If the rate of expansion one second after the Big Bang had been smaller by even one part in a hundred thousand million million, it would have recollapsed before it reached its present size. On the other hand, if it had been greater by a part in a million, the universe would have expanded too rapidly for stars and planets to form.
Stephen HawkingIn real time, the universe has a beginning and an end at singularities that form a boundary to space-time and at which the laws of science break down.
Stephen HawkingI don't think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space.
Stephen HawkingI think the next [21st] century will be the century of complexity. We have already discovered the basic laws that govern matter and understand all the normal situations. We don't know how the laws fit together, and what happens under extreme conditions. But I expect we will find a complete unified theory sometime this century. The is no limit to the complexity that we can build using those basic laws.
Stephen Hawking