I'd bought his first book a few years ago and I managed to read parts of it but not all... then I lost it, and I was thinking of buying it again to try and resume that.
All in all, I didn't know much about him (other than what I got via 'cultural osmosis') but once in a while he came up on my newsfeed and I clicked, he was always interesting and obviously outstandingly bright. I also watched the film, but I'm aware that's not necessarily an accurate depiction of his life.
So, I cannot feel his loss the way millions of people do, let alone those who'd actually met him, but I still feel it's really sad and definitely a day most of us will remember for years to come. As with others, we knew this was coming, but I somehow felt it wouldn't... I thought he'd always be there somehow ... and somehow, he will - not in the sense of an afterlife (as far as we know, there's no such thing other than in the realms of imagination and wishful thinking), but in the sense of his impact and influence.
Very sad to hear that he died, but amazed at the amount of work he managed to do in so many fields of physics, not to mention defying all statistics on ALS survival times by orders of magnitude.
The smartest man in the world is dead, and three of the stupidest men in the world have control of nuclear arsenals. What a mess we've become.
And if Hawking is right, we have about a hundred years to figure a way out of it. link
Hawking lived 50 years longer than he should have. It almost seemed like he was immortal. A life very well lived.
RIP, doctor.