This Is How Stephen Hawking Predicted The End Of The World

Stephen Hawking didn't live to see the COVID pandemic, but if he had seen it and the culture of science-denying anti-vaxxers that sprang up all over the world, he may have said something like, "I told you so."

When he spoke to Wired way back in 2017, the world was already on the anti-science warpath. Explaining that people didn't trust it because they didn't understand it, Hawking said, "It seems as if we are now living in a time in which science and scientists are in danger of being held in low, and decreasing, esteem. This could have serious consequences."

He had said something similar in 2015 (via The Guardian): "We have come to expect a steady increase in standard of living that science and technology have brought. But people distrust science, because they don't understand it ..." And that, he went on to say, was the key that was going to unlock the Pandora's Box of all the things that he believed had the ability to end the world, from genetic engineering to climate change. Without a basic understanding of scientific principles and a trust that scientists are right, bad decisions are bound to be made.

Hawking had a fix for this, too. In addition to embarking on scientific projects that wouldn't just change the world, but that would get the public — and particularly, the younger generation — involved, he said (via the BBC), "... everyone needs to have a basic understanding of science to make informed decisions about the future."

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