Crisis-driven Innovation: Stephen Hawking journey

“Sweet are the uses of adversity”. It was the illness of Stephen Hawking that made him devote all his life to science. Nevertheless, he did not allow his illness to limit his imagination and innovative thinking.  But the spring of his innovative mind was attributed to his wife Jane Wilde since she gave him a sense of purpose and something to live for. However, it is not an easy task to communicate science to public, especially if it is about cosmology and the origin of the universe.  Physicists use both experiments and speculation to explain natural phenomena. For example, a set of theories in physics were devised to explain the origin of planet including the concept that distorted space-time bends light from distant galaxies and the concepts of imaginary time, supersymmetry and superstring, parallel worlds, and multi-space-time dimensions. 

However, we should be mindful of the fact that theoretical physics is founded on speculation as illustrated in the idea that the Universe is a wave function. Moreover, many ideas in theoretical physics are hypotheses like the concept of Multiple Universes which has no empirical evidence.  This explains Einstein view of quantum mechanics when he said: “God does not play dice with human beings”. 

The journey of Stephen Hawking started in his book, A Brief History of Time, a best seller book where 10 million copies were sold. He is a popular science writer who showed how science and life are interlinked. He expanded the boundaries of human understanding of the Universe and tried to develop a Theory of Everything to reconcile the two divergent theories; i.e., quantum mechanics which explains the physics of small atoms and the general theory of relativity by Einstein which only explains the physics of stars and galaxies. 

Who created the universe? If we say the universe is eternal, this contradicts with the concept of entropy and second law of thermodynamics. Einstein accepted the notion “the necessity of a beginning and the presence of superior reasoning power”. To answer this question, there is the cosmological argument which says there must be a cause for natural events; the teleological argument which argues that design in the cosmos implies a purpose; and rational argument which says that order in nature implies a mind or intelligent design. 

Hawking was warning of the state of Anthropocene due to technology and climate change. 

Islamic worldview of cosmology started in early writings of Al-Biruni and Ibn Sina where cosmological science is interlinked with revelation. The unity of the creator calls for humans to understand the cosmos as a duty. Every “thing” is living, articulate and intelligent and follows natural laws. Order and unity lies in all parts of the cosmos since there is logical coherence and Nature is viewed as a book of signs and embodies a sacred whole. We are responsible to develop a worldview that can enlighten human relationship with cosmos to ensure civilizational sustainability. 

Prof. Odeh Al-Jayyousi, Head of Innovation and Technology Management, Arabian Gulf University, Bahrain, 

 E-mail: odehaj@agu.edu