MovieChat Forums > Stephen Hawking Discussion > How significant was this guy REALLY?

How significant was this guy REALLY?

posted 7 years ago by Duck6 (425)
11 replies | jump to latest

His biggest claim to fame was that he said black holes emit radiation, and he named it after himself. And he wrote a dummy's guide to blackholes. He is claimed to be the first to attempt to unify general relativity and quantum mechanics, which by the way still isn't even close to being resolved...and probably never will be. There is no friggin way in 2018, with huge hadron colliders and the amount of money and brains being pumped into this research that a unified theory wouldn't have already been discovered if there was one. Finally, he said that galaxies are formed by "quantum fluctuations", a total cop-out explanation that any crackpot could have come up with.

These days theoretical physics is more of a business model than anything, a whole lot of over-educated grant-begging nerds with no hope of ever discovering anything since all theories of the modern world will be discovered with supercomputer modeling rather than human minds. This guy was just an advertisement for this business.

[–] Frogarama (12942) 7 years ago

no friggin way... that a unified theory wouldn't have already been discovered if there was one

That portion right there is proof that you have no clue what you're talking about, and that your scientific literacy is pretty basic. I'm pretty well versed, but can't comprehend the math behind higher physics... but your statement makes me feel like a physics professor.

[–] Duck6 (425) 7 years ago

I can comprehend the math behind higher physics and I can guarantee you that any attempts at unification are well beyong the scope of any human. You'd have to be some kind of ignoramus to think that we haven't already explored every facet of the theoretical realm. All that's left are engineering challenges. Theoretical physics is a joke now, the best we can hope for is that a supercomputer increases the probability sigma accuracy of quantum particle frequencies so that some nerd can get a prize. Look forward to another 10 years of Neil Degrasse Tyson talking about quantum entanglement and actually acheiving nothing.

[–] Frogarama (12942) 7 years ago

What we can hope for is to get most of the research off the Earth, that's the next major step in theoretical physics and it will change a lot.

It's not all just equations yet, clearly. Whoever can properly model and then prove the actual mechanics behind gravity will revolutionize physics permanently. That is still a major roadblock.

"You'd have to be some kind of ignoramus to think that we haven't already explored every facet of the theoretical realm."

El oh el. What a maroon.

[–] Duck6 (425) 7 years ago

Since gravity is currently the most highly focused point of research and still hasn't really been explained beyond being an emergant force with negligable measurable effect, you can only sanely conclude that it is beyond our ability to explain effectively. Unless you think that the millions of people trying to figure it out just haven't found the hidden variable, in which case you're just gullible.

[–] Moonglum9 (11320) 4 years ago

Alls I know is that a Grand Unifying Theory will involve rockets, martians, electric doodads and some other future stuff. Sorry to get so technical, but there is just no way for me to dumb down the explanation.

[–] kellycallie (728) 6 years ago

He wasn't that unique to any other person in his field. Most of what he said were just postulations and estimations. What made him ''famous'' was his severe disability. Here we have a person who still wants to work in the field of physics with an incredibly severe illness/disability so a lot of people listened into him. I think people felt ''inspired'' by Stephen even though his theories were never proven or not that different from other Professors.

Personal confession, I used to laugh at him as a kid but when he came to my home town to work at the University of Waterloo Ontario in a temporary position I saw his picture in the paper and never felt so sorry for another person. He was absolutely pathetic looking, totally deformed and decrepit looking from his terrible illness. He was sch a poor soul. I don't know how he lived so long (even though no one knew exactly what he had for sure it still seemed to be some type of MND).

[–] degree7 (821) 5 years ago

Not quite as pathetic looking as you, you poor, deformed, decrepit soul.

[–] liscarkat (18910) 2 years ago

If he hadn't been crippled and pathetic looking he would've been just another physicist that nobody outside the field ever heard of.

[–] beavis (3249) 2 years ago

Well if you could imagine that computer and todays mechanical philsophy came from minds like him you could respect it more. Everything we use came from quantum physics and calculus.
It’s bold to have a theory of everything in a mechanical universe.

[–] mikethemartian (6872) 2 years ago

You don’t hold the “Lucasian Professor of Mathematics” chair just because you are popular. This is a seat once held by Sir Isaac Newton.

[–] liscarkat (18910) a year ago

If he had been an ordinary looking guy who walked around and talked like other ordinary looking guys, we probably never would have heard of him. There are a lot of brilliant physicists, astronomers, and mathematicians whose names the public will never be aware of.