We are sure that you have heard about Stephen Hawking , famous theoretical physicist, astrophysicist, cosmologist and British scientific popularizer. What we do not know is if you are up to date with Stephen Hawking's last message, before dying on March 14, 2018.
This last message from Stephen Hawking, one of the greatest and brightest minds that humanity has ever known, is included in his last book Brief answers to the big questions published this same year and that results from the collection of articles and essays written before dying.
The last message of Stephen Hawking
Some of the excerpts from this book show a Hawking facing some of the biggest and most difficult questions humanity has faced in its history; the existence of God, the possibility of there being a life after death, extraterrestrial life and even the threat of artificial intelligence.
In the last message from Stephen Hawking, he acknowledges that "In one way or another, I consider it almost inevitable that a nuclear confrontation or an environmental catastrophe will end the Earth sometime in the next 1000 years. Although by then I hope and trust that our ingenious race will have found a way to create strong bonds with our Planet that allow us to survive the disaster "
However, as Stephen Hawking's last message collects, there are many other threats that we have to dodge before this becomes a reality. These threats range from asteroid collisions to the increase of artificial intelligence.
If we start thinking about possible environmental threats to our planet, surely we can think of some. However, Hawking also emphasizes threats that come from our own race . In Stephen Hawking's last message, he addresses the threat of the sinister rise of "superhumans", which are created with gene editing tools such as CRISPR-Cas9.
"There is no time to wait for Darwinian evolution to make us smarter and of better character," he writes. "Now we are entering a new phase of what could be called self-designed evolution, in which we can change and improve our DNA"
"Once such superhumans appear, there will be important political problems with unimproved humans, who will not be able to compete," he added.
"Presumably, they will die or they will cease to be important. Instead, there will be a race of self-designing beings who are improving themselves at a growing rate. If the human race manages to redesign itself, it will probably expand and colonize other planets and stars "
For the questions related to the existence of God, in the last message of Stephen Hawking he declared:
"The question is, is it the way the universe began to be chosen by God for reasons we can not understand, or was it determined by a law of science? I think the second. If you wish, you can call the laws of science 'God', but you would not be a personal God with whom you would meet and ask questions "
Given his training and scientific beliefs, Hawking was an atheist from head to toe. In spite of that, he is buried in Westminster Abbey, in Science Corner, next to personalities as brilliant as Darwin and Newton.
When it came to addressing issues related to major climate changes that could become a great threat to humanity, Hawking offered a wide range of solutions.
"This is easy," he wrote: "The development of fusion power to provide an unlimited supply of clean energy, and a switch to electric cars. Nuclear fusion would become a practical source of energy and would provide us with an inexhaustible supply of energy, without pollution or global warming . "
It seems incredible to us what the last message of Stephen Hawking has contributed and can still continue to contribute to humanity. Even after his death, this brilliant mind continues to make predictions and offer bold, creative and immensely intelligent solutions to the future of our race. That is why it is clear that we should never stop listening to him, for what he has offered, offers and will surely offer, since we are sure that many of the arguments he offers are not yet within our reach.
We are clear that humanity advances thanks to these brilliant minds that appear in the course of history and make us take giant steps. We must be the most advanced race that inhabits our planet. What do you think? What did you think of Stephen Hawking's last message? Do you think that the predictions it makes about artificial intelligence can be true? Leave us your comments! We will be more than happy to read you.