Stephen Hawking Is "Very Ill" In Hospital

C S Miller writes "Not much more to add. The BBC is reporting that 'Stephen Hawking is "very ill" in hospital.' He has had a few health scares before, and as a post-graduate he was told he didn't have much longer to live; he's now 67."

Comments

Oh dear

[chunk08]

I do hope he pulls through, he is an amazing man.

Re:Oh dear

[Anonymous Coward]

I didn't know Jack Chick was a reader here at Slashdot.

Re:Oh dear

[JohaunaRei]

I to hope he pulls through also. This is one that I hope has no funny posts.

Re:Oh dear

[fewnorms]

Stephen Hawking is one of the greatest minds of the 20th century. The guy has achieved more than almost anyone on the planet, and all that while being completely wheelchair bound and having a speech impediment. Most fully healthy and able-bodied people can't even remotely come close to his intellect and insights.
It'll be a shame if this turns out to be his last hospital visit, but if it is, he knows his name will be remembered for a long, long time to come.
Good luck, mr. Hawking. I do hope you pull through once again.

Re:Oh dear

[Hogwash McFly]

I am Jack's medulla oblongata.

Re:Oh dear

[Anonymous Coward]

Please submit all patches in unified diff format, with all paths listed from the project root.

Re:Oh dear

[neokushan]

Lets see, who would I rather listen to - a self-righteous imbecile who apparently feels the need to post anonymously, despite being so sure of themselves, or a man who was bound to a wheelchair most of his life, can't speak without the help of a computer and despite being told he only had a couple of years to live, managed to do more in a few years than 99.99% of other human beings on the planet have ever accomplished in their entire lives?
A man that, when faced with quite possibly one of the worst things that could ever happen to single human being, didn't give up. I respect this man more than any other human being that has ever lived. Even without his genius, he is a role model for us all, he is living proof that no matter how bad things may seem, your life need never be over.

I know I'm not supposed to feed the trolls, but this is something I feel so strongly about, I had to say something. Stephen Hawking is a great man, easily one of the greatest people alive today.

Re:Oh dear

[WillKemp]

God is not going to ask Stephen Hawking what his GPA was, or how many department chairs he has held, or how many papers he has published.

Too right, it's not. It ain't going to ask him anything. Sorry to have to tell you this, but your invisible friend is just a figment of your imagination!

Re:Oh dear

[Gerzel]

Indeed. It does not matter how the man lived his life.

How many people he helped.
How far he helped advanced human society.
How many he inspired.
How selfless he was or was not.

What matters is if he asked forgiveness of the correct God in the right way. All that matters is the paperwork!

If the above were true then the rest would be burning on the side of Right.

Re:Oh dear

[gnarlin]

Also, the tooth fairy isn't real. Sorry :-/
However! Don't you DARE insinuate that the holiest of holies, Santa Claus, is just a children's story! Your feeble words will only make my faith in dear Santa stronger! Evidence smevidence!

Re:Oh dear

[Headcase88]

You can't prove it is, so it's not.

Or is that you can't prove it's not, so it is?

Agh. This is why I don't like religion and conspiracy debates.

Re:Oh dear

[Headcase88]

Even most believers in God would agree. Why ask anything when you're omnipotent? (Except to pour salt on the wound, but that's just mean).

Re:Oh dear

[phantomfive]

lol if you believe that you have no concept of kindness, justice, or love. (if God is truly like that then I will go to hell before serving him, where at least I will maintain a shred of dignity). This is where so many christians get off....what kind of bizarre test is it where you just have to accept someone, who you may or may not have even heard of? It's not even accurate according to the bible, the only reason Christ wants you to accept him is so he can teach you to be happy and good. He doesn't actually ever say "accept me" he says "follow me." Accepting him won't do much good if you don't follow him; following him will get you everywhere, even if you don't get his name exactly right.

And agreed with the other poster: stand up for your opinions, none of this anonymous garbage.

Re:Oh dear

[Anonymusing]

Ironically, if Hawking helped people, advanced humanity, inspired others to great things, and was deeply selfless... he may actually be far closer to God than most Christians.

Re:Oh dear

[femtobyte]

Perhaps one can look at this in a more positive sense?

Though I'm no scientist like Newton or Hawking,
or a great advancer of society like Gandhi or M.L. King,
indeed, I'm a miserable failure when compared against the highest standards of humanity, and infinitely more so when judged against the perfect standards of God,

the Good News is that even I can receive all the greatest benefits of eternal life through grace, rather than the consignment to nothingness that I deserve by my own efforts.

Re:Oh dear

[neomunk]

I hate to link to another post of mine in another thread, but I think it's appropriate here. I very much DO believe in intangible, imaginary friends, and frankly find myself MORE enlightened for trusting in my Gods to deliver me to the truth.

Some people call me wacko for that, but those people also invariably bask in the works my Gods have allowed to be through Their Divine Influence. Personally, I find it hypocritical, but not blasphemous. I would guess that blasphemy is hard to actually pull off in my religion, but I think it could be possible, if you try hard enough.

Hey, I'm just sayin, it's not as crazy as it sounds, when it's obviously true.

Re:Oh dear

[ShawnCplus]

s/satan/santa/ There, I'm saved

Re:Oh dear

[tempest69]

I hope he pulls through too. Because if he dies he will do so without being having accepted his gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. God is not going to ask Stephen Hawking what his GPA was, or how many department chairs he has held, or how many papers he has published. No, there is only one question that Mr. Hawking will be asked... Did you believe upon my Son for the forgiveness of your sins?

ok.. Any intelligence which is that conceited, petty and needy has no buisness being worshipped. Actually such an intelligence wouldnt even have my respect.

Storm

Re:Oh dear

[Amazing Quantum Man]

You're right. The FSM isn't going to ask Hawking anything! He'll just touch Hawking with His Noodly Appendage!

Re:Oh dear

[vlm]

His most fawning worshipful descriptions such as:

Stephen Hawking is one of the greatest minds of the 20th century. The guy has achieved more than almost anyone on the planet

Primarily seem to be a direct result, and inseparable from :

being completely wheelchair bound and having a speech impediment

It is disrespectful toward him, for people whom don't know anything about physics, to brown nose all over the guy, just because he's handicapped. Note, I'm not saying he's a loser, its not a binary this or that response. It is more respectful of his considerable intellectual achievements to describe him as definitely well above average in his profession, rather than a polite version of condescendingly fawning over every little little achievement of a sick child.

For example, in my opinion Asimov beats him in popular science writing, Feynman beats him in actual physics and also general writing. Not coming in first or second place doesn't make him a moron, it just makes him not first or second place. Just not the greatest mind of the century, just not the greatest achievement on the planet. Still cool mind you, just not the greatest.

He is fairly comparable to Edward Belbruno, the genius inventor of low energy orbital transfers, in that both broke new ground in a very specialized area of study where they got very surprising, paradigm changing results, and wrote reasonably decent books about it. Note, you've never heard of Belbruno because he physically normal, as far as I know.

It's more respectful to declare him a very significant figure in early black hole physics and a decent writer and stop at that point, than to focus on his handicap while worshiping his achievements in a pandering manner.

Re:Oh dear

[Firethorn]

It is disrespectful toward him, for people whom don't know anything about physics, to brown nose all over the guy, just because he's handicapped. Note, I'm not saying he's a loser, its not a binary this or that response. It is more respectful of his considerable intellectual achievements to describe him as definitely well above average in his profession, rather than a polite version of condescendingly fawning over every little little achievement of a sick child.

I'm going to butt in here and point out that Hawking's achievements were beginning to be known even as a post-grad, when his illness was [i]first diagnosed[/i]. At this point he's been restricted to a wheelchair for most of his life, but he was more or less normal for his first 20 or so years, physically. He was even on the rowing team IIRC.

Now, I don't know if his illness increased his focus and productivity in the realms of theoretical physics or not, other than to note that if he'd been whole in body he'd have a far easier time outputting his ideas, researching, etc... Not to mention possibly having an extra 30 or so years of him. His lack of mobility has likely led to certain health issues that will take him from us early.

Re:Oh dear

[Twinbee]

I used to be a 'Christian' too until I realized how cruel and plain unfair hell would be for even the worst person that ever existed.

Re:Oh dear

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

the Good News is that even I can receive all the greatest benefits of eternal life through grace, rather than the consignment to nothingness that I deserve by my own efforts.

Wow. That is a compelling excuse for slacking off you've got there.

Re:Oh dear

[The Moof]

Implying that Stephen Hawking is going to Hell is not malicious?
Did I miss the memo where we changed the definition of 'malicious?'

Re:Oh dear

[MightyMartian]

That doesn't appear to be Jesus. It reads more like a C'thulu cult site.

Re:Oh dear

[VJ42]

"Should've" = "Should have".

Periods and commas always go inside quotation marks, even inside single quotes.

That depends which country you're from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quotation_mark#Punctuation

Re:Oh dear

[Temujin_12]

I hope he pulls through too. Because if he dies he will do so without being having accepted his gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. God is not going to ask Stephen Hawking what his GPA was, or how many department chairs he has held, or how many papers he has published. No, there is only one question that Mr. Hawking will be asked... Did you believe upon my Son for the forgiveness of your sins?

I'll chime in on this, because as a Christian it kills me to see this pre-school level understanding of Christianity repeated.

To make it simple here's the basic axioms of Christianity:
1. God is real and is perfect
2. Anyone who wants to return to Him must be perfect
3. Nobody is perfect (enter the paradox)
4. Christ willingly takes upon Himself the imperfections (sins) of the world.
5. Then as the creditor, He, and He alone, has the authority to redefine the terms of returning to God

The problem arises when Christians think they themselves are able to define the terms of returning to God, which when you think of it could be considered blasphemous at the highest level because one must arrogate themselves above Christ to think that they have the authority to do so.

This is done often by misinformed Christians when referring to atheists, non-believers, other Christian sects, and even people with whom they don't agree with within their own faith--and generally is indicative of a very immature understanding of the Christian faith. I've encountered this myself as I've heard people tell me whether I'm a Christian based on definitions varying from "anyone who follows Christ" to "anyone who goes to my Bible study group on Thursdays." It's a version of the "no true Scotsman" fallacy.

Continuing from #5 above:

6. A significant portion of God's children never heard of Christ or otherwise lacked the opportunity to accept Him by no fault of their own, and thus could not be condemned by a perfect God for reasons beyond their control (note that "opportunity" is defined loosely here since it is different for everyone)

Christians who stopped at #5 above and simply proceeded to try to define the terms of salvation on their own won't even get to this step since they're too busy trying to pretend they're qualified to judge those around them (which, by the way, is explicitly forbidden in Christianity).

There are several different ways different Christian sects try to solve the paradox contained in #6. Rather than dive too much deeper I'll just say that Christ Himself gave a clue to this in His parable of the sheep and goats in Matthew (go look it up). Summarizing, it basically teaches that those who concerned themselves with helping the homeless, poor, sick, widowed and otherwise less fortunate are those who He will allow back into God's presence regardless of any amount of lip service given.

So if, God forbid, Dr. Hawking dies now, will he be saved? I don't know, and I can firmly say that neither does anyone else on this planet. So, I'd say the best thing we can do is appreciate all the good he did and hope/pray we can enjoy his presence longer. And if not, take all of the good Dr. Hawking brought to the scientific community and mankind in general.

Re:Oh dear

[inasity_rules]

Why are you blaming God for what people do in his name? I've seen people do some pretty messed up stuff in the name of money. Does that make all money evil? Or maybe we should hold people responsible for their actions, not God, whether or not you believe in him.

Religion gives people power just like politics. Are you really so surprised that people at times abuse power? Get some perspective please before you start spewing hate like that. Oh, wait. This is slashdot. Never-mind. Carry On.

Re:Oh dear

[anothy]

in the movie A Brief History of Time the argument is made that his disability forced him to construct new mental models to work through ideas, and that those new models enabled him to see things others hadn't. there's a reasonable case to be made that he's done as much brilliant work as he has because of, not in spite of, his physical impairment.

Re:Oh dear

[JonathanBoyd]

There's no paradox. 2 and 3 form a problem for mankind, which is rather different to a paradox - a problem that is solved by 4.

As for the terms of 5, they are very clearly defined by God in Scripture as being faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Additionally, the book of Romans is very clear that no-one is without excuse because God's existence is clear from nature, but denied by us because of our sinful nature, which goes against the problem you claim in 6. See Romans 10:9-17 for example - the problem of people not being able to believe if they haven't heard is brought up here and the solution is not for God to simply let them off the hook, but for messengers to be sent.

Also, you've missed the audience of the sheep and the goats. It's aimed at people who claim to have faith in Christ, not people who claim they're going to heaven. Helping people verifies that faith is genuine, it isn't the thing that saves i.e. helping people without faith doesn't get you saved, claiming to have faith without helping people shows your faith is false, but claiming to have faith and doing these things shows it to be true faith. This is somewhat similar to the teaching in the book of James.

If Dr. Hawking is to be saved, which I hope he will be, God has made it abundantly clear that he must trust in Jesus Christ, just like anyone else.

Re:Oh dear

[Penguinshit]

Stephen Hawking is a major reason that I am alive today. When I was diagnosed in 2005, my first thought was "if Professor Hawking can do it so can I". It's the only ground where we are equal so I'm going for it (although I've pulled into a 12' barrel over a reef in Fiji and I don't think the Professor ever imagined doing that ).

Re:Oh dear

[atraintocry]

Sort of sounds like Plato's forms. Ideas and pure concepts are the most real things, physical instances are just crude copies.

Funnily enough, Plato's evidence for the forms is very similar to Anselm's attempt to prove God's existence. Perhaps because Anselm's version of God (at least for the purposes of his argument) basically resembled the mother of all Forms.

I doubt Plato considered the forms to be his friends though, being a grown man and all.

Re:Oh dear

[atraintocry]

If your linking of self-reference and consciousness wasn't inspired by Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid , then I'd advise you to read that book as soon as possible, as that's pretty much its main thesis.

Re:Oh dear

[femtobyte]

Parent is modded funny, but this is actually a serious and frequently made argument both outside and inside of Christianity. Many Christian denominations --- most notably, Roman Catholicism --- hold that doing a sufficient amount of good works is a necessary prerequisite for salvation, and worry that if salvation is assured by grace and faith alone, then good works will languish.

The response to this, ever since the Reformation and the split of Lutheranism from Roman Catholicism over this very issue, is that we can trust God that good works will not languish. Rather, that one who accepts the Good News promise of salvation will be all the more driven, out of response to God's love and through the working of the spirit, to strive to be the servant of all, loving others as God first loved them. Thus good works still happen, though as the result and response rather than the cause of God's love for us.

Re:Oh dear

[syousef]

Though I'm no scientist like Newton or Hawking,
or a great advancer of society like Gandhi or M.L. King,
indeed, I'm a miserable failure when compared against the highest standards of humanity, and infinitely more so when judged against the perfect standards of God,

the Good News is that even I can receive all the greatest benefits of eternal life through grace, rather than the consignment to nothingness that I deserve by my own efforts.

Thank you for demonstrating one of the great dangers of religion. It allows people to take comfort in their own complacency. Why should I strive towards any goal or care if I achieve any I set if I can believe in a wonderful afterlife where there is no pain and everything is fluffy clouds and fairy floss?

Re:Oh dear

[Gerzel]

I have seen many people who supposedly accepted JC and do not do terribly good works and those who haven't who are almost saintly.

The idea that the acceptance will make good works be done does not seem to bear out in practice.

My personal belief is that God, if he truly exists and is worthy of worship, has already forgiven all souls. We may gain a wider understanding of our actions after death and that understanding and our own lack of how we behaved is what will drag us down. In other words the "fires" of Hell are not the creation of a just God but rather of the soul's own guilt.

Re:Oh dear

[Majik Sheff]

"Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not really bring us any closer to the secret of the 'old one'. I, at any rate, am convinced that He does not throw dice." - A. Einstein

Sounds like an acknowledgment of a creator to me.

Faith and science are not mutually exclusive, they never have been.

Poor Guy

[Anonymous Coward]

All I can say is that I hope he doesn't have to suffer any more pain than he already has.

WOW

[PersianTech]

Watching some of Stephen Hawking's speeches is very interesting but takes over 3 times as long to understand what he is saying. He is that intelligent, when he dumbs it down its still hard to understand. My heart goes out to him and hopefully will get better.

Re:WOW

[PersianTech]

Yeah, I understand that maybe some of this theories were disproved, but stimulating the smartest physicists around the world to prove his theories wrong is somewhat amazing thing. Many people tried to disprove "theories" but that's the wonderful thing about science, the right to prove someones work.

Re:WOW

[Metasquares]

Hawking radiation hasn't been disproved, and you'd better hope for the sake of the planet that he's right about that one when the LHC starts back up.

Re:WOW

[Hikaru79]

My heart goes out to him and hopefully will get better.

Maybe if your heart actually went out to him, this whole crisis could be averted in time?

Re:WOW

[Chabo]

Back in the days of Aristotle, we knew that gravity was a constant downward force.

Newton's calculations didn't show that to be wrong, it merely proved that it's a good approximation if you're on the Earth's surface. If you're in space, you need to use Newton's work.

Einstein didn't disprove Newton, he merely showed that his calculations are a good approximation if you're traveling at less than 10% the speed of light. Higher than that, and you need to use Einstein's equations.

Hawking showed that Einstein's equations only worked in a limited scope, just like Einstein did to Newton. In the same way, Hawking's early work has been supplanted by more recent studies, but it doesn't mean the man is dumb.

Death announced before death?

[networkz]

I do hate it in this day and age, where people speculate before people die.

Report the news after it's happened, not before.

It's like akin to reading about Jade Goody demise.

Re:Death announced before death?

[Anonymous Coward]

I do hate it in this day and age, where people speculate before people die.

Call it speculation, but I'm pretty sure that the rules haven't changed in regards to death.

It's still 1 per person.

Re:Death announced before death?

[Anonymous Coward]

LOLWUT?

They're reporting on him as he is now, very ill and in the hospital. TFA was a brief article on BBC discussing what they knew about his present condition, not a link to the Death Clock.

Re:Death announced before death?

[Keyper7]

I understand your point, but please never make an analogy between something involving Stephen Hawking and something involving Jane Goody again.

It simply sounds wrong.

Re:Death announced before death?

[Coan_teen]

But when Jade Goody died, humanity achieved a net gain.

The untimely demise of the mother of two young sons is not a boon to humanity, however much she may have irritated you or somehow symbolized the intellectual rot of our society to your spiteful little mind.

But hey, who cares about those two little boys? Clearly it's the good of the elitists who take reality television as a personal affront that matters.

Hawking has proposed a solution

[Anonymous Coward]

If we can launch him into space, and get him traveling fast enough, he'll seem to live nearly forever from our perspective.

Re:Hawking has proposed a solution

[Reason58]

I thought it was a fry-hole...

HAWKING

I call it a "Hawking Hole".

FRY

No fair! I saw it first!

HAWKING

Who is The Journal Of Quantum Physics going to believe?

Re:haha

[Millennium]

who cares.. he's been dead for years anyway.

I'm not sure he'd agree with you on that.

Oblig. Futurama

[Dachannien]

Fry: Hey! Stephen Hawking! Aren't you that physicist that invented gravity?

Stephen Hawking: Sure. Why not?

Hey now, enough of that talk

[Weaselmancer]

...as a post-graduate he was told he didn't have much longer to live; he's now 67.

Let's not start gearing up for his death just yet.

He obviously has a fantastic will to live, or he wouldn't have made it to 67 with his issues in the first place. There is no reason to think he won't pull through this also.

A Legend

[Lifyre]

This man has been an inspiration to many people, myself included. He has inspired hope and shown the true courage and grit that humans can possess. Mr. Hawking has contributed man things to the fields of science and written some truly great books. His legacy will extend far beyond when he shuffles off this mortal coil.

I wish him the best and hope that the end to his current predicament comes swiftly, no matter the resolution.

Re:A Legend

[yascha]

Mr. Hawking has contributed man things to the fields of science and written some truly great books.

Can't fault someone that contributes man things.

Post-graduate

[JaZz0r]

...as a post-graduate he was told he didn't have much longer to live...

Let this be a lesson to all - graduating is hazardous to your health!

Re:Post-graduate

[EvanED]

That's why I plan on never graduating. ;-)

(/me is a 3rd year grad student)

I'm a big fan of his music

[Murpster]

Fuck the creationists! Fu-Fuck the creationists!

Re:I'm a big fan of his music

[Anonymous Coward]

Certainly not! Do you want to create *more* of them?!?

Cruel fate

[Hognoxious]

Sadly, it's even worse. I heard he has considerable holdings of Sun stock.

The Facts

[eldavojohn]

He was given 2-3 years to live ... at age 21 due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

He contracted pneumonia in 1985 and would never speak naturally again as a result of the surgery to save his life.

When the odds are stacked against you, a "fantastic will to live" can seem pretty insignificant. I'm grateful we've had his presence for this long but these are the facts.

I'm not afraid to show Stephen Hawking we're shocked and mortified that we might lose him. I hope we don't but I'm not one to go through life with a "everything's going to be just fine" attitude masking my true feelings. I followed Robert Jordan's disease in mortified fear and I'll follow Stephen Hawking's progress in mortified fear. I would like him to know how much the world will miss him before it is too late.

I am grateful for all that he has done in stealing knowledge from the unknown and delivering it to mankind. I know my own personal state of understanding owes him a great deal.

Re:The Facts

[Povno]

I second those thoughts for both Robert Jordan and Stephen Hawking. R.J. was a brilliant craftsman of the English language; and I think he knew he would be missed; given that he wrote until his body could no longer function. As for Hawking. He is the greatest mind of our time. He will truly be missed; but he will always be with us. Every innovation for the progression of mankind will be founded on the knowledge that he gave us. We will travel to the stars on the backs of his ideas.

Re:The Facts

[Junior J. Junior III]

I am grateful for all that he has done in stealing knowledge from the unknown and delivering it to mankind. I know my own personal state of understanding owes him a great deal.

Hey, now. Don't say that too loudly, or the Unknown Knowledge Industry Association of America will sue him into silence.

A long time ago...

[Jhon]

I had the pleasure of seeing one of his lectures. This was before the breathing tube and voice synth. Honestly couldn't understand a word he was saying. One of his undergrads would translate for him. Went something like this:

Hawking: "hmm um mumb bllum blbl lun udn ummm mummb lum mum".

SomeGuy: "And we should see a large burst of gamma radiation."

I had a less than elegant friend with me who leaned over to me and whispered: "Wouldn't it be funny if the guy in the wheel chair was just some retarded kid and the other guy was a genius who didn't want noterity?"

Re:A long time ago...

[evil agent]

Your English teacher must have been the Soup Nazi.

Correction: Alphabet Soup Nazi.

Re:Note to the BBC

[EvilToiletPaper]

This is Stephen Hawking and BBC, not Sarah Palin and Fox news.

Who gives a damn what he looks like. What's a 'slightly' better picture gonna do? Everyone who knows him reveres him for his mind not his body and face.

God and Stephen

[WED Fan]

I see God sitting down with Stephen, winking and then saying something like, "Hey, did you get what I did with that 10 dimension thing and how it really changes when you look at it in 11 dimensions. Trippy, right?"

Re:God and Stephen

[Anonymous Coward]

I see God sitting down with Stephen, winking and then saying something like, "Hey, did you get what I did with that 10 dimension thing and how it really changes when you look at it in 11 dimensions. Trippy, right?"

Hawking: I also spotted your unintentional mistake which become clear when you look at in 12 dimensions
God: You mother-fsckin' smartass

Re:God and Stephen

[WED Fan]

Since some theories hold that when you die you become one with the Universe, I see god getting a whole lot smarter when Stephen finally joins him.

Fearing the worst

[Ian.Waring]

My mother died of Motor Neurone Disease at age 42. In the end, all the hospital would do was to "run tests" on her. Those appear to be the same words being used on the news bulletins in the UK atm.

I wouldn't wish this condition on my worst enemy.

Ian W.

Re:More than handicapped

[MsGeek]

I lost my dad to ALS when I was 12. He was diagnosed when I was 8. 46 years with ALS is literally unprecedented. Most people don't make it to the 5th year after diagnosis. I hope he's willed his body to science because his final act of discovery might be to help medical science figure out how to slow the progression of the disease.

Oh yeah: if you want to do something in Dr. Hawking's honor, drop a few coins ALSA's way. The DNA of the foundation my mom started after my dad was diagnosed is a part of the current charity.