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High Table at Cambridge with Stephen Hawking
bughunter writes "Accomplished astrophysicist and SF author Gregory Benford shares a personal account of his recent conversation with Stephen Hawking at Reason Online. As usual, Benford's style is engaging and informal, and this doesn't read like a typical interview. Although the article is short on jargon, Benford and Hawking share insights on the meaning of life, the universe, and everything, as such minds are want to do. We even get a glimpse of Cambridge tunnel hacking. Of course, there's also a plug for Hawking's new book, The Universe in a Nutshell."
but is it published by O'Reilly?
Einstein is well known for opposing theories of black holes and quantum physics (his famous quote about deities not throwing dice comes immediately to mind), and Hawking has spent the greater part of the second half of the twentieth century and now the twenty first century exploring black holes.
But of course Hawking might be making the same mistake Einstein made in opposing black hole theory, this time regarding gravistar theory. The jury is still out on gravistars, but the potential for undoing all the "discoveries" Hawking has spent his life pursuing is real.
It's a cautionary note, and one Hawking would be loathe to ignore. Certainly, we remember Einstein for his theories of relativity, but how many remember anything he accomplished in the second half of his career? The short answer is he accomplished very little, spending his days sailing his little boat around instead of charting new scientific milestones.
Hawking has the very real potential to be relegated to the dustbin of history as a great scientific mind led astray on fruitless theoretical paths. It'd be a shame, but there it is. Let's hope that unlike Einstein, Hawking is better prepared to adapt to whatever the future holds.
Never mind.
How much of this actually took place in the conversation, and how much is just the author attempting to summarize current interesting stuff in the world of physics using a conversation with Stephen Hawking as a framing device?
:)
I mean, it really feels like the latter. I find it hard to believe that Hawking, talking to another physisist, would bother, for example, going into detail explaining what planck time is.
Not that there's anything wrong with that, and it was an interesting read. But it was kind of irritating and clumsy the way that the story seemed like nothing more than a framing device to the author (Did anyone else read A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius?), and everything they discussed seemed smoothed out and dumbed down and simplified to its bare essentials so that people like, well.. so that people like me could understand it. Kind of like the way that the author describes hawking's new book.
I guess i shouldn't complain, since it was better than i could have done, but i wish he'd just repeated stuff and then explained on the side, subtitle style, instead of inserting the layman's explanations into the conversation (assuming, of course, that this was actually what he did..)
Can anyone recommend something i could read if i'm a casual observer curious about what's going on in physics, but who would like a little more depth than this? Like, just so that things aren't so skimmed over that they just seem like crackpot, randomly selected theories with no basis in anything (which of course it seems this way if you don't mention why, mathematically, they came to these conclusions...). I mean, if i want shallow summaries of the physics community, i always have Discover
...but "wont". As such minds are WONT to do.
If you've never heard Hawking's musical efforts (I kid you not), now is the time. Check out www.mchawking.com and prepare to bust a gut laughing. This is not to be missed.
http://www.theonion.com/onion3123/hawkingexo.html
Steven Hawking Builds Robotic Exoskeleton
This isn't as much "normalization" as it is "don't take so many drugs when you're designing tables."
Every so often I see Prof. Hawking in the CMS building while running between classes or eating lunch, always with a nurse or "graduate assistant" (more of a student nurse) nearby. Some days I tell myself that he doesn't look so bad, but other days I just can't bring myself to look at him. It's hard to read interviews with him where he seems so vibrant, with his grinning photograph usually nearby, and then jump to seeing him in person - immutable and motionless, and almost falling apart. It's almost like he's a completely different person.
Sig: What Happened To The Censorware Project (censorware.org)
The only time I've been around Hawking in recent memory was at Penrose's 65th birthday party (wow, was that really 5 years ago already?). He seemed pleasant, and thanked Roger for the nice party at the end of the evening.
I will have to agree with Taco's comments though on the fragility of his exterior, but at the same time I feel that it plays into the character that Hawking has become. I can only imagine what being forced to develop one's theories on the world for 30+ years can do to someone's perception of reality. Some of the ideas that Hawking has contributed to the math world couldn't have come from anyone else, and I wonder how much of a result this is from his condition.
Now if only twistor theory would win over super string theory. But that's another issue.
And this is why Hawkings would rule at poker.
;-)
1) He doesn't have any facial give-aways
2) He doesn't have any other physical give-aways
3) His voice can't give him away, as it's the same boring/dreary robot-voice
Combine this with his no-doubt impressive math-skills, he'd only need very little time adjusting his game to the other players give-aways.
Plus he can always distract his oponents by talking physics
We do not live in the 21st century. We live in the 20 second century.
The thing I don't get about this guy is that he divorced his wife and then got a girlfriend. Jesus Christ! The man's nearly a vegetable and he still picks up! Just remember that all you lonely programmers - a guy in a wheelchair who can barely chew his own food gets more tail than you!
"Benford and Hawking share insights on the meaning of life, the universe, and everything..."
I know it's not always easy to come up with all new topics for an interview, but I think we already know Hawking's views on the meaning of life. His philosphy is revealed fairly clearly:
"I'm just chillin' yo, no place to be.
I take another pull off my 40z.
I'm thinking about spinning a fatass tree, a B to the L to the U-N-T."
Or perhaps:
"Fuck the damn creationists I say it with authority, because kicking their punk asses be my paramount priority.
Them wackass bitches say evolution's just a theory. They best step off, them brainless fools, I'll give them cause to fear me."
James Joyce said something like "I've never met an uninteresting person." I think one of the biggest mistakes anyone can make is to underestimate anyone, and write them off somehow. Perhaps, if Hawking views a conversation with you as a waste of time, that shows a deficincy in him? I think if you can't learn something interesting from talking to anyone, you need to improve your communication skills. That's the rub though. Most people just talk small talk, and need to figure out how to really communicate. I know I do.
c-hack.com |
[Teddy KGB]: Hawkeng, you're einto me for 30 deimes. The juice hias bieen running iat 5 points a veek for a month. I miake thiat over 36 large. I'm going to hiave to break your legs.
[Hawking]: Okay.
[Teddy KGB]: Errr, I'm going to break your thumbs then.
[Hawking]: Go ahead.
[Teddy KGB]: Eahhh! (scuttles off in frustration)
c-hack.com |