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Stephen Hawking lost $100 bet over Higgs boson discovery
- s_henry_paulson 14y agoSeems like he was betting $100 on altruism. I have no idea how to feel after watching this video.
- dekz 14y agoI wouldn't say altruism, more like an anarchist's expectation. It seems some people would've liked there to be no observation just to 'shake things up' and then have to move to a new model. Hawking does mention in the video that the greatest discoveries come from unexpected results. The Higgs Boson has been expected for decades.
- kiba 14y agoWhen predictions come up as expected, it's no fun!
- imrehg 14y agoI'm a physicist, and I can predicting something then the measurement matching the prediction is freakin' awesome! I have loads of "amazing how well physics works" moments in the lab all the time. Of course, when it doesn't, it's time for more theory, then more labs, which is fun as well indeed. It's a win-win.
- zitterbewegung 14y agoThink of it this way. What does Stephen Hawking get if he is wrong? -$100 dollars +Media coverage saying that he was wrong which promotes physics. What does Stephen Hawking get if he is right? +$100 dollars +Media coverage saying that Stephen Hawking is right which promotes physics. This is not altruism this is intelligent promotion of a topic that you want children and young adults to be educated in. It is a paid advertisement for physics by a celebrity. Similar to athletes who get paid endorsements. It encourages people to challenge him. Using his celebrity status can inspire people into doing Physics, Math or Engineering. We need more scientists and engineers. Professor Hawking knows Physics but even better he knows how the play the media.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- achal 14y agoXKCD mentioned a similar idea a while back. http://xkcd.com/955/ http://xkcd.com/955/.
- rokhayakebe 14y agoNope, he is just reminding every person on earth, and especially scientists, that science is not dogmatic, that there is no set stone, that to every Ptolemic theory we may hold, a Copernican view is waiting to be expounded.
- andyjenn 14y agoSomething I've wondered, presumably for several hundred years, Ptolemy's observations could be thought of as the standard model, and consistently day after day, year after year, the sun rose in the east and set in the west to 5 or 6 sigma etc.. that it could be said was proof he was correct. Ptolemy is often spoken in the pejorative, but for so long until the man from Krakow came along, how could you prove otherwise? Does this situation apply today and that a future "Copernicus" will turn the Higgs Boson on its head? Genuinely interested how a consistent set of findings which correspond to predictions, can really be said to prove a discovery?
- bluestix 14y ago"The Egyptians pride themselves on being the most ancient people in the world. In their authentic annals ... one may read that since they have been in existence, the course of the stars has changed direction four times, and that the sun has set twice in that part of the sky where it rises today."
- david927 14y agoBut remember, his theory had huge holes, such as the movement of the planets. Newton's model, too, explained much more, but still not everything, and Einstein then helped fill that gap. It's not a case of Model A is 100% right but, look!, Model B is also 100% right and better. It's more like Model A is 97%, Model B 99.1%,...
- olalonde 14y agoEliezer Yudkowsky (AI researcher) also lost his bet it seems (http://lesswrong.com/lw/1dt/open_thread_november_2009/17xb http://lesswrong.com/lw/1dt/open_thread_november_2009/17xb).
- StavrosK 14y agoSemi-offtopic, but I'm currently reading his book, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, and it's just amazing. Quite a page-turner. I highly recommend it. Also, I've never read any of the original Harry Potter books, so don't sweat it if you haven't either.
- SoftwareMaven 14y agoI'm currently reading it to my 11 year old son (who loves it). I love how it gives me an opportunity to sneak in some lectures on rationality as I explain some of the jokes.
- StavrosK 14y agoHell, I want to have a son just to read it to him. Also, maybe I should give it to a few of my friends...
- kposehn 14y agoHell yes, that is an excellent story. Glad other hackers are enjoying it too :)
- JoshTriplett 14y agoAlso offtopic: for anyone interested in starting it, especially late in the evening, try http://www.comic-rocket.com/go?uri=http%3A//hpmor.com/chapter/1 http://www.comic-rocket.com/go?uri=http%3A//hpmor.com/chapte... ; that way, when it gets to be early in the morning, you can stop, mark your place, and come back later.
- brass9 14y ago
- garyrichardson 14y agoHis smile at the end of the video is priceless.
- akkartik 14y agoI came here to say the same thing. I had no idea he could smile. This is almost as important as learning of the Higgs boson.
- capex 14y agoCame to say this, ditto.
- Bitwse 14y agoThis truly is breaking news
- ThePherocity 14y agoI'm so glad you mentioned that, I wasn't going to watch it at first. A synopsis prepared by Hawking hours earlier read on command by his robot voice, all the while having the camera focused on him while he's shifting in his seat waiting for the statement to end, didn't interest me. But that smile at the end made my week.
- DigitalSea 14y agoFair enough they've found proof that Higgs Boson exists but this is only the beginning. Nothing will come of this discovery for a very long time, it's a start but there are many more years of research before any benefit of this discovery is seen or felt. Great news though, I knew they'd find it eventually.
- dedward 14y agoThe same could be said of many subatomic particles that were found as we built larger and larger colliders.... it's a very big deal in advancing our understanding of.... everything.
- DigitalSea 14y agoI'm not saying it's not a big deal, but what I am saying is this means nothing at this point in time. Discovering proof of the Higgs Boson opens up the possibility of understanding our universe and how things work, but at present the discovery means nothing to anyone but the investors involved and the employee's at CERN who keep their jobs for another few years. There is a possibility that even though we've discovered the Higgs, nothing else will ever be discovered or come of it.
- DigitalSea 14y agoI don't mean to double post, but I noticed that Stephen Wolfram (no stranger to physics) has even come out saying that he is disappointed and believes the chances of another discovery in this lifetime are pretty low. http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/07/why-the-higgs-boson-discovery-is-disappointing-according-to-the-smartest-man-in-the-world/259468/ http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/07/why-th... We've proved the simple model, but as I said I don't think anything else will come of this and even if something does come of this I doubt you or I will be alive to see the results.
- DanBC 14y agoWhat else are they going to do with LHC now?
- anacrolix 14y agoPut shuttles in there like they did in James Bond and whiz people around on joy rides.
- peeters 14y agoFigure out how the heck the Higgs boson actually behaves, for starters (they just found it). But my understanding is the LHC is not a single-purpose tool. You can observe a variety of particles at a variety of energies. edit: s/behave/observe/
- dbaupp 14y agoThere is quite a few broad topics suggested for the LHC[1], and even right now there are 3 other experiments running on it[2]. (ATLAS is the Higg's boson experiment, although it isn't just looking for the Higg's boson.) [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider#Purpose http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider#Purpose [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Large_Hadron_Collider_experiments http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Large_Hadron_Collider_e...
- edj 14y agoThey're going to shut it down towards the end of the year, refurbish it, and boost the energy level significantly. http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2012/PR01.12E.html http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2012/PR...
- teamonkey 14y agoThis is not the first time Hawking has made such a bet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorne–Hawking–Preskill_bet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorne–Hawking–Preskill_bet
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- jpalomaki 14y agoDid he make the bet because: a) He did not believe Higgs boson exists? b) He believed Higgs boson exists, but could not be "found"? c) Just for fun d) Publicity stunt
- md8 14y agoMay be to pose a challenge to Higgs.
- agentgt 14y agoDoes anybody else hate videos w/o an abstract or short description? I can read/skim faster than videos play so I hate video news where I have to waste a couple of minutes when I could have read it in 30 seconds.