Feature
There’s No God. No One Directs Our Fate: Stephen Hawking In His Last Book
In “Brief Answers To The Big Questions”, the last book published in renowned physicist Stephen Hawkings 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”.
The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index
Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.
The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports
Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.
All for the Tourists
The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.
“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.
To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.
Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market
With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.
Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.
Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.
Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting
Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.
Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.
The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.
If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.
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