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Thoughts on the Book 'Brief Answers to the Big Questions' (Ch. 6)

Chapter 6

By Selena VazquezPublished 5 years ago 4 min read
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In terms of this chapter, I do believe that time travel is currently not real, but I think there is still a chance that it might exist one day. I personally do not think we will ever see it actually made and used in our lifetime. Compared to aliens, God, etc… I think time travel is on the bottom of the list of being real. Hawking made the statement that, “In science fiction, space and time warps are commonplace. They are used for rapid journeys around the galaxy or for travel through time.” This statement stood out to me because there are so many movies and shows that use time travel. The most recent I’ve seen are Avengers: Endgame and Supernatural.

Hawking depicted, “The idea that space and time can be curved or warped is fairly recent.” This statement stood out to me because time travel has been something I’ve known for as long as I can remember and it is crazy to think people from a really long time ago never even thought about this at all. Hawking claims, “This meant that time and space were inextricably bound up with each other.” I found this very interesting and it changes the way I view space and time as individual concepts.

Hawking asserted, “So all we need for time travel is a spaceship that will go faster than light. So it would take an infinite amount of power to accelerate past the speed of light.” If that is the way humans time travel I am positive I will not see this in my lifetime, I think this will take a long time to complete. Hawking exclaims, “If one couldn’t go faster than light the round trip from us to the nearest star would take at least eight years and to the centre of the galaxy about 50,000 years.” This might be weird, but I would definitely accept if NASA or whatever asked me to do this, but only with certain conditions. These include the following: access to Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, my dog can come, comfortable bed, a big spaceship, face time, food I love, and the ability to watch new movies that come out. Hawking claims, “But that wouldn’t be much consolation if everyone you had known had died and been forgotten thousands of years ago when you got back.” He does have a fair point, but it would be a fun adventure and a good story; my dog and me figuring out this new world without knowing anyone but each other, how fun.

Hawking postulates, “No government agency could afford to be seen to be spending public money on anything as way out as time travel.” I believe that if the government had already figured out time travel we would know, I really do not think they could hide this secret for long. Hawking exclaims, “Even if there were sound reasons for keeping us in ignorance, human nature being what it is it is difficult to believe that someone wouldn’t show off and tell us poor benighted peasants the secret of time travel.” This goes back to what I was saying because I believe that humans are immensely greedy and want to keep everything to themselves, but with the effect time travel would have on our timeline, I believe we would find out.

Hawking made the statement, “... UFOs come from the future and that governments are engaged in a gigantic conspiracy to cover them up and keep for themselves the scientific knowledge that these visitor bring.” Once again, there is so much bad blood between so many countries that I do not believe they would be able to come together and hide this secret. Hawking claims, “Instead the universe has every single possible history, with each with its own probability.” I personally do believe in alternate realities and the multiverse, so this statement makes sense to me. The only thing I would say is that I’m pretty angry that I got stuck on this earth and not one that is better. Why could I have not been born in a world where everyone is equal, where everyone has equal rights, where everyone can do what they want with their own bodies, where animals are not slaughtered, where slavery did not happen, where the Holocaust did not happen, where racism is not real, where sexism is not real, where homophobia is not real, where the government actually does something to stop climate change, and all these other things. Who exactly decided that I should be born on this earth? Because it really sucks and they suck, but I can not do anything about it anyway.

Hawking describes, “They could cause great logical problems, so let’s hope there’s a Chronology Protection Law to prevent people going back and killing their parents.” This stood out to me because I have no clue how the government is going to be able to control the people who time travel and what they do, the laws now are not okay and I feel like it would be crazy if time travel was available to multiple people.

Hawking pointed out, “But today’s science fiction is often tomorrow’s science fact.” This statement stood out to me because it is completely true; in the past, people would read and watch movies about robots, cell phones, and all these other things that we do have now and that we use on the daily basis. We have laptops, incredible CGI (just look at Marvel movies), iPhones, apple watches, bluetooth, computers in our cars, and so many other things that people in the past used to consider science fiction. In my opinion this country is going extremely backwards with this administration and all these terrible laws I read about, but the one thing that has continuously improved is technology and science.

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About the Creator

Selena Vazquez

She/Her/Hers-Fandoms-Books-Movies-TV shows-Intersectional Feminist-Slytherin-Aquarius- Just an IB student trying to get CAS hours-

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