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Stephen Hawking on The Future

Posted by Hemos on from the and-it-came-through-his-box dept.

RalfM writes "As far as people worth listening to go, Stephen Hawking is right up there. Some newspapers are currently presenting a rare interview with him about the future. Points mentioned include Marylin Monroe, off-planet migration, DNA reprogramming, limits to human brain processing ("We can be quick-witted or very intelligent, but not both.") and more. "

1 of 292 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Why ask Hawking? by Enoch+Root · · Score: 5
    Not that I'm for hero worship, and I agree that his illness has something to do with his celebrity. Let's face it: it's romantic to think of Hawking as a genius trapped in an imperfect body. It's the uber-geek analogy. A lot of people identify with it, and scientists first.

    Now, I would hesitate to call Hawking a fraud because he's popular. I believe he's popular for a reason. During graduate studies in particle physics, I had the pleasure to go through nasty and complex peer-reviewed journals like Quantum Gravity and the eternal Physics Letter. I stumbled upon a few of Stephen Hawking's papers.

    They're the real thing. The guys does have a knack for theoretical thinking, and many of his ideas are both controversial, somewhat useless, and fascinating. He's done a lot of theoretical work on black holes, as well, and in this field, he is considered a pioneer.

    (One final exam question in a General Relativity class went like this: Given Hawking's Law, calculate the resulting maximal mass and angular momentum of two black holes of equal mass but opposite angular momentum. Fun!)

    The journalists and the public are to blame, here. They're the ones who go see Hawking like he's got some sort of dedicated phone line with God. But that's what's the public perception of science inevitably is. You wouldn't believe the questions I get asked that have nothing to do with my field of expertise.

    A Brief History of Time's goal was to entertain and make the public's mind bend around physics problems. As such, it was magnificently successful. Of course it ain't established astrophysical theory, and of course it contains controversial material. Anything that's ever been considered interesting in Science has been controversial. Heck, Newton's Theory of Gravitation is still considered controversial by some people.

    I think this interview illustrates the perception of the media, and the usual response Hawking gives. His whole 'We haven't received visitors from the future' gig is old, but it makes people laugh and dream. He plays the celebrity gig, and usually he doesn't have anything much to say to people looking up to him like some sort of Homeric hero. But to discredit him as a scientist, and say he's anything but a brilliant one, is not understanding the man fully.

    Yes, there are many other scientists alive who probably deserve Hawking's exposure, only for their ideas and their minds. But celebrity isn't just about minds. When Hawking and I speak of physics, the layman probably has no idea who says the most profound things, because it's all a blur to them. But Hawking is in a wheelchair and is an eccentric. And that, usually, means celebrity more than mastery of mathematics.