- In a studio setting, Stephen Hawking, Arthur C. Clarke and Carl Sagan (who joins them via satellite) discuss the Big Bang theory, God, our existence as well as the possibility of extraterrestrial life.
- Unified theory by Stephen Hawking. Carl Sagan & Arthur Clark join him for a discussion. Hawking explains to the world how the Universe began with the Big Bang and is now seeking an ultimate theory to explain how it works. Carl Edward Sagan was an American astronomer and science communicator. His best-known scientific contribution is his research on the possibility of extraterrestrial life, including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by radiation. Sir Arthur Charles Clarke CBE FRAS was an English science fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, widely regarded as one of the most influential films of all time.
In 1988, Hawking was confident that humanity would find the Unified theory by the end of the century. Since galaxies move away from each other, it means they were closer together at some point. 15 billion years ago, the galaxies were to top of each other. Time itself began at the big bang. Events before the big bang do not affect the current Universe. At the Big Bang, the Universe inflated by billions of percent within a fraction of a second. The gravitational energy in the big bang created matter.
Big bang universe only had basic elements. Current universe evolved from that single event. Where did the matter come from before big bang is unimaginable. The Universe continues to expand. It is not clear if the Universe has enough matter to hold itself together and eventually the expanding Universe to be followed by a collapsing Universe. Or if the Universe continues to expand endlessly. Hubble Space Telescope is expected to be launched the following year. Arthur Clark believes that in time the humans will have to colonize the Solar System and then the Galaxy. But if the expansion of the Universe is fast enough, the humans will never reach anywhere else.
4th dimension of imaginary time that closes in on itself, with no beginning or end. But this does not mean that people will be able to travel back in time. Arthur Clark shows the infinitesimal beauty of the Mandelbrot set. It is an example of a fractal in mathematics. It is named after Benoît Mandelbrot, a Polish-French-American mathematician. The Mandelbrot set is important for chaos theory. A magnification of the visual representation of the set looks like a black hole.
The real Universe is not infinitely complex, there seems to be a finite limit to its complexity, but we are unable to capture it in a mathematics equation yet. The limitation is determined by the Plank length, beyond which matter cannot exit in physical form. It is not clear if black hole can be portals to other parts of the same Universe. There is no way to chose where you end up, and you are squished into nothingness by gravity before you emerged from the other end.
Hawking doesn't want contact with ET, but Sagan doesn't think we have a choice as radio waves already leak from Earth. So, we are better off being proactive about SETI. The public perception of aliens has changed. It used to be hostile earlier, but the view has changed that aliens are more benign now. Any hostile civilization would have self-destructed. If time travel was possible, people would have already visited us from the future.
Humans will colonize space someday. We landed on the moon in 1969 but stopped there. We ended up militarizing the planet instead. Countries need to collaborate for space exploration. Mars is a good candidate for the first planet in the solar system to be populated. There was water in Mars, and the possibilities are endless. Humans will evolve as they colonize other planets.
God doesn't interfere will the laws of physics. All observations of science suggests that the laws of Physics are obeyed, once they are set. However, the laws broke down at Big Bang, which means God had complete freedom to decide how the Universe began.
If God does not interfere in the Universe, then what does it mean about religion. Sagan says that God can be the sum total of all the laws of the Universe. The Church has also become much more liberal to accommodate the views of science to explain the mysteries of God. Creativity cannot be "guided". Creativity and genius can come from anyone and anywhere.
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