Photo: NASA (public domain)
Stephen Hawking public figure — reconstructed profile
This is a reconstruction from published statements, not a real account. Only questions with a documented position are answered, and each one cites its source below. Spotted an error? Bring a better citation to the forum and it gets fixed.
Physicist (1942–2018). Positions reconstructed from his published books and interviews — not a member.
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Kindred % · overall match
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Twin % · thinks like you
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World % · lives in your world
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Life % · lives like you
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Opposition % · opposite poles, held with certainty
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Bubble
Positions & sources
| Question | Position | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Which comes closest to your actual position on God? | There is certainly no god or gods | Brief Answers to the Big Questions (2018). |
| Human-caused climate change is best described as: | Real, mainly human-caused, and a serious problem | Brief Answers to the Big Questions (2018) — climate change listed among the greatest threats facing humankind. |
| Humans came to exist by: | Evolution by natural processes, no guidance needed | The Grand Design (2010); Brief Answers (2018). |
| Twenty years from now, advanced AI will most likely have been: | A civilizational catastrophe or existential threat | BBC interview (2014) and repeated public warnings that uncontrolled AI could end humanity. |
| Organized religion's overall effect on society has been: | Somewhat negative | ABC News interview with Diane Sawyer (June 7, 2010) — religion is "based on authority," science "based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works." |
| God exists | Certainly false | Brief Answers to the Big Questions (2018), "Is There a God?" — his flat answer: "There is no God." |
| Conscious existence continues after death | Certainly false | The Guardian interview (May 2011) — he called heaven "a fairy story for people afraid of the dark." |
| Prayer can change what happens in the world, beyond its effects on the people involved | Certainly false | Brief Answers to the Big Questions (2018) — no God exists to intervene; the universe runs on impersonal law. |
| Human beings arose entirely through unguided natural processes | Certainly true | The Grand Design (2010) and Brief Answers (2018) — life and humanity as products of unguided natural processes, evolution endorsed throughout. |
| Consciousness is produced entirely by the brain | Certainly true | The Guardian interview (2011) — "I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail." |
| With the past exactly the same, our choices could have gone otherwise | Probably false | The Grand Design (2010) — behavior is determined by physical law; he argues it is hard to see how free will could operate otherwise. |
| Advanced AI poses a serious risk of human extinction | Certainly true | BBC interview (Dec 2014) — the development of full artificial intelligence "could spell the end of the human race." |