Stephen Hawking has died

[Eulogy]

Physicist Stephen Hawking dies aged 76

Stephen Hawking has died at the age of 76, his family has said.

The British theoretical physicist was known for his groundbreaking work with black holes and relativity, and was the author of several popular science books including A Brief History of Time.

His children, Lucy, Robert and Tim, said: "We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today.

"He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years."

They praised his "courage and persistence" and said his "brilliance and humour" inspired people across the world.

"He once said, 'It would not be much of a universe if it wasn't home to the people you love.' We will miss him forever," they said.

The BBC

[mr friendly guy]

He survived this long with his disease. Rest in peace.

[ANGELUS]

Today the universe got a little bit darker.

[Marko Dash]

damn, i knew his condition had been declining these last few years but i thought he'd last a while longer.

[Dragon Angel]

...God fuck. This world would be miraculously lucky to see another like him once more. Rest in peace, sir.

[wautd]

An icon

[Iroscato]

I’m not really one to get upset over the deaths of people I don’t know, but god fucking dammit. He was a childhood hero of mine due to his mind and resilience, and helped spark my interest in science to begin with. RIP to an immense and unique intellect and an extraordinary man.

[ray245]

He was alive and well at my uni just a few months before...

[The Infidel]

A great man outlived all expectations and changed the way we look at the world.
Fittingly, he died on pi day.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Well shit, this sucks. And I have several of his books too- I expect that Theory of Everything will air as a tribute.

[Eternal_Freedom]

A truly remarkable man. I was lucky enough to meet him at an event at the Science Museum in London a few years ago, he seemed...unbreakable I think is the word.

I think his greatest legacy, as far as I'm concerned, is proving that the disabled can still do amazing things. Rest in Peace Sir.

[U.P. Cinnabar]

We shall not see his like again. RIP.

[darth_timon]

A remarkable mind and a resilient soul. RIP.

[The Romulan Republic]

The world has lost one of its brightest minds, and a man truly remarkable both for his scientific brilliance, and his perseverance in the face of adversity. May he rest in peace, and may his work never be forgotten until the stars themselves go out.

God, yesterday was quite possibly the most hellish news day since November of 2016. And we've had some doozies.

[Numa]

So he will never win a Nobel Prize.

[LadyTevar]

So he will never win a Nobel Prize.

posthumously, like several others, maybe.

[Numa]

I thought it was against the rules to receive a Nobel Prize posthumously. Who has received one?

[Sea Skimmer]

The problem with Hawking vs a Noble prize is two sides of one coin. One, everyone was waiting to see if he did anything even greater then what he had already before giving him one. The other is that while a brilliant man, precisely because of how advanced the subjects were he worked on many of his theories are still rather unproven and impossible to quantify, which again, favors waiting, least he win a Nobel prize for something proven wrong later, he was never always right after all Nobody is. Sadly he was at the time of his death years into working on a new paper with another physicist I forget the name of to explain his information theory for black holes, and it may well be that this paper will now never be published. That was totally going to be the work he'd get the Nobel prize for if it had panned out. Part of the reason he was working closely with another person though was because his health hasn't been great for years. He was deliberately trying to pass on as much as he could while he had time.

Amazing man, a shame he's gone now, but we are talking about a guy who was supposed to die decades ago and just decided against that plan. He doesn't need a Nobel prize to be inspiring.

[SCRawl]

I thought it was against the rules to receive a Nobel Prize posthumously. Who has received one?

While not strictly true, it is effectively true. No one who is deceased can be named the winner, as it's against the rules of the prize. It used to be that if you were nominated before your demise, you could still be considered and (eventually) awarded the prize, but the rules were changed in 1974 to permit deceased persons to receive the award only if they expired after the announcement but before the actual ceremony.

So no Nobel for Professor Hawking, for this and all the reasons Sea Skimmer laid out.

[Numa]

Yes, a great man.

[CetaMan]

Considering that his projected lifespan was when he got diagnosed, he was absolutely amazing.

May you rest in peace Hawking. We won't forget you.

[Eternal_Freedom]

A random piece of trivia,but worth noting among his accolades. He's the only person to play himself on Star Trek (TNG's Descent, Part 1).

[Imperial528]

My favorite anecdote about him was from the filming of that episode. Naturally they gave him a tour of the set, and when they showed him the engineering area, he looked at the warp core and said "I'm working on that"

I'd hoped he'd live to see such a breakthrough, or a confirmation of hawking radiation. Though from what works of his I have read and the writings of those who knew him, he seemed perfectly content with the theoretical nature of his work and confident it would be proven with evidence as it was with math.

He lived so long for someone of his condition, yet as with so many, it always feels like the loss came too soon.

[Soontir C'boath]

Death is only the beginner for others to take his place in the limelight of the laboratory.

[Sea Skimmer]

Death is only the beginner for others to take his place in the limelight of the laboratory.

Yes, and hopefully they'll be as capable of humor as Hawking was in public.

But it is also reality that with each genius who passes it becomes a little bit harder for someone else to take the place, because the problems we are trying to solve only get harder, and while humans are getting smarter and more numerous it's slow on that. The reality is we have no basis to believe or disbelieve that humans are actually capable of comprehending the universe, it might go either way. It might be that we'll need true AI linked to a human brain in combinations to do it as well, and that neither acting alone will ever achieve it for example. And that's leaving beside the question on if it's even possible to fully model the universe from within it's own existence or not.

I for one plan to live a long time to see how this pans out.