--- title: Stephen Hawking Reddit AMA: Astrophysicist's Best Answers description: He reveals the greatest mystery of all, plus his favorite song of all time and his fears about artificial intelligence canonical: https://time.com/4066421/stephen-hawking-reddit-ama/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-08T17:00:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:02:58.715Z og:title: Stephen Hawking Revealed Life's Most Intriguing Mystery in His Reddit AMA og:description: Plus, his favorite song of all time and his fears about artificial intelligence og:url: https://time.com/4066421/stephen-hawking-reddit-ama/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4dcf998d81035567/6988532506f2c11d1333a81d/stephen-hawking.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1706 og:image:height: 960 og:image:alt: Stephen Hawking og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stephen Hawking Revealed Life's Most Intriguing Mystery in His Reddit AMA twitter:description: Plus, his favorite song of all time and his fears about artificial intelligence twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4dcf998d81035567/6988532506f2c11d1333a81d/stephen-hawking.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Stephen Hawking Revealed Life's Most Intriguing Mystery in His Reddit AMA > Sponsored content. 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Mike Marsland—WireImage by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Oct 8, 2015 5:00 PM UTC Back in July, Stephen Hawking began collecting questions for his first-ever [Ask Me Anything Q&A session](https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/3nyn5i/science%5Fama%5Fseries%5Fstephen%5Fhawking%5Fama%5Fanswers/) on Reddit. Now, the legendary astrophysicist has tackled some of the questions. Hawking mostly focused on inquiries about artificial intelligence, which was predetermined as the overarching topic of the AMA. (Earlier this year, Hawking signed [an open letter](http://time.com/3973500/elon-musk-stephen-hawking-ai-weapons/), along with Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, warning of the dangers of weaponized robots and of a potential “global AI arms race.”) But the scientist also addressed other topics, like Rod Stewart, _The Big Bang Theory_, and life’s greatest mystery. (Which, as the Washington _Post_ [points out](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/10/08/highlights-from-stephen-hawkings-reddit-ama-women-are-the-most-intriguing-mystery/), is not actually a mystery.) Here are a few of his best responses. ### **On whether a machine can become smarter than its creator:** “It’s clearly possible for a something to acquire higher intelligence than its ancestors: we evolved to be smarter than our ape-like ancestors, and Einstein was smarter than his parents.” ### **On life’s most intriguing mystery:** “Women. My PA reminds me that although I have a PhD in physics women should remain a mystery.” ### **On his favorite song ever written, and his favorite movie of all time:** “Have I Told You Lately” by Rod Stewart and _Jules et Jim_ ### **On the real risk of AI:** “Media often misrepresent what is actually said. The real risk with AI isn’t malice but competence. A superintelligent AI will be extremely good at accomplishing its goals, and if those goals aren’t aligned with ours, we’re in trouble. You’re probably not an evil ant-hater who steps on ants out of malice, but if you’re in charge of a hydroelectric green energy project and there’s an anthill in the region to be flooded, too bad for the ants. Let’s not place humanity in the position of those ants. Please encourage your students to think not only about how to create AI, but also about how to ensure its beneficial use.” ### **On the last thing he saw online that he found hilarious:** _The Big Bang Theory_ ### On “technological unemployment” and whether machines will take all our jobs: “If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed. Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality.” _Read next:_ [_Read Stephen Hawking’s Sweet Note to Eddie Redmayne After His Oscar Win_](http://time.com/3719584/eddie-redmayne-best-actor-oscar-stephen-hawking/) ## Transcript >> Hi. I'm Jeffrey Kluger for TIME and we're here today to ask questions of Stephen Hawking, perhaps the world's best known living cosmologist, physicist and mathematician. Hawking is known as much for the body of his work as for the obstacles he's had to overcome to conduct that work. Ill with ALS or a Lou Gehrig's Disease since 1962, Hawking has been confined to a wheelchair and has been fully paralyzed for several decades. That hasn't stopped him however from producing six popular science books including the recently released, The Grand Design and two children's books written with his daughter Lucy. We sent your questions to Dr. Hawking three weeks in advance and in that time. He assembled his answers one letter at a time by computer and then expressed them through a voice synthesis system. Stephen Hawking will now take your questions. We have a question from Stanford Connecticut. " If somehow you could say something to Albert Einstein, what would you say? >> I would ask him why he didn't believe in black holes. The field equation of his generation theory of relativity implies that a large star or a cloud of gas would collapse in on itself and form a black hole. Einstein was aware of this. But somehow managed to convinced himself that something like an explosion would always occur to throw off mass and prevent the formation of a black hole. What if there was no explosion? >> Do you think our civilization will survive long enough to make the leap to deeper space? >> I think we have a good chance of surviving long enough to call [ unk ] solar system. However, there is nowhere else in the solar system, anything like as suitable as the earth, so it is not clear if we would survive if the earth was made unfit for habitation. To insure our law in terms survival, we need to reach the stars. That will take much longer. Let's hope we can last until then. >> Do you feel that your physical limitations have helped or hindered your study? >> Although I was unfortunate enough to get motor neuron disease, I have been very fortunate in almost everything else. I was lucky to be working in theoretical physics, one of the few areas in which disability was not a serious handicap and to had neglected with my popular books. >> What scientific discovery or technological advancement would you like to see realized in your lifetime? >> I would like nuclear fusion to become a practical power source. It would provide an exhaustible supply of energy without pollution or global warming. >> I guess everyone here will be asking you questions about the deepest mysteries of the Universe, so I will ask something more mundane. What is your favorite memory? >> It was when I visited Antarctica 1997. The Chilean Air Force flew a group of theoretical physicists down to their base on King George's Island off the Antarctica Peninsula. My wheelchair didn't-- has no change but they took me round on a snow mobile. >> Does the Universe end? If so, what is beyond it? >> Observations indicate that the Universe is expanding at another increasing rate. It will expand forever getting emptier and darker. All those, the universe doesn't have an end and a beginning of the Bing Bang. One might asks what is before that. But the answer is that there is nowhere before the Bing Bang, and thus has there is nowhere south of the south pole. >> Does it feel like a huge responsibility to have people expecting you to have all the answers to all of life's mysteries? >> I certainly don't have the answers to all the life's problems. While Physics and Mathematics may tell us how the Universe began, they are not much use in predicting human behavior, because they are far too many equations to solve. 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