I wonder to what extent the apocalyptarian aspects of a culture are driven by people entering the middle-age phase of their life where rapid growth stops and maintenance and decline begins?
A couple of other links along the same lines of the OP article:
Henny Penny revelations aside, I like to imagine that a sober analysis is possible and that there are prudent projects underway:
Regarding the OP article that claimed to be written by Steven Hawking (I wonder if that means "from the office that manages the public persona of Steven Hawking"?), there seemed to be an implied or suggested meaning behind the term "inequality" that probably deserves some exploration. I am reminded of how the US popular political culture use of the word "Freedom" changed from the implied "Freedom
from tyranny" to "Freedom
to self-gratify".