When I gave a lecture in Japan, I was asked not to mention the possible re-collapse of the universe, because it might affect the stock market. Howeve… - Stephen Hawking

These lectures have shown very clearly the difference between Roger and me. He's a Platonist and I'm a positivist. He's worried that Schrödinger's cat is in a quantum state, where it is half alive and half dead. He feels that can't correspond to reality. But that doesn't bother me. I don't demand that a theory correspond to reality because I don't know what it is. Reality is not a quality you can test with litmus paper. All I'm concerned with is that the theory should predict the results of measurements. Quantum theory does this very successfully. It predicts that the result of an observation is either that the cat is alive or that it is dead. It is like you can't be slightly pregnant: you either are or you aren't.

Whatever happens on earth, the rest of the universe will carry on regardless.

I have noticed that even those who assert that everything is predestined and that we can change nothing about it still look both ways before they cross the street.