In "Brief Answers To The Big Questions", the last book published in renowned physicist Stephen Hawking's name, he has reached the conclusion that there is no God.

"There is no God. No one directs the universe," he writes in "Brief Answers to the Big Questions.

"For centuries, it was believed that disabled people like me were living under a curse that was inflicted by God," he adds. "I prefer to think that everything can be explained another way, by the laws of nature," Hawking writes.

The book was released in the West on Tuesday and arrived at Indian bookstores on Wednesday.

It has been completed by Hawking's family after his death, and features answers to several pertinent questions that were put to the physicist during his illustrious life.

Among Hawking's other important assertions and findings, sequences concerning extraterrestrial life and artificial intelligence will interest readers.

Hawking has concluded that there is alien life in existence and has anticipated that artificial intelligence, for all that it is worth, may outsmart humans.

"There are forms of intelligent life out there," he writes. "We need to be wary of answering back until we have developed a bit further."

He has also asserted that time travel cannot be ruled out.

"Travel back in time can't be ruled out according to our present understanding," he says, predicting that "within the next hundred years we will be able to travel to anywhere in the Solar System."

For most of his adult life, Hawking suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which is a neurodegenerative disorder, often referred to as Lou Gehrig's Disease.

The scientist died while still working on the book, which his family and colleagues finished with the help of his vast personal archives.

His many publications included "The Large Scale Structure of Spacetime" with G F R Ellis, "General Relativity: An Einstein Centenary Survey", with W Israel, and "300 Years of Gravitation", with W Israel.

Among the popular books Stephen Hawking published are his best seller "A Brief History of Time", "Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays", "The Universe in a Nutshell", "The Grand Design" and "My Brief History".

First Published:Oct 18, 2018 7:43 PM IST