Tradition!

I ran across this bit of news on the Cosmic Variance web site:

This past weekend, without much fanfare, Stephen Hawking stepped down as Lucasian Professor of Mathematik at Cambridge. This is probably the most famous “chair” in all academe, and Hawking has sat in it for the past three decades. The position is 346 years old, and has been occupied by such luminaries as Dirac, Stokes, and most impressively, Sir Isaac Newton himself.

The primary reason for Hawking’s resignation is apparently not his recent health travails. Rather, it is customary for the Lucasian Professor to retire at the age of 67. And not even Hawking messes with centuries of tradition.

It is nice to see that some people still recognize and abide by traditions. It is tradition that gives some cohesiveness to life. In reality, Nature is indifferent to us, so it is human social convention that provides the only real structure to our lives: morality, law, tradition.