On
Friday, Hawking said that the June 23 vote was down to British
attitudes towards wealth and money and that it was time for an "honest"
debate about "the role that wealth does and doesn't play in our
society."
Hawking
had been a part of the remain camp in the lead up to the referendum,
saying that it would be a mistake for Britain to leave the union. He had
argued that Britain risked being isolated and that crucial funding for
scientific research was at risk.
The
vote to leave the EU was largely seen as having been driven by concerns
over the U.K.'s sovereignty and immigration, although there were
widespread regional and socio-economic differences between those voting
to leave and those wanting to stay in the EU.
In
his opinion piece Friday, Hawking said he was "sad about the result,
but if I've learned one lesson in my life it is to make the best of the
hand you are dealt."
"Now
we must learn to live outside the EU, but in order to manage that
successfully we need to understand why British people made the choice
that they did," he said, adding that "I believe that wealth, the way we
understand it and the way we share it, played a crucial role in their
decision."
Although
money is important as a "facilitator for ideas, or health, or
security," Hawking said, he added that a narrow-definition of wealth and
an unwillingness to share had been factors behind the U.K. vote.
He
warned that it was "never as an end in itself" and he hoped fundamental
assumptions about wealth and ownership would change amid challenging
times.
"We
are in perilous times. Our planet and the human race face multiple
challenges. These challenges are global and serious – climate change,
food production, overpopulation, the decimation of other species,
epidemic disease, acidification of the oceans. Such pressing issues will
require us to collaborate, all of us, with a shared vision and
cooperative endeavour to ensure that humanity can survive," he wrote.
"We
will need to adapt, rethink, refocus and change some of our fundamental
assumptions about what we mean by wealth, by possessions, by mine and
yours. Just like children, we will have to learn to share."
The
scientist warned that "if we fail, then the forces that contributed to
Brexit, the envy and isolationism not just in the U.K. but around the
world that spring from not sharing, of cultures driven by a narrow
definition of wealth and a failure to divide it more fairly, both within
nations and across national borders, will strengthen."
"If that were to happen, I would not be optimistic about the long-term outlook for our species," he added.
Ending
on a more positive note, Hawking said: "We can and will succeed. Humans
are endlessly resourceful, optimistic and adaptable. We must broaden
our definition of wealth to include knowledge, natural resources, and
human capacity, and at the same time learn to share each of those more
fairly. If we do this, then there is no limit to what humans can achieve
together."
CNBC
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