Stephen Hawking has died, age 76

[Ike Savage]

I can't even put in to words how much he meant to me, our culture, our civilisation, and probably our whole era. And that's not even getting in to the math, physics, cosmology and so forth... stuff which is generally way over my head.


*Anyway yeah, pardon me while I bury my face in the nearest soft pillow for... a while*

[nicosutherland]

You are right. The whole era of science has ended. He was one of the greatest and brightest minds of this century. I remember myself when I was a student. I was inspired by black holes theory and other his works.
RIP Stephen Hawking...
May the stars you loved so much will be your home...

[Ike Savage]

Dunno about the whole era of science ending (!), but it's certainly a hard loss for those left behind.

Probably the most interesting theory of his that I vaguely understood is Hawking Radiation-- the idea that black holes slowly reciprocate (i.e. emit) the energy / matter they've previously consumed. This seems to mean that the eventual heat-death of the universe will one day lead to a completely uniform, motionless state. Because without Hawking Radiation, there'd still be pesky black holes scattered around like Nibbler's poop. (Futurama reference)

Of course, the impending Big Rip (look it up on WP) might render all of that... academic.

[Sleepy's Sister]

When I heard the news today, I couldn't help but think about Hawking's zero gravity flight in 2007. Hawking said of the flight: "For me, this was true freedom. People who know me well say that my smile was the biggest they'd ever seen. I was Superman for those few minutes." Fly forever free, Superman!