I think the idea of honoring Stephen Hawking with music by Vangelis is the product of a noble humanism. Given a lack of belief in a Supreme Being, humans still seek dignity, and music, art, and literature all provide the means to dignify the deceased. The European Space Agency will use its satellite dish at Ceberos, Spain, to send a Hawking memorial music-message to 1A0620-00, the nearest black hole that lies a little more than 3,000 light-years away in the constellation Monoceras.* While the message containing his thoughts travels outward to the heavens, the physical Hawking, by his own words a nonbeliever, ironically takes his final resting place in a church, the famous Westminster Abbey, where Newton, a believer, also lies in eternal rest. I confess (in reference to the saint to whom the abbey was dedicated) that I find the merger of believers and nonbelievers in a singularity of resting place to be particularly interesting. The believers accept a personal continuation ad infinitum; the nonbelievers think that Nothing is our destiny as we all eventually evaporate away in a universal black hole.
So, Hawking has a traditional memorial in the abbey, but that other memorial, the music-message that ties his words to a composition by Vangelis, is destined to travel more than 3,000 years until it reaches its final emplacement (assuming the ESA’s aim is good—that black hole is a moving target). And then, when the message reaches its destination, its electromagnetic carrier waves will warp and change in the extreme gravity of 1A0620-00, eventually plunging into oblivion as lost information. Considering that the pyramids are memorials over 4,000 years old, I would have suggested some similar building for a longer lasting Hawking memorial. At the end of its three-thousand-year journey, the Hawking memorial music-message will be swallowed by the black hole.
Anyway, the effort to memorialize Hawking by sending radio waves to a black hole will never serve as a long-term memorial among believers and nonbelievers. Once gone, those electromagnetic waves will never return, and no one will intercept them on their way off Earth. Even if some alien life-forms with radio technology intercept the broadcast, we’ll never know because their return question “Who is Hawking?” wouldn’t come back to Earth during our lifetimes, though, if the sent message is thorough in depicting Hawking’s science in terms they could understand, they would agree that he discovered a relationship between thermodynamics and black holes and put entropy and black-body radiation into the theoretical picture. “Thank you, Stephen,” Gorp and Org might say on their distant planet.
I’m sure that in the minds of the memorializers, the sending of the music-message seems appropriate. They’ll still have a memorial to visit in the abbey. I don’t want to be too cynical about the memorial service, but in addition to family and friends, some 1,000 people from the general public applied for seats at the memorial in Westminster, and I suspect their motives for wanting to be connected to the service. If that group includes the famous who are not famous for their work in physics, is it possible that showing up gives them a chance for some publicity? “Donald, stop with the cynicism,” you quickly interject. “They wished to be part of the service because they wished to remember a great man.”
“But there was a movie,” I declare, “and the famous do draw paparazzi and idolizers. Just saying. Sorry, but I suspect that some think attending is a way to rub shoulders with the rich and famous. I just also suspect motives when so many media representatives attend such an event.”
“Why are you even writing about this. Let the poor ALS-afflicted genius rest in the abbey and his music-message zoom to 1A0620-00 at the speed of light.”
“You’re right. He was a genius, and I always wondered how much more he might have accomplished had he not had the debilitating disease. Tying thermodynamics to black holes was something all the other geniuses seemed to have missed, and Hawking caught the connection. Hawking truly deserves everyone’s respect and a memorial of great significance.
“It’s just that the ‘show’ part seems to diminish the legacy of a great man. Not able to stand, he nevertheless stood head and shoulders above most of us, and in a paraphrase of Newton’s humble remark, ‘Hawking will be one set of shoulders on whom future physicists will stand.’ I think he was not only one of the great intellects, but also one of the hardest workers, a man who did not let a disability interfere with his work. That indicates to me a resilient person, and I find dignity in resilience.
“Yes, for a long time, physicists will work to elaborate Hawking’s work, but maybe there’s a lesson in his life that we should memorialize in a music-message to the stars. Could we not also send in an acknowledgement of his human dignity the message: ‘This is a man who did not let a debilitating disease lessen his persistence to understand the cosmos and explain it to the rest of us.’ Persistence in the face of adversity is the kind of message we’re used to associating with comeback athletes and successful wounded warriors. Why not associate it with a theoretical physicist? That’s the kind of message that reveals the positive side of a humanistic approach to dignity.
“There are people who don’t have a religion and who don’t believe in God, but who exhibit in their lives the essence of human dignity that is defined as the noble pursuit of understanding and knowledge. Few, if any of them, will have their lives memorialized in a message to the stars, and very few of them will have stars attend their memorial service.
“Eventually, Hawking’s electromagnetic memorial will be destroyed, his words lost in the singularity he once explained. Probably, Westminster Abbey, like the Greek temples and Roman forum, will also have been destroyed or will have fallen into decaying ruins by the time Hawking’s message reaches 1A0620-00. Will the man, who wanted to explain the Theory of Everything, have come to Nothing? Will Newton, who believed in a personal eternity, watch as the black hole evaporates? What do you think?”
*The black hole is also labeled V616 Monocerotis.
So, Hawking has a traditional memorial in the abbey, but that other memorial, the music-message that ties his words to a composition by Vangelis, is destined to travel more than 3,000 years until it reaches its final emplacement (assuming the ESA’s aim is good—that black hole is a moving target). And then, when the message reaches its destination, its electromagnetic carrier waves will warp and change in the extreme gravity of 1A0620-00, eventually plunging into oblivion as lost information. Considering that the pyramids are memorials over 4,000 years old, I would have suggested some similar building for a longer lasting Hawking memorial. At the end of its three-thousand-year journey, the Hawking memorial music-message will be swallowed by the black hole.
Anyway, the effort to memorialize Hawking by sending radio waves to a black hole will never serve as a long-term memorial among believers and nonbelievers. Once gone, those electromagnetic waves will never return, and no one will intercept them on their way off Earth. Even if some alien life-forms with radio technology intercept the broadcast, we’ll never know because their return question “Who is Hawking?” wouldn’t come back to Earth during our lifetimes, though, if the sent message is thorough in depicting Hawking’s science in terms they could understand, they would agree that he discovered a relationship between thermodynamics and black holes and put entropy and black-body radiation into the theoretical picture. “Thank you, Stephen,” Gorp and Org might say on their distant planet.
I’m sure that in the minds of the memorializers, the sending of the music-message seems appropriate. They’ll still have a memorial to visit in the abbey. I don’t want to be too cynical about the memorial service, but in addition to family and friends, some 1,000 people from the general public applied for seats at the memorial in Westminster, and I suspect their motives for wanting to be connected to the service. If that group includes the famous who are not famous for their work in physics, is it possible that showing up gives them a chance for some publicity? “Donald, stop with the cynicism,” you quickly interject. “They wished to be part of the service because they wished to remember a great man.”
“But there was a movie,” I declare, “and the famous do draw paparazzi and idolizers. Just saying. Sorry, but I suspect that some think attending is a way to rub shoulders with the rich and famous. I just also suspect motives when so many media representatives attend such an event.”
“Why are you even writing about this. Let the poor ALS-afflicted genius rest in the abbey and his music-message zoom to 1A0620-00 at the speed of light.”
“You’re right. He was a genius, and I always wondered how much more he might have accomplished had he not had the debilitating disease. Tying thermodynamics to black holes was something all the other geniuses seemed to have missed, and Hawking caught the connection. Hawking truly deserves everyone’s respect and a memorial of great significance.
“It’s just that the ‘show’ part seems to diminish the legacy of a great man. Not able to stand, he nevertheless stood head and shoulders above most of us, and in a paraphrase of Newton’s humble remark, ‘Hawking will be one set of shoulders on whom future physicists will stand.’ I think he was not only one of the great intellects, but also one of the hardest workers, a man who did not let a disability interfere with his work. That indicates to me a resilient person, and I find dignity in resilience.
“Yes, for a long time, physicists will work to elaborate Hawking’s work, but maybe there’s a lesson in his life that we should memorialize in a music-message to the stars. Could we not also send in an acknowledgement of his human dignity the message: ‘This is a man who did not let a debilitating disease lessen his persistence to understand the cosmos and explain it to the rest of us.’ Persistence in the face of adversity is the kind of message we’re used to associating with comeback athletes and successful wounded warriors. Why not associate it with a theoretical physicist? That’s the kind of message that reveals the positive side of a humanistic approach to dignity.
“There are people who don’t have a religion and who don’t believe in God, but who exhibit in their lives the essence of human dignity that is defined as the noble pursuit of understanding and knowledge. Few, if any of them, will have their lives memorialized in a message to the stars, and very few of them will have stars attend their memorial service.
“Eventually, Hawking’s electromagnetic memorial will be destroyed, his words lost in the singularity he once explained. Probably, Westminster Abbey, like the Greek temples and Roman forum, will also have been destroyed or will have fallen into decaying ruins by the time Hawking’s message reaches 1A0620-00. Will the man, who wanted to explain the Theory of Everything, have come to Nothing? Will Newton, who believed in a personal eternity, watch as the black hole evaporates? What do you think?”
*The black hole is also labeled V616 Monocerotis.
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