He said "I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark."
I read "A Brief History of Time." It was published almost 30 years ago. Time flies. Some of it was hard to understand, like the concept of imaginary time.
One of the greatest minds of his generation. I just hope he was wrong in the qoute shadowcat posted and that he is able to enjoy something beyond life and death.
He was a brilliant mind. I remember reading his book A Brief History of Time in elementary school. I thought it was great. Amusing to read he was a PL. RIP brother Hawking.
Apparently he had a sense of humor. Some years ago I attended a talk by Kip Thorne, himself a famous astrophysicist (one of the recipients of the 2017 Nobel prize). He told the following story. There is the possibility in black hole theory of something called a "naked singularity". At first Hawking didn't think this was possible while Thorne did and they arranged a friendly wager about who was right. After some years Hawking conceded that Thorne was right. As part of the payoff Hawking sent Thorne a tee shirt with a picture on it of a naked woman covering herself with a towel and a message saying something like "here is something to cover your nakedness".
He could use math to theorize in a singularity before the Big Bang but apparently never saw any unknown evidence he couldn't explain to believe in an afterlife it sounds like. He might be surprised if this life is more like a virtual reality world and he just woke up. RIP. I believe we have souls that get recycled and we keep coming back unless we get locked away in a prison afterlife because we were really bad. What I really wonder is if we get to choose what bodies we get reincarnated back into of if its random luck if we are male or female, etc. I was never taught this so I'm not sure why I believe it.
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