We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet.
Throughout history, people have studied pure science from a desire to understand the universe rather than practical applications for commercial gain. But their discoveries later turned out to have great practical benefits.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Pure science often emerges from curiosity and the pursuit of understanding, leading to practical benefits over time.
This quote by Stephen Hawking highlights the intrinsic human desire to explore and comprehend the universe through pure science, which is often driven by curiosity rather than immediate practical applications. It suggests that while the motivation may not initially focus on commercial gain, the discoveries made through such explorations can eventually result in significant practical benefits for society, underscoring the value of science as a pursuit of knowledge.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about the importance of scientific research, one could quote Hawking to emphasize the long-term benefits of pure science.
More from Stephen Hawking
All quotes →I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.
It surprises me how disinterested we are today about things like physics, space, the universe and philosophy of our existence, our purpose, our final destination. Its a crazy world out there. Be curious.
I was not a good student. I did not spend much time at college; I was too busy enjoying myself.
The world has changed far more in the past 100 years than in any other century in history. The reason is not political or economic but technological-technologies that flowed directly from advances in basic science. Clearly, no scientist better represents those advances than Albert Einstein: TIME's Person of the Century.
In my opinion, there is no aspect of reality beyond the reach of the human mind.
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We used to think that you could pay attention to five to nine things at a time. We now know that's not true. That's a crazy overestimate. The conscious mind can attend to about three things at once. Trying to juggle any more than that, and you're going to lose some brainpower.
I would still very much love to change the world, and there are three or four neurological diseases that I've got a personal grudge against. I wouldn't mind mopping them up in one amazing experiment to come out of my lab, and I certainly wouldn't mind transforming hundreds of thousands of people's lives overnight with some discovery.
I would never have been a good scientist - my attention span was too short for that.
Science merely amplifies the capabilities of human beings. Science gives us the ability to do ill and to do good more than we had, and to question science in this respect is like questioning whether people ought to have two hands or just one, because with two hands they could do more evil than they can with just one.
When I left NASA, I was looking at how you could use space technologies for developing countries' work.
One aim of physical sciences had been to give an exact picture the material world. One achievement of physics in the twentieth century has been to prove that that aim is unattainable.