Stephen Hawking’s Uplifting Message: You Can Get Yourself Out of Any Hole, No Matter What Their Size

Several weeks back, you might recall, Stephen Hawking delivered two Reith lectures over the radio airwaves of the BBC –one called “Do Black Holes Have No Hair?,” the other “Black Holes Ain’t as Black as They Are Painted.” Both were featured here, accompanied by some lively chalkboard animations.

Above you can watch an outtake from the second lecture, this time animated in a different aesthetic. It’s trippy, hypnotic, and unless you’re grounded in the material, the talk will leave you a little baffled–at least until the end, when Hawking leaves us with a life-affirming message anyone can relate to. “If you feel like you’re in a black hole, don’t give up. There’s a way out.” At once, he’s talking literally about black holes that are no longer thought to consume everything they encounter, and the metaphorical ones we all run into, somewhere along the way, in life.

On that uplifting note, another week begins…

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  • Mark Aasen says:

    Dear Mr. Hawking. If you would read this and respond with your opinion, good or bad, please.
    I believe that 30 to 35 billion years ago there was a BIG BANG. This one did not have just the right things to form stars, planets, galaxies the way the next Big Bang did. Our Big Bang 13 to 14 billion years ago.
    This Big Bang spewed out hydrogen, helium, and electrons.
    These things expanded but never formed anything. Eventually the hydrogen, helium, and the electrons changed, after several billion years, into something else.
    I believe the hydrogen and helium changed into what we call DARK MATTER and the electrons changed into what we call DARK ENERGY.
    This is what I think is what makes up what we call the fabric of space.
    I also think this ” fabric of space ” is what prevents us from going faster than light. However, I think it’s possible to find a was around that problem, so we could travel even a 100 times faster than light. I believe this I admit, because if we can not, alone in the universe or not, we will never see for ourselves. Thank you for your time.

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