The United Kingdom — Stephen Hawking has stopped looking at the space, to focus his attention on Earth, especially in political matters. The theoretical physicist said that an exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union would menace the survival of humans.
Hawking wrote in the Guardian that “if we wish to understand the fundamental nature of the universe, we’d be very foolish to ignore the role that wealth does and doesn’t play in our society.” For the physicist, humanity is facing several important issues, such as overpopulation, climate change, and epidemic diseases. These obstacles are common to all humans, which mean they need global cooperation to be defeated.
The theoretical physicist claimed that humans would need to change its premises concerning wealth. This is where the Brexit election and the survival of humanity meet. Brexit means for Hawking a victory of “envy” and “isolationism.”
If humanity needs to collaborate, it does not need nationalism or seclusion. In this sense, political and economic unions like the European Union help create a shared ‘human’ vision. The election was also driven by the idea of ‘money’. Hawking claimed the motivation behind the Brexit was the idea of not sharing Britain’s wealth.
If humanity does not correct these issues, especially the fact that cultures are driven “by a narrow definition of wealth and a failure to divide it more fairly”, then Hawking would not “be optimistic about the long-term outlook for our species”.
Controversial declarations
Hawking is known for its controversial statements. In 2014, during an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, the theoretical physicist stated that Earth was just a scientific phenomenon, not related to anything supernatural, including God.
For him, ‘God’ was only necessary when humans did not have the concept of ‘science’ and both are mutually exclusive. At the end of 2014, Hawking also stated that artificial intelligence was a threat to human survival.
His preoccupations include the fact that machines could ‘re-design’ themselves at a quick speed, while humans are bound by biological evolution, which means artificial intelligence could surpass the knowledge of man. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, backs up Hawking claims. He describes Artificial Intelligence as the “biggest existential threat.”
A brilliant mind
Stephen Hawking is a theoretical physicist and a cosmologist, Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge.
Hawking is praised for his work on black holes and quantum mechanics. The physicist currently faces rare form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis that has slowly paralyzed him.
He moves using a very advanced wheelchair and speaks through a computer. Hawking used to control his movements and voice through his remaining working hand, but it has also become paralyzed. As of 2005, he uses his cheek muscles but is fearing locked-in syndrome, a condition that only allows patients to move their eyes.
Hawking is currently working on facial recognition technology and hopes to be able to use his brain patterns to keep moving his wheelchair and his speech synthesizer in the future.
Source: Deccan Chronicle