A Brief History of Time Page #8

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the freedom...

to choose the laws

the universe obeyed.

This, however,

may not have been...

all that much of a choice.

There may well be

only one unified theory...

that allows for the existence

of structures...

as complicated

as human beings...

who can investigate

the laws of the universe...

and ask about the nature of God.

I don't know how clear-cut

these experiments are...

but there are experiments that have been

done on the timing of consciousness...

and they seem to lead

to a very odd picture...

which doesn't even quite

make consistent sense.

Whether refinement

of these experiments...

might get rid of this kind

of anomaly I'm not sure...

but it does look a little as though there

is something very odd about consciousness...

and somehow almost as though

the future affects the past in some way...

over a very tiny, limited scale,

but something maybe of the order...

of a reasonable

fraction of a second.

And there's no reason

to believe...

that one's

conscious experience...

shouldn't be part

of somebody else's...

at some other stage.

I don't know if it's fair to say

what happens after one dies...

but it's a plausible picture...

that you could be

somebody else...

and that somebody else could be somebody

that lived in the past, not in the future.

Even if there is only

one possible unified theory...

that is just a set

of rules and equations...

what is it that breathes fire

into the equations...

and makes a universe

for them to describe?

Why does the universe

go to all the bother of existing?

Is the unified theory

so compelling...

that it brings about

its own existence?

Or does it need a creator?

And, if so...

who created him?

I think I would say

that the universe has a purpose.

It's not somehow

just there by chance.

I think it's... Yeah.

So...

it's... it's...

Some people, I think, take the view

that the universe is just there...

and it sort of runs and runs,

and it just sort of computes...

and we happen somehow by accident

to find ourselves in this thing.

But I don't think

that's a very fruitful...

or helpful way

of looking at the universe.

I think that there is something

much deeper about it.

In real time,

the time in which we live...

the universe has

two possible destinies:

It may continue

to expand forever...

or it may recollapse

and come to an end...

at the Big Crunch.

It would be rather like

the Big Bang...

but in reverse.

I now believe that the universe

will come to an end...

at the Big Crunch.

I do, however,

have certain advantages...

over many other

prophets of doom.

Whatever happens

ten billion years from now...

I don't expect to be around

to be proved wrong.

Of all the pictures

that I know...

the simplest of any cosmology...

is that in which

the universe is closed...

has a finite lifetime...

and collapses

with the same kind of collapse...

that a black hole does.

If it should turn out

that indeed...

the universe

is limited in its life...

how is that different

from the life...

of each one of us?

On the evening

of Tuesday, March 5th...

at about 10:
45...

I was returning

to my flat in Pinehurst.

It was dark and raining.

I came up to Grange Road...

and saw

headlights approaching...

but judged that they were

far enough away...

that I could cross safely.

The vehicle must have been

traveling very fast...

for when I got just past

the middle of the road...

my nurse screamed, "Look out!"

I heard tires skidding...

and my wheelchair was struck

a tremendous blow in the back.

I ended up in the road...

with my legs over the remains

of the wheelchair.

The accident destroyed

my wheelchair...

and damaged

my computer system...

with which I communicate.

I required 13 stitches

in my head...

but I was able to go back to work

several days later.

The memories I have

are very much...

kind of...

visual pictures

of what Stephen was...

of seeing Stephen

in certain situations.

He was always moving.

Always.

Well, hardly ever still.

It was the same thing

about his face and gesture...

which he used a great deal,

I should say...

but it's only memory.

I found some photographs

recently...

which reminded me

of the general look of everybody...

and I must say Stephen looked

very much like he does now...

if one thinks of him like that.

He does believe

very intensely...

in the almost infinite

possibility of the human mind.

You have to find out

what you can't know...

before you know you can't,

don't you?

So I don't think that thought

should be restricted at all.

Why shouldn't you go on

thinking about the unthinkable?

Somebody's

got to start sometime.

Think how many things

were unthinkable a century ago...

and yet people

have thought them.

And often they also seemed

quite unpractical.

Not all the things

Stephen says probably...

are to be taken as gospel truth.

He's a searcher.

He's looking for things.

And sometimes he probably

talks nonsense. Well, don't we all?

But the point is...

people must think.

People must go on thinking.

They must try to extend

the boundaries of knowledge...

and they don't sometimes

even know where to start.

You don't know where

the boundaries are, do you?

You don't know what

your taking-off point is.

If we do discover

a complete theory of the universe...

it should in time

be understandable...

in broad principle

by everyone...

not just a few scientists.

Then we shall all...

philosophers, scientists,

and just ordinary people...

be able to take part

in the discussion of why it is...

that we and the universe exist.

If we find the answer to that...

it would be

the ultimate triumph...

of human reason...

for then we would know...

the mind of God.

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