Stephen Hawking’s final work, which tackles issues from the existence of God to the potential for time travel, was launched on Monday by his children, who helped complete the book after the British astrophysics giant’s death.
Hawking was forever being asked the same things and started work on Brief Answers to the Big Questions last year — but did not finish it before he died in March, aged 76. It has been completed by the theoretical physicist’s family and academic colleagues, with material drawn from his vast personal archive.
“He was regularly asked a set of questions,” his daughter Lucy Hawking said at the Science Museum in London. The book was an attempt to “bring together the most definitive, clearest, most authentic answers that he gave.”
Photo: AFP
照片：法新社
Hawking, who was wheelchair bound due to motor neurone disease, dedicated his life’s work to unravelling the mysteries of the universe. The cosmologist was propelled to stardom by his 1988 book A Brief History of Time, an unlikely worldwide bestseller. It won over fans from far beyond the rarefied world of astrophysics and prompted people into asking the mastermind his thoughts on broader topics, answered in his final work.
The 10 questions Hawking tackles are: “Is there a God?”; “How did it all begin?”; “What is inside a black hole?”; “Can we predict the future?”; “Is time travel possible?”; “Will we survive on Earth?”; “Is there other intelligent life in the universe?”; “Should we colonize space?”; “Will artificial intelligence outsmart us?” and “How do we shape the future?”
In his book, Hawking says humans have no option but to leave Earth, risking being “annihilated” if they do not. He says computers will overtake humans in intelligence during the next 100 years, but “we will need to ensure that the computers have goals aligned with ours.”
Hawking says the human race had to improve its mental and physical qualities, but a genetically-modified race of superhumans, say with greater memory and disease resistance, would imperil the others. He says that by the time people realize what is happening with climate change, it may be too late.
Hawking says the simplest explanation is that God does not exist and there is no reliable evidence for an afterlife, though people could live on through their influence and genes. He says that in the next 50 years, we will come to understand how life began and possibly discover whether life exists elsewhere in the universe.
“He was deeply worried that at a time when the challenges are global, we were becoming increasingly local in our thinking,” Lucy Hawking said. “It’s a call to unity, to humanity, to bring ourselves back together and really face up to the challenges in front of us.”
In his final academic paper, Hawking shed new light on black holes and the information paradox, with new work calculating the entropy of black holes.
(AFP)
英國天文物理學巨擘史蒂芬·霍金的最後遺作，在週一由協助完成此書的子女們公開發表，書中探討上帝存在與否和時間旅行的可能性等議題。
霍金生前不斷被問到相同的問題，遂在去年開始動筆，寫下《大問小答》（暫譯）一書，卻來不及完成就在今年三月溘然長逝，享壽七十六歲。該書後來由這位理論物理學家的家人與學術界同僚協力完成，其中包含來自他個人龐大檔案庫的資料。
女兒露西‧霍金在倫敦科學博物館表示：「霍金生前經常被問到一組問題」，而這本書就是嘗試「將他所給出最具決定性、最清晰、最真實的答案整合在一起。」
因罹患運動神經元疾病而使行動受輪椅所限的霍金，將畢生志業致力於解開宇宙的多項謎團。一九八八年出版的《時間簡史》看起來並不像是全球暢銷書，卻把這位宇宙學家推升到明星般的地位。該書贏得書迷愛戴，遠遠超過天文物理學的專業領域，並促使人們詢問這位智多星對於多個廣泛主題的個人看法，這些都在他的最後著作中獲得解答。
霍金探討的十個問題是：「上帝是否存在？」、「這一切是如何開始的？」、「黑洞裡面有什麼？」、「我們能否預測未來？」、「時間旅行是否可能？」、「我們能否在地球上生存？」、「宇宙中是否還有其他智慧生命？」、「我們是否應該殖民太空？」、「人工智慧是否會超越我們？」，以及「我們該如何形塑未來？」。
在書中，霍金認為人類別無選擇，只能離開地球，否則將面臨遭到「殲滅」的風險。他也表示電腦的智能將在未來一百年內超越人類，但是「我們必須確保電腦的目標與人類維持一致。」
霍金指出，人類必須增強心理與生理素質，但「超級人類」這類基因改造的人種，如果具備更強的記憶力與疾病抵抗力，有可能嚴重威脅其他一般人類。他也表示，當人類真正理解氣候變遷的發生時，可能已經太遲了。
霍金表示，簡而言之上帝並不存在，也沒有可靠證據顯示有來世。不過，人類仍然能夠藉由影響力和基因延續生命。他認為，我們在未來的五十年內將能逐步了解生命如何開始，也可能發現宇宙其他地方是否也有生命存在。
露西‧霍金說：「他深深地擔心在諸多挑戰成為全球性問題的同時，我們的思維卻變得愈來愈狹隘。」這本書在「呼籲人類團結、展現人性，將我們重新聚在一起，坦然面對面前的挑戰。」
在生前最後一篇學術論文中，霍金對黑洞和「資訊悖論」提出新的闡述與見解，並進行新的研究，計算黑洞的熱力學參數「熵」。
（台北時報章厚明譯）
A: China’s animated blockbuster “Ne Zha 2” also smashed a box office record recently. B: It’s No. 7 among the world’s best-selling films, grossing more than US$2 billion globally. A: I t has even become the world’s highest-grossing animated film, while the political metaphors in it are causing controversy. B: But who is Ne Zha anyway? A: Ne Zha, often spelled as “Nezha,” is actually a mythical teenage deity with superpowers. A: 中國動畫片《哪吒2》最近也打破紀錄。 B: 該片已衝上影史票房排行榜第7名，全球狂賣超過20億美元。 A: 聽說它甚至是全球最賣座的動畫片，影片中的政治隱喻卻引爆爭議！ B: 但哪吒是誰？ A: 哪吒的名字常被拼成「Nezha」，是神話中具有超能力的青少年神明。
You enter an old-fashioned detective’s office. The door locks with a click as a radio buzzes: “Rookie detectives, a priceless diamond is missing! Solve the case in one hour.” The room is filled with clues — photographs, coded messages and secret compartments. As the grandfather clock ticks, you and your friends must work to unlock the secrets. This is what escape rooms are all about — immersive adventure games where you solve puzzles and escape the themed setting within a time limit. The concept of “escape rooms” dates back to early first-person video games. In 1988, John Wilson introduced
People desire a sense of purpose in their lives, but they often remain idle unless they have a clear reason to act. This concept is illustrated by the retirement paradox. People work hard to prepare for a future without work but find life meaningless after achieving that goal. A study was carried out to determine if a reason, even a minor one, could encourage idle people to take action. __1__ Upon finishing the first, they were instructed to drop it off at a location either right outside the room or at a spot farther away, which would take around
A: Were there any highlights at the Oscars this year? B: With 13 nods, French director Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez” broke the record for most Oscar nominations earned by a non-English film. A: Wow, it broke the record of 10 Oscar nominations set by Taiwanese director Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” B: On the eve of the Oscars, Lee was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Awards. A: It seems that Hollywood has finally become more diverse. A: 今年的奧斯卡獎有什麼亮點嗎？ B: 法國導演賈克歐迪亞的《璀璨女人夢》榮獲13項提名，打破了非英語片紀錄！ A: 哇打破了台灣導演李安的《臥虎藏龍》10項提名紀錄。 B: 李安則在奧斯卡前夕，獲頒美國導演工會「終身成就獎」。 A: 看來好萊塢終於比較多元化啦。 (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times／台北時報張迪)
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