knowledge of a black hole and its components, admitting how fictional it sounds, “Black holes are stranger than anything dreamed up by science-fiction writers, but they are firmly matters of science fact (P. 101)”. This statement is at the beginning of this chapter about black holes, and the rest of the chapter is dedicated in detail to explaining all the theories about black holes.

The following chapter questions: “is time travel possible?” This subject is discussed in detail, and the last paragraph summarizes a response to this question. However, there is another subject towards the end of the chapter about dimensions, which is interesting: “According to a unifying form of string theory known as M-theory, which is our best hope of uniting general relativity and quantum theory, space-time ought to have eleven dimensions, not just four that we experience (P. 142). And, a direct response to the original question is in the last paragraph of this chapter: “In conclusion, rapid space travel and travel back in time can’t be ruled out according to our present understanding (P. 142)”.

The big question is “will we survive on earth?” This subject has been viewed and discussed by many scientists as well as political commentators. Invariably comments of those who offer their observations are usually and sadly discouraging. Considering competing governments all around the world, and their struggles in pushing others down, a third world war is right on the horizon, and no matter how majority of citizens of the world are against another disastrous war, governments have all the weapons, not those who advocate peace. It should also be noted that Stephen Hawking’s statement about this belongs to a few years back, before all human slaughter that has been occurring in many places in the world today. Therefore, even though he agrees that humans will not survive on earth, his timing may be off, especially considering the recent political conditions in Israel and Ukraine: “One way or another, I regard it as almost inevitable that either a nuclear confrontation or environmental catastrophe will cripple the Earth at some point in the next 1,000 years which, as geological time goes, is the mere blink of an eye (P. 150)”.

Next chapter is titled: “should we colonise space?” As the response to the previous question summarizes that humans cannot survive on earth, looking for and finding another place to live becomes more urgent. The question is where to go, which is speculated and each place in outer space is checked by Hawking: “The Moon and Mars are the most suitable sites for space colonies in the solar system. Mercury and Venus are too hot, while Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants with no solid surface. The moons of Mars are very small and have no advantages over Mars itself. Some of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn might be possible. Europa, a moon of Jupiter, has a frozen ice surface. But there may be liquid water under the surface in which life could have developed (P. 172)”.

This chapter is titled: “will artificial intelligence outsmart us?” Although the author believes that AI could get to a point to make decisions of its own, he warns against using it in military. Arms race in autonomous weapon systems is the future of militarism and the danger is destroying our world through such weapons. Again, and as it was mentioned earlier, with the present political situation in the world, as some governments are pushing other countries through World War III, having such weapons could easily destroy our planet: “Used as a toolkit, AI can augment our existing intelligence to open up advances in every area of science and society. However, it will also bring dangers. While primitive forms of artificial intelligence developed so far have proved very useful, I fear the consequences of creating something that can match or surpass humans (P. 186)”.

The title of the last chapter is: “how do we shape the future?” The last chapter of a book is usually a sum-up of what was discussed in the previous chapters. It may also begin with a summary of subjects in previous chapters. However, since each chapter of this book is a separate question, the last chapter is a question to be responded to as well. But questions are sorted in a way that each completes the previous one. Therefore, one can say that all chapters of the book, except the last one, discuss scientific advancements of the past, and the last chapter discusses what is in the store in the future using our past advancements: “One hundred years later, physicists know far more about the universe than Einstein did. Now we have greater tools for discovery, such as particle accelerators, supercomputers, space telescopes and experiments such as the LIGO lab’s work on gravitational waves. Yet imagination remains our most powerful attribute. With it, we can roam anywhere in space and time (P. 200)”. We may end with this comment as positive note from the book.

Like all Hawking’s books, this one is full of fresh and exiting information for those non-scientists who enjoy reading about science. We lost a great brain a few years back, but his knowledge will always stay with us through his writings.