Does God play dice with the universe? No, was Albert Einstein`s emphatic answer. Stephen Hawking, however, feels not only does God play dice, but once in a while He throws it where it can`t be seen. ``Even God is bound by the Uncertainty Principle, and cannot know the position and velocity (of a particle), but only the wave function,`` said the eminent British cosmologist, delivering the Albert Einstein lecture on `Predicting the Future that too `From Astrology to Black Holes` in the Capital, Wednesday evening. Hawkings talk did manage to create waves. Hawking’s speech, though from a speech synthesiser and a portable computer attached to his motorised wheelchair, was enough to mesmerise the audience. The audience that had youngsters and students who hung on to every word that Hawking said. Hawking who ``uses God as a metaphor for the laws of nature``, said that the real reason most scientists don`t believe in astrology is not the scientific evidence, or lack of it, but because it`s not consistent with our other theories, which have been tested by experiment. Hawking known for his wit exhibited it amply during the lecture. Hawking then launched into the evolution of theoretical physics.
Not to mention his favourite topic of Black Holes, the famous bottomless holes in space-time with gravitational fields so intense that nothing, not even light, can escape from them, were the highlight of the lecture. ``Many people want to believe that information is not lost (inside black holes), because that would mean the world would be safe and predictable. I am not convinced,`` said Hawking. ``I feel if one takes Einstein`s General Theory of Relativity seriously, one must allow the possibility that space-time ties itself in a knot, and information gets lost in the folds,`` he explained.
So, foretelling the future may not be a happening thing in physics at present. But as Hawking made it clear that astrology with its "defensible claims" is no alternative. "Even God," he warned, " is bound by the Uncertainty Principle."