from the American Museum of Natural
History in New York City and beaming out
across all of space and time Neil
deGrasse Tyson your personal
astrophysicist and tonight we're
featuring my interview with
world-renowned physicist and cosmologist
Stephen Hawking I picked his legendary
brain on everything from the Big Bang to
the origins of the universe so let's do
this so my comedic co-host tonight is
Matt kirshen
you co-hosts the science based podcast
likely science is probably science some
mystical measure before every time you
come up with a different version I like
it Oh Frank your names also joining me
is my friend and colleague theoretical
physicist Janna Levin Janna welcome your
professor at Barnard College of Columbia
University award-winning author most
recently a black hole blues and other
songs from outer space nobody says it
better than new you get people asking to
like to do your voicemail messages yeah
yeah yes but it gets worse than that
yeah like I need to break up with my
girlfriend but I want it to sound good
[Laughter]
but that felt good so Janet will be
tapping your big brain on this because
you're an expert about your theoretical
physicist specializing in cosmology and
I know a little cosmology we have some
overlap there not as much as we need for
this situation okay Stephen Hawking has
been called one of our greatest minds of
our generation possibly of the century
and maybe ever he's done groundbreaking
work on
black holes relativity cosmology is a
the mega best-selling book a brief
history of time so 10 million copies and
it brought cosmology from the frontier
of physics in to people's living rooms
and now there was a movie
aa movie in 2014 called the theory of
everything starring Eddie Redmayne and
he won an Academy Award for Best Actor
so what more could you want in a career
I mean me
so Hawking currently serves as director
of research at the what's the department
department of physics at the University
of Cambridge you work there is that
right I worked in that department for a
few years five years and you graduated
from University Cambridge if I did just
about school but I got there in the end
so have you guys ever met I saw him once
but it was at a talk he was giving and I
don't think that counts that's like
spotting an orc or a SeaWorld
but you know he's gonna be there so it
my interview with him before getting
deep into physics I just wanted to get
to know him a little better as a person
we had met before but we never really
hung out like we did in this interview
so let's check out the first clip
professor Hawking thanks for agreeing to
be on Startalk
and let me just start off with the first
question perhaps the most pressing
question to us all what's your favorite
food for me it's pizza actually New York
Pizza ohyes curse hoisters little
slippery for me but that's cool okay how
about your favorite drink
Tim's Pimm's
I like pina coladas myself but if it's
not alcoholic I would do it milkshake
okay last question last question what's
your favourite equation I know you've
got one the ablation I discovered
relating the entropy of a black hole to
the area it's a Russian s people say
over for how many people get to say
there
every equation is one they came up
that's badass well that's what I know I
think you just all got a glimpse of what
it's like to be on a date with Neal your
favorite food your favorite drink
now equation those results peer-reviewed
anything check out then it becomes a
relationship a relationship so just in
case and anyone had been living under a
rock Stephen Hawking has what we call
Lou Gehrig's disease a ALS so and it's
gradually paralyzed in over the decades
and right now he communicates through
twitches in his cheek and these are read
electronically and he moves the cursor
up and down on that screen which we got
a brief glimpse of and he basically
bangs out the spelling of words and
ultimately sentences and then scientific
papers that as well yes yes so Janet
tell me about his favorite equation so
this is with this incredibly stunning
discovery that Hawking made so the
entire idea of a black hole is that
nothing can get out of it that's the
whole idea can't reflect light it can't
emit light what falls in never comes out
again when you talk about the area of a
black hole what you're really describing
is the region after which no information
can ever escape no so this is the
surface region right surrounding the
black holes yes and so there's nothing
there it's not a surface of any material
kind it's simply a boundary that
separates what can come out and what can
never come out again and amazingly
Hawking realized it's in some sense
which seems intuitive in retrospect but
it was very difficult that that's how
you know it's really genius after
somebody so he can't emit anything it
certainly can't you can't even light or
be illuminated in any way but what he
realized was that if it absorbs stuff it
must be taking entropy out of the other
side of the boundary right entropy being
a measure of disorder or randomness or
in some sense energy and so if it takes
entropy there is a law of thermodynamics
that says entropy always increases you
know you your room gets messy or not
cleaner without intervention
so disorder always increases and so if
it's taking entropy out of this side of
the boundary it must actually be
producing its own entropy and each time
it takes something in it gets a little
bigger and has a little more entropy so
when what form is this entropy is really
the mystery men Hawking realized the
black hole must be evaporating it must
actually be radiating at a temperature
like a hot object okay so so that means
a black hole is not entirely black yeah
actually from far away if we were
looking at a black hole in a very cold
background it would look to us like the
black hole was actually emitting
particles sorry it was at a temperature
radiating yeah it was radiating at a
temperature and and that would explain
this famous equation of hockey so there
are two major kinds of black holes we
think of in astrophysics one of them is
the end state of a high mass star The
Sun will not become a black hole but
more massive stars can and you and then
we find black holes in the Centers of
galaxies with super duper high masses
and we call them supermassive black
holes because we tell it like it is so I
was always wondering what questions
Stephen Hawking might have for my man
Isaac Newton you know Stephen Hawking is
like as the greatest physicist of modern
times
and Isaac Newton as the father classical
physics I thought this would make an
interesting exchange if they could do
such a thing so I asked him let's check
it out you hold the same endowed chair
that Isaac Newton did I'm just wondering
if we had some way to communicate
through time with him and tell him about
what life is like today are there any
questions any problems you might want to
hand him to solve there's a solar system
stable and what happens to a star that
cannot support itself against its own
gravity mmm-hmm so we thinking if Newton
saw those questions he might give us
deeper insights into black holes I'd be
curious yeah so what he did with that
question was not what I thought he would
do with it what he did was he asked
questions of Isaac Newton at the
boundary of where Isaac Newton left off
in his own studies so stuff that he
already knew
Yeah right but I think he's testin he
wants to see how Isaac would do because
certain questions you might not even
know to ask even if you invented the
theory yourself Einstein didn't even
think to take his equations to get a
black hole out of it right the black
hole was really discovered by by
somebody else but later on with using
his formula yeah within a year wouldn't
it be a crushing disappointment if
Newton did come back and just wanted to
know about like tynda like tell me more
about this dog stomps revolution of all
things you might be curious about the
tinder would not be among all evidence
shows that IG Newton died a virgin
mm-hmm but he got a lot of science done
so now they're getting in on you
couldn't evolution eyes the world so Jen
what question would you have for Isaac
Newton do you think oh that's an
interesting question well um I think I
would love to hear his response to
Einstein's revelation so Newton wrote
down the stunning system of equations
that describes not only how the Apple
falls from the tree but how the moon
stays in orbit around the Earth I mean
that's a huge leap to think that to
connect them to connect their celestial
bodies motion and the motion of stuff
here on earth that was absolutely
brilliant but he knew that he didn't
understand how the earth was pulling on
the Apple without touching it or how
about genetics or how the earth was
pulling on the moon without touching it
action eye distance and so Einstein has
this beautiful intuition that what's
actually happening is the masses are
curving space and time and things are
falling along the natural curves I would
love to hear if Newton was satisfied
with that story or if he felt something
was missing
do you think the leading question what
would happen if a star collapses do you
think he could have landed on a black
hole out of that there's no way not
without modern physics so if we look at
the history of the discovery so it was
Einstein even when he saw the
mathematical solution for the black hole
did not believe nature would allow this
to happen as you well know and after all
it is hard to crush stuff you know you
want to crush an entire star our Sun
down to six kilometres to make a black
hole it fit in Manhattan you know yet if
earth were a black hole you would make
it the size of a plum yeah
how do you do that it's really not easy
I can't crush this cup and so it's was
sensible for Einstein to think matter
forces wouldn't allow it to happen
well we even got a little we got a
scientists on the team to work had a
case study for what happened on a more
localized situation first on a team we
do we've got scientists working behind
the scenes as well yes they won't tell
though what would happen if the Neel
stardom became just too much for you to
handle
so you deactivate your Twitter account
and here's what happens and we found
according to our calculations there'll
be a vacuum of celebrity selfies and
Twitter fuse with flat earthers and
eventually the whole universe will
collapse in on itself so there is so
just be careful be aware okay thanks for
this warning okay crack team of
scientists on that yeah don't blame me
they did all the work there's being peer
reviewed as well they're very thorough
on the show well you know Hawking's his
discoveries and his personality had made
him kind of like a pop culture icon
everybody knows who he is and and and
what he sounds like
and we've got some images but yeah so
this is one of many animated appearances
on The Simpsons here is with Sheldon in
the Big Bang Theory
oh yeah I was in this scene as well so
we are floating head we've got Stephen
Hawking Bill Nye George Takei and me and
Futurama so professor Hawking knows how
to have some fun he did that zero g
plane thing you know that you know the
zero g thing very wary of it I asked him
about it let's check it out Stephen
you've been in that zero-g airplane I've
always wanted to go I just wondered what
it felt like for you it was wonderful to
float weightless three of my wheelchair
I could have gone on a nun a nun hmm
well one day I'll try to do that to see
what that's like one problem for me I
get nauseous and I were to throw up
yeah you don't throw up in zero-g you
know these zero-g airplanes it's not
that they go into orbit or go into space
yeah what they do is they go on an arc
where you ascend as they of course move
forward then there's a point where
there's a precise trajectory down where
the plane is basically in freefall and
while you're in freefall you are
weightless and the fact that's how
Newton connected the free-falling Apple
to the orbiting moon so so when you're
in freefall then you can this happens
but you know what's even cool about
those zero-g planes is they can do
trajectories where they can simulate
moon gravity or Mars gravity so you just
do a shallow upright yeah they just say
just should do it do it in a way that
then it's not a full freefall they're
just slowly coming out of the freefall
and you can simulate any chosen gravity
you want it's very cool so coming up
more of my interview with world-renowned
physicist Stephen Hawking when Startalk
returned
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
history in New York City we're featuring
my interview with acclaimed physicist
professor Stephen Hawking and I asked
him about one of the universe's biggest
mysteries let's check it out so Stephen
everyone wants to know what was around
before the Big Bang
nothing was around before a big Big Bang
according to Einstein's general theory
of relativity space and time together
form a space-time continuum and were
manifold which has not flat but turned
by the matter and energy in it I adopt a
Euclidian approach to quantum gravity to
describe the beginning of the universe
and this ordinary real time is replaced
by imaginary time which behaves like a
fourth direction of space then the
Euclidean approach the history of the
universe and imaginary time is a
four-dimensional curved surface like the
surface of the earth but with two more
dimensions Jim Hartle and I proposed an
old boundary condition the boundary
condition of the universe is that it has
no boundary ok in order terms the
Euclidean space time is a closed surface
without ad like the surface of the earth
one can regard imaginary in the real
time as beginning at the South Pole
which is a smooth point of space-time
where the normal laws of physics hold
there is nothing south of the South Pole
so there was nothing around before the
Big Bang the boundary condition of the
universe as there is no boundaries
everyone's minds just go clear it
enabled you to meditate Trudy for the
first time so Jen I'm there nodding like
I'm following here he gave you a look at
the end like get it
that was like I got maybe 20% of where
he was going
so let's see if we can unpack this what
does he mean by imaginary time
well imaginary time is really it doesn't
mean made-up or invented time it it
literally means you you invent a new
time parameter which is I'm gonna say it
in math terms the square root of minus
one times the old time parameter it's
just a minute or two minus one is the
imaginary imaginary number it doesn't
mean that it's made up or invented and
it's just a mathematical it's a most
unfortunate word for it it is we gave it
it is but it is a pretty odd it is a
pretty odd little trick
all numbers are imaginary right there's
no you can't see oh no no that looks
like one microphone the one represents
the microphone yeah in this mathematical
trick you're we representing time as
though it's actually space that's
ultimately what the mathematical trick
does so that when you do this in all of
your mathematical equations you
literally couldn't tell what was time
and what was space before especially if
you relabeled them to trick yourself you
know like a little game of so then what
what you're doing is you're imagining
that instead of space and time that
you're just in space but a
four-dimensional space and that allows
you to visualize certain aspects of the
space-time so what about then there
being nothing south of the South Pole
right so then if time what first we all
agree
you can't go south right about that you
just go back again so there is no if you
stay on the surface of the earth you
don't ask the question what's south of
the South Pole you just realize oh
that's just an old post question and
it's all completely compacted so they
would imagine entire space-time where as
you move in time this Euclidean time
you'd actually come looping back around
again it really is a hypothesis that is
as yet unsubstantiated we don't know
that that's Hawking made Ahad was only a
hypothesis and he's not here to defend
himself so it's time right now for that
part of the show we call cosmic queries
and we took your questions about the
physics of space and time out there in
the cosmos and we've got cosmologists
jan 11 2014 and actually relates to what
we were just talking about which is if
the universe is has a shape where it is
compact and completely connected then we
could be so it's as though you walk we
leave New York City you walk around the
earth and you come back to where you
started but in this case light does it
so light leaves the Milky Way galaxy it
travels throughout the entire universe
and we're here some number of billions
of years later and we're collecting
light coming from behind us and we
realize oh we're actually looking at an
image of the Milky Way in our past that
is a completely possible scenario if the
universe has this kind of connected
property it's not actually your rear end
it's what your rear end would have been
13 billion years ago so there's every
chance that in 13 billion years time
from now they could be listening to a
distant echo of this episode of star
talk yeah you know it's Planet of the
Apes you you leave in a rocket you come
to some distant planet and you realize
the Statue of Liberty is buried in the
sand you came back to where you started
[Music]
[Laughter]
from John run from Illinois do galaxies
form around supermassive black holes or
do supermassive black holes form in the
center of ground galaxies ooh I haven't
seen the latest on that but consider
that
however massive these supermassive black
holes are the galaxy is vastly more
massive than that you can have like a
million even a billion times the mass of
the Sun in a supermassive black hole but
the mass for the galaxies is 400 billion
times that so that's just a point of
fact but at the very beginning of the
universe
last I checked I think the jury is still
out on this
I think it's a really interesting
astronomical question that we're
answering right now this is how what
astronomy is doing right now and we
learned with the Hubble telescope that
essentially every galaxy has a
supermassive black hole in it so that
everybody's in the party on that okay
next one Oh someone from my country
Vanessa vemma why is the speed of light
around 300 million meters per second
that seems so random
why not faster or slower oh this is a
great question planing that it's kind of
a round number or she I think it was
like white why is that such why that
specific number we have no idea where
any of the specific numbers that seem to
be constants of the universe are what
they are and so the speed of light is
actually comes out of electromagnetism
it's it actually has to do with the
strength of electricity the strength of
magnetism put together just makes this
random number so if those forces were
weaker or stronger the speed of light
would be different similarly if gravity
were weaker stronger our entire universe
would be different and there are people
who believe that we live in a multiverse
in which these numbers are different in
different manifestations of the universe
and dare I say in my latest book there's
a chapter called
on earth as it is in the heavens and
it's a discussion of the laws of physics
as measured on earth and how in fact we
came to discover that they apply across
the universe and across time itself yeah
if we look back to the early universe
there's no evidence that it's changed in
our laws of physics has changed so right
from the moment the universe was created
the speed of light was from the earliest
measurements that we could possibly make
my last final question from Derek Liu
Duras from Oklahoma how would a Galactic
Empire keep a uniform standard of time
this is an Union I'm just asked why Oh
an empire it that is all coherent right
because if you didn't otherwise care if
it's too far away wouldn't I care yeah
I'm guessing this question is sort of
alright so on earth we have different
time zones but there's a universal time
zone as well that we use not the
Galactic version of that yeah you
couldn't because the light travel time
across a galaxy is a hundred thousand
years so there'd be no such thing
any meaningful simultaneity of what's
going on unless your communication
channels happen through wormholes and so
here's one side of the galaxy here's the
other side of the galaxy that's a
hundred thousand light-years to cross
and you create a wormhole connecting the
two and everybody's got a wormhole and
it'd be like a wormhole Skype connection
and then your signals go through the
wormholes then you could do that all
right well you agree yeah if you can
keep a wormhole open you find a shortcut
yeah there you go got there all right so
I get on that scientist well that's the
end of cosmic queries up next I asked
professor Hawking is time travel
possible
when Startalk returned
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
we're featuring my interview with
professor Stephen Hawking world-renowned
physicist and I've got with me physicist
Michio Kaku Michio a theoretical
physicist a professor at the City
College of New York New York Times
bestselling author of the physics of the
impossible one of my favorite books of
is also the physics of the future and
the future of the mind so meet you
you're kind of known for entertaining
wild ideas and science fiction that
could be based in actual fact that is
that that characterized you accurately I
think it's better to say that I talk
about science fact which appears to look
like science fiction because people
haven't kept up oh very nice very nice
so I had to ask professor Hawking a
classic sci-fi question all right let's
check it out so Steven will we ever have
the ability to travel backwards in time
I'm thinking not simply because if we
ever did obtain that ability we would
have met somebody by now from the future
one might hope that we could warp
space-time so that one could go up in a
rocket and come back in the past but I
have shown that this is not possible if
energy density is always non-negative
hmm okay maybe that's a big if all we
have to do is create negative energy
density stuff then we'll all be able to
travel backwards in time
what I've done this year a few times now
and I think this is the one where I
really do feel the dumbest like what is
non negative energy density yeah
actually I'm not even completely sure
myself what is come on it's got your
name on it on Star Trek is called
dilithium crystals which make warp try
wormholes and time travel possible for a
physicist it is negative matter and
negative energy things that fall up
rather than falling down now a black
hole has positive energy energy to rip
the fabric of space-time but it's
unstable it collapses back on itself you
need negative energy or matter to keep
it open
that's why hockey made a very famous
theorem showing that wormholes showing
that time machines require negative
energy to keep the black holes and
things like this from collapsing again
it is anti-gravitational repulsive and
that's what prevents the black hole from
collapsing all the way okay so how are
we gonna create negative energy negative
energy already exists if I have an
advanced civilization much more powerful
than our that our civilization today
they could make large quantities of
negative energy and perhaps go backwards
in time and become masters of the
universe you can't create wormholes to
go across the galaxy as a backwards in
time witness the Big Bang that would
then enable backwards time travel that's
right in fact Stephen Hawking himself
has shown this theorem showing that the
only way to go backwards in time is to
have negative energy net energy below
the zero of the ordinary vacuum so how
do you avoid getting into a hole Mossimo
fly in mum's situation because the river
of time Forks into two rivers into a
multiverse so when you go backwards in
time to save you Abraham Lincoln from
being assassinated at the Ford theater
it's someone else's Abraham Lincoln that
you just saved you cannot alter your own
past quantum mechanics says the time
itself can fission
time itself could become a multiverse of
parallel universes right he didn't walk
he once come up with I can't make that
backwards time travel conjecture so that
you don't have this this Marty McFly
problem chronology protection conjecture
and what does that protect it protects
the order of causal events so that you
are unable even if even if there exists
mathematically on paper the possibility
to go back in time you can't kill your
mother before you were born because that
would be inconceivable
okay so Michio was gonna get around that
by saying time Forks that's right
according to the quantum principle time
is constantly forking so that our
universe being a bubble that expands can
actually become a multiverse like in a
soap bubble so a soap bubble back think
of lots of bubbles bifurcating colliding
with each other and that's the Big Bang
the Big Bang is nothing but the
collision or the fissioning of soap
bubbles in a bubble bath called the
landscape of the multiverse this is now
the dominant theory in quantum cosmology
if time travel it may not be possible
unless we have this negative energy
density stuff they'd be possible for us
all the day we harness that's right this
negative energies yes but that is
sometime in the future at a point
unknown but what is true right now is
that we have space travel even if time
travel is not available to us right now
so I asked Stephen Hawking but what is
his sort of bold vision for humanity's
future beyond Earth in the form of space
let's check it out
so Stephen you've said publicly that he
wants to be a multi-planet species and
who could argue that I'm with you there
however I have one mild rebuttal
because you defend that argument by
saying something bad could happen here
on earth an asteroid that's run away
virus rendering us all extinct and if we
exist only on one planet that's the end
of the human species I get that
here's my mild rebuttal isn't it easier
to deflect an asteroid easier to find a
super serum
we'll come back any deadly virus that it
is to terraform Mars and ship a billion
people their collision with an asteroid
is one of the least of the dangers we
now face hmm
the last collision was 70 million years
ago nuclear war climate change and
pollution are now much greater threats
of course it would be impossible to move
the population of the earth to a new
planet but if we can establish
independent self-sustaining colonies in
space that would ensure the survival of
the human race than the event of a
disaster on earth leaving earth will
also give us a new perspective and
caused us to look outwards rather than
in words that would also unite us to
face the common challenge well so Jan
are you are you ready to go to Mars for
these reasons yeah I think isn't it
still a one-way ticket though isn't that
at the moment yeah we could get to Mars
with the technology we have now and and
and the money we have now but we can't
get people home so that's you know we
actually interviewed somebody on
Startalk who had signed up for the
one-way trip and it was a little odd
because you know he was all excited
about it and apparently he's married so
I said what what does your wife say
about it and he said oh she encouraged
it so be sure you are you a big fan of
colonizing other planets yes in fact
there's gonna be a traffic jam over Mars
around 2030 Elon Musk NASA with the SLS
booster rocket and now amazon.com I mean
everyone's jumping in the game now to
create booster rockets capable of taking
us to Mars on a two-way trip Charles is
the only one by the way that's going for
same-day delivery
so I'd say at a different point Hawking
had said that civilization only has a
hundred years left on earth which seemed
a little pessimistic to me well I I mean
I don't think I worry I say this too
much I don't think we look like the most
successful species that's ever walked
the face of the earth I mean dinosaurs
were here for hundreds of billions of
years like we invented you know
industrialization sort of took over in
the past couple hundred and we're
already near threatening our own demise
so it doesn't look great for us to be
honest oh I think if we don't blow
ourselves up will become what is called
a type one civilization in a hundred
years that is a planetary civilization a
type two civilization is stellar they
control the power of an entire star
2,000 years into the future then type 3
civilization is galactic they control
black holes that control the energy of
an entire galaxy now on this scale we
are type zero we get our energy from
dead plants oil and coal we don't even
rate on this scale but if we can make it
to the next 100 years here we can make
it through it we will become a type one
civilization truly planetary and that'll
be the greatest transition in the
history of the human race from segmented
nations that fight each other with
fundamentalist ideologies to a planetary
civilization that is secular scientific
multicultural and at peace if we can
make it through the next hundred years
then we make it to type one well this is
a perfect time for our game show how
we're not gonna make it through the next
hundred years
so we did a little survey of how the
world will end okay um
Neil what do you think my money's on the
zombie apocalypse Zambia pets see if
it's up there okay all right
shame on you nailed Jana okay let's do
nuclear nuclear holocaust alright a
nuclear holocaust meet-u meet-u I want
to be the bad boy and say that we will
survive
that's humanity will struggle through it
will squeak by and we're not gonna end
ourselves oh you're wrong so Matt let's
see all the answer let's see what you
missed good old-fashioned non nuclear
war I know sure that would nd well but
uh asteroid and climate change at number
one yeah yeah we agree that all of this
is bad all of this is possible well up
next I asked physicist Stephen Hawking
about the future of our minds when to
Startalk returns
you
[Applause]
the American Museum of Natural History
with featuring my interview with famed
physicist Stephen Hawking check it out
so Stephen if we ever really developed
the technology to upload your brain into
some computer providing life after death
or at least consciousness after death
would you be first to sign up for that
my body hardly works at all because I
have motor neuron disease
otherwise known as ALS so getting rid of
it with me no loss and would spare me
discomfort being immortal a Solia bridge
I could see the future unless I was
terminated by someone slipping off the
computer or by a computer virus thought
about that but if you're a computer
you're susceptible you could have copies
look you just make a backup of yourself
so meet you at the time of your book the
future of mind the scientific quest to
understand enhance and empower the mind
wendel uploading our brain become a
reality well just remember if at all
digital immortality is starting now so
this is an example of what's going on
here that's right telepathy telekinesis
uploading memories recording dreams we
can quote do all of the above this is no
longer science fiction you go to the
physics laboratories and you can see how
images can be extracted from the human
brain how it's possible now that we can
upload memories in animals and record
memories from animals because physics
can now probe thoughts as they go
ricocheting through the brain is what
you're describing the same thing as
consciousness because if that's the case
then we can say it's not just our
thoughts that live forever it's our very
identity ourselves our conscious self
that lives forever
well there is a theory that says the
soul the soul is information it's a vast
amount of information but nonetheless
it's information that can be put
into holographic form such that even if
you pass away something there is is
survives but theoretically that is
effectively immortality once you reach
that point that is you living forever
why not have digital immortality
wouldn't you want to talk to you a great
great great great great grandkids who
want to meet their great great great
great ancestor neither chance what that
like this gives you this gives you
movements throughout time and throughout
space so this is being godlike well
that's what we're talking about
transcending the human race because I
asked Stephen Hawking about his thoughts
on the future of religion just just to
get his sense of this spirituality going
forward let's check it out so Stephen
religion has been around for thousands
of years and it long predates science
and in spite of the effort of modern
ardent atheists religion persists so do
you have any sense of what religion will
be in the future of civilization
questions we all ask why are we here
where did we come from nowadays science
provides better and more consistent
answer but people will always linked to
religion because it gives comfort and
they do not trust or understand science
hmm yeah Stephen Hawking is imagining
that any time you didn't understand
something and ascribed it to deity
science would then fix that for you but
there's the rest of what people use
religion for this spiritual fulfillment
and the rest of this it's not obvious
that science has solutions to that going
forward don't you feel a sort of surge
of excitement and the connection to the
universe just to know that even though
we're stuck on this silly little rock
that were able to know that much that's
stunning they're deeply look yeah it is
it is deeply moving so this whole kind
of notion that that oh it leaves you
feeling cold and sterile that there is
this scientific thinking is actually has
been the opposite of my personal
experience I think we're hardwired that
way evolution has given us a brain to be
receptive
- aw - receptive to beauty and that's
why there's a God Jane because we are
genetically programmed to believe in
superstition because that's the way it
has always been even today that's way
before science came along that's wood
knock knock on wood
knock on wood the truth well coming up
the one and only Stephen Hawking offers
some life lessons for us all next on
Startalk
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the American Museum of Natural History
and we're featuring my interview with
legendary physicist Stephen Hawking I
wanted to hear more about Stephen
Hawking's perspective on life and so I
asked him who's his favorite
non-scientist check it out a few years
ago I would have said Nelson Mandela
he brought a peaceful solution to a
seemingly impossible situation there is
no one of his stature today certainly
not Donald Trump favorite non yeah
favorite no wife is a scientist so
that's yes she has a PhD in mathematical
physics they're like Neil would marry a
non-scientist okay you know what I would
say Vincent van Gogh his painting the
starry night in 1889 is artwork that was
given a name not for what he drew in the
foreground or the mid-ground it was
named for what appeared in the
background there's a village he could
have called a sleepy village or cypress
tree or rolling hills but no the
universe was speaking to him more loudly
than his foreground and out of that came
the title the starry night and you look
at that painting it's obviously not what
he saw because the real universe doesn't
look like that but you know it is what
he felt he drew what the university felt
like and I am a fan of all the ways that
artists can be touched by not only
science in general but the universe in
particular this is my man Vincent van
Gogh before we wrap up this segment and
before we wrap up the show I have a
dispatch from my good friend Bill Nye
the Science Guy and he's gonna give us
his thoughts on the big ideas proposed
by physicists like the great Stephen
Hawking check it out
our curiosity brings us to places like
this the Griffith Observatory in Los
Angeles California here we look through
these telescopes and ponder the cosmos
and our place within it and it's one
thing to think about the cosmos but it's
another thing to realize that the cosmos
is different now than when I started
talking it's changing I mean we think of
the cosmos in terms of space we think of
it in terms of time but in astrophysics
we think of it in terms of space-time I
mean moving through space seems
straightforward enough but moving
through time that's a tricky one it's
been speculated that there are yet
undescribed particles of time tiny bits
of time and if they turn out to be real
they will to be discovered
out there in the cosmos so tonight go
outside and have a look there's time
back to you Neal
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so meet you I've not heard of this is
this particles of time is this real well
you can look at it as gravitons so they
are kind of to the force of gravity what
photons are to electromagnetic force
exactly a photon is a particle of light
a graviton is a particle of gravity and
when the graviton becomes big enough it
becomes a universe giving us a
multiverse of universes so what you're
saying is that what what bill might have
been talking about as particles of time
are just particles a space-time
space-time that's your space and time or
wrap together that's right oh I see okay
so in my final clip with Stephen Hawking
I asked him if he would just share with
me some parting words of wisdom check it
out so the course of your life you've
had it sort of unique perspective on
science on technology endurance if you
sort of sum that together and offer some
insight for us any lessons that we can
take with us we must all do the best we
can than whatever situation we breathe
in a very good up never give up
clearly that advice applies to us all
it's a privilege to spend this time with
you thanks for your thoughts and your
insights and being a source of
inspiration to us all
how could you not just wonder what's
going on inside this guy's head I think
our greatest gift as a species is not
our body
we're not the fastest we're not the
strongest our body hardly distinguishes
itself in any way in the animal kingdom
our greatest sort of gift in the Tree of
Life is our mind and perhaps no one
knows that better than Stephen Hawking
and so much so that he does not take his
mind for granted enabling him to go
places that we might never even dream of
simply because he has power of mind
where he has power from no other part of
his body
so maybe it is we who are imprisoned
thinking our body matters when in fact
at the end of the day it's really all
about your thoughts all about your
dreams all about how we react to our
life experience in this world and share
it with others
that is a cosmic perspective you've been
watching Startalk and I've been your
host Neil deGrasse Tyson
Oh
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vitia thanks for being with us see you
next time as always I bid you to keep
looking up
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