The final book from Stephen Hawking, the late cosmologist and theoretical physicist, was released Tuesday under the title “Brief Answers to the Big Questions.

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The celebrated physicist, who lived most of his life with the neurodegenerative disorder Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), was still working on the book when he died earlier this year in March. The publishers and his family, who filled the gaps by drawing on a massive personal archive of articles, interviews, and essays from Hawking’s 50-year-old career, completed the work.

Hawking’s new book is divided into ten chapters, each of which is posed as a question – Is there other intelligent life in the Universe? How did it all begin? What is inside a Black Hole? and is there a God?

Hawking’s answer to the God question – is a resounding NO – that’s the conclusion of the celebrated scientist.

He writes, ‘there is no God, no one directs the universe.’ Further, he writes, over the years, disabled people like him were living under a curse that was inflicted by God. However, he prefers to think the other way, by the laws of nature.

This sentiment, apropos, is far clearer than what he famously wrote in his 1988 bestseller – A Brief History of Time.

He touched upon the existence of alien life. He wrote, adding, there are forms of intelligent life out there and scientists need to be cautious of answering back until they have developed a bit further.

Moreover, Hawking also reasoned that traveling back in time can’t be ruled out, within the next hundred years humans will be able to travel anywhere in the solar system, and artificial intelligence will someday outsmart humans.

Although the physicist’s final book will not have a big impact in the scientific world, there is a good chance it will chord with a popular audience.

The greatest concern that Hawking had was ‘how divided we have become,’ said his daughter who answered the questions during an interview at the launch of Hawking’s final book.

 

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