
'Mind Over Matter': Stephen Hawking – Obituary by Roger Penrose - DanielleMolloy
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/mar/14/stephen-hawking-obituary
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rweba
I really like this obituary, this is exactly what I was looking for.

Penrose not only understands the details of Hawking's work at a much deeper
level than most of us, but as a contemporary of Hawking's he has followed his
career for decades and can give us a good overall impression.

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davedx
The author of the obituary, Roger Penrose, is also a distinguished and forward
thinking scientist. I highly recommend reading his book "The Emperor's New
Mind". It's especially relevant in today's climate of rapidly accelerating
machine learning and A.I. advances (whether you agree with his premises or
not).

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robotresearcher
Just for the record, almost nobody accepts the thesis of that book. Penrose is
a great fundamental physicist who believes (or did back in 1990) that new
fundamental physics is needed to explain how brains produce intelligent
behaviour.

The dominant contrary opinion is that this can be done using some form of
computation. Other opinions are that something other than computation in the
Turing sense is required, but that current physics is probably sufficient to
describe it. Very few people think that a theory of e.g. quantum gravity is
the right level of explanation for the phenomena of intelligent behaviour.

I think Penrose fell into a common trap: when you are an expert on hammers,
every hard problem looks like it needs a whack with a better hammer.

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antognini
I don't think Penrose's position is that you need new physics for intelligent
behavior, but rather that new physics is needed to explain consciousness.
There's a big metaphysical difference between the two.

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robotresearcher
I guess that's true. Then it's even more bold and wacky to declare that we
need new physics to describe a thing that is so controversial in its function
or effects.

I (possibly mis-)translated into intelligent behaviour in my memory, since
that's something most people agree does real work and needs explaining.

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typon
This isn't an ordinary obituary - it actually describes Hawking's
contributions to physics from the perspective of another renowned physicist.
Really well written.

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mturmon
An accessible summary of the part of Hawking's work that we can digest at
present, by someone in a position to know. Don't miss the last paragraph.

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dustfinger
I wonder if caloric restriction may have strengthened his immune system and
increased his life expectancy?

EDIT: I thought I should do a quick search on that idea and it turns out that
I am not the first person to have asked that question:
[http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=463854](http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=463854)

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Santosh83
Can also recommend Penrose's Cycles of Time: An Extraordinary New View of the
Universe, for an interesting take on his own view of cyclic cosmology.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycles_of_Time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycles_of_Time)

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mhh__
A fitting tribute, from a man who fully understood both the man and his work.

Roger Penrose's book "The road to reality" is great if you want a high level
overview (and list of topics) for mathematical physics (The scary stuff!).

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bassman9000
_Hawking is survived by his children._

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timbit42
WARNING: AMP link

Non-AMP link: [https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/mar/14/stephen-
hawk...](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/mar/14/stephen-hawking-
obituary)

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DanielleMolloy
If this is considered a problem, could one of the mods please change the link
to this desktop site url?

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scrollaway
Why would it be considered a problem? The amp page linked there is clean,
loads fast.

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Phemist
AMP-usage is pretty contested in these regions, and using an AMP link can be
seen as a political statement in favour using AMP. I would avoid it if
possible.

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Phemist
Also, if you're like me and you use Firefox & block 3rd party resources by
default, the AMP page will show a blank screen for about 5 seconds, whereas
the conventional link will load the text instantly.

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maaaats
Or as I do, use reading mode in Firefox.

