[Hawking] plans to team up with his daughter, 35-year-old journalist and novelist Lucy Hawking, to write a children's book about the universe aimed at the same age group as the Harry Potter books."It is a story for children, which explains the wonders of the universe," said Lucy Hawking. They did not provide further details.
A book that makes the wonders of the universe accessible to children, fine, great...
...but please don't waffle at us about moving into space. The puerile idea that hi-tech, capital-intensive solutions would bail us out of long-term problems such as climate change or poor quality of life has really reached the end of all credibility. This idea represents an abdication of responsibility and an inability to live in the now. As all good taoists will know, nothing exists but the now. We have everything to play for and everything to play with. Right here and now. We inhabit a miraculous place.
This is the time to end the corny national ego-boost and ecological nightmare of space programmes, to travel less, to check out the here and now. If you're banking on surviving in space, please, leave me behind.