Wednesday, August 11, 2010

An Apology To Stephen Hawking

Tēnā koutou katoa – Greetings to you allLink to image of Lake Taupophoto courtesy Jack Allan

In April 2009 I wrote a futuristic verse. It was a contribution to meet
Bud the Teacher’s deal to write a poem a day for the whole of that month. The verse looked only a little way into our possible future.


In the last stanza I predicted that Stephen Hawking might never have had a chance to say what I assumed had been running through his mind.


“It’s been a long time since Cataclysm.
They said in the beginning it might be
quite a journey. And so we are all here
in one form or another. No one knew
it would be so simple to start it off.

Even
Fermi didn’t, though more than most
he had the insight. ‘So where are they all?’
was what he put to them, knowing full well!

Fermi? He’s over by the supernova.
Can’t get him away from it. Addicted
they say – he always was fanatical.
Apparently he was among the first
to congratulate Hawking when he got here.

Hawking knew all along of course. It was
only a matter of time. And before
he let it all out it was far too late.”


I may have been wrong about Stephen's timeliness. I hope I was.
If so, I offer him my sincerest apology.



Let’s hope that Stephen’s advice is timely, to assist us to survive so our successors can tell a different tale a few hundred years from now.


Ngā mihi nui – Best wishes

4 comments:

Von said...

Phew!That's a bit of an assumption isn't it, knowing what's going through Hawkings agile,extraordinary mind?

Blogger In Middle-earth said...

Tēnā koe e Von

I admit that I took a double take when I listened to what Stephen had to say about this matter.

I think it would be 'a bit of an assumption', however, if I thought I knew everything that is going through his mind. I don't, of course, and make no claim to that here.

Thanks for dropping by Middle-earth.

Catchya later

samccoy said...

I watched this video also, and I must say that Dr. Hawking is the greatest physicist of his time, possibly the greatest scientist of his time also. Thanks for your excellent commentary. As usual, it's very insightful.

Blogger In Middle-earth said...

Kia ora e Sheryl!

I am an avid follower of all that Hawking does. A few years ago I was given a present of his book "God Created Integers" - an amazing compendium of the histories and lives of some of the greatest Science-and-Mathematical-thinking minds. Hawking is a man before his time!

Catchya later