On Friday, Stephen Hawking emphasized that, in light of the Brexit vote, it's important to understand the role wealth will play in shaping humanity's future.

In the past, the renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has expressed his views on a wide variety of topics ranging from parallel universes to the future of humanity.
On Friday, he shared his thoughts in a Guardian opinion piece on the recent Brexit vote and how we think about wealth has a profound impact on our future.
Hawking starts by noting, "Does money matter? Does wealth make us rich any more? These might seem like odd questions for a physicist to try to answer, but Britain’s referendum decision is a reminder that everything is connected and that if we wish to understand the fundamental nature of the universe, we’d be very foolish to ignore the role that wealth does and doesn’t play in our society."
Hawking acknowledges that he was against the U.K. leaving the European Union at the time, but now, it's time to look ahead.
He explains, "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. 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."
Further, Hawking warns, "If we fail then the forces that contributed to Brexit, the envy and isolationism not just in the UK 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."
However, he ends his piece on a positive note, "...we can and will succeed. Humans are endlessly resourceful, optimistic and adaptable."