Sampler of Hawking's life,work and thoughts.
It is always a pleasure to ponder the writings of this brilliant and courageous man; indeed, many of his earlier books are included in the science section of my own personal library. In agreement with some other reviewers, this posthumous volume qualifies as a ‘sampler’ of his work and thought in areas of science in which he himself has been a major contributor and which has been compiled, edited and released by others in honor of his name. Those interested should turn to his many other works for a more in depth understanding of his efforts in the advance of scientific knowledge.
Much of this final volume involves a good deal of speculation along with fact as science probes the boundaries of the unknown, and this is unavoidable in the ongoing process of attempting to sort out ‘what is’ from ‘what isn’t’. Nonetheless, the reader should be aware that many researchers have the tendency to hold Sagan’s candle of science at arm’s length, peer into the darkness beyond the little circle of light, and confidently declare what is, and what is not, out there. Their proffered evidence is less than compelling. There are many notions, distilled from the bong water of theoretical physics, which spiral downward from the certain, to the probable, to the possible, to the patently absurd (and which one scientist and science writer labeled as being examples of “fairy tale physics”, “abstracted, theoretical speculation without any kind of empirical foundation”, and “not science.”) being proclaimed to students and the general public as ‘fact’. The field must always be on the alert to a drift from science into scientism without unnecessarily discouraging inquiry.
Hawking is to be commended for addressing the dangers and possible dangers of environmental irresponsibility, genetic editing, artificial intelligence and off-world contact. Serious caution is advised here and many others in the various fields of science have joined him in sounding a warning.
The one major, but expected, shortcoming is his premature dismissal of a self-existent, ultimate intelligence (God, in simple terms) as being the source of reality-as-it-is and, in this, Hawking has a lot of company. The super-simplified creation account found in the Bible, addressing the understanding level of the original recipients and suitable for small children today, is summarily dismissed. ‘God-of-the-gaps’ is replaced by ‘Science-of-the-gaps’ and the can gets kicked further down the road. Hawking was of the opinion that we are ‘almost there’. Another civilization, a mere million year blink in advance of our own, may find that to be humorous. In all this, Hawking presents the ‘faith statement’, if you will, of an honest atheist---no more, and no less---but he is no less to be respected for that.Read full review
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