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Stephen Hawking Looking For Personal Techie
kaptink writes "One of the great grandmasters of space, time and the history of our existence is seeking an assistant to help develop and maintain the electronic speech system that allows him to communicate his vision of the universe. An informal job ad posted on Stephen's website said the assistant should be computer literate, ready to travel and able to repair electronic devices 'with no instruction manual or technical support.' He lost his real voice in a tracheotomy in 1985, but has something based on NeoSpeech's VoiceText speech synthesizer mounted on his wheelchair that helps synthesize speech by interpreting the twitches of his face. The synthesizer's robotic monotone has become nearly as famous as Hawking himself, but the computer — powered by batteries fastened to the back of Hawking's wheelchair — isn't just for speaking. It can connect to the internet over mobile phone networks and a universal infrared remote enables the physicist to switch on the lights, watch television, or open doors either at home or at the office. It's a complicated, tailor-made system, as the ad makes clear. A photograph of the back of Hawking's wheelchair, loaded with coiled wires and electronic equipment, is pictured under the words: 'Could you maintain this? If your answer is "yes", we'd like to hear from you!'. Hawking's website says that the job's salary is expected to be about $38,500 a year."
You could also probably supplement it later by writing a book or something about being Stephen Hawking's techie. It's a nice attention-grabber to have on your resume, too.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Is money the only value you could derive from a working relationship with Stephen Hawking?
This is for a graduate assistant to STEPHEN HAWKING.
My stipend was 1/4 of that at best and, oh yeah, did I mention... This is for a graduate assistant to STEPHEN W. HAWKING.
I know you guys are all so F'ing incredible that you don't need resume bullets or care about other peoples' ideas, but how's about
Um, if I were eligible I'd be making them KNOW I was their man!
It's rather presumptuous(and typical) of religious people to assume that people become atheists only out of spite, and not possibly because believing in a supernatural being is batshit insane and is as ridiculous as believing in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. I get that shit all the time from religious people, who respond to my beliefs with ,"Oh, what happened?" as if they cannot comprehend how people can independently arrive at the same, sane conclusion. that's when I roll my eyes and say, "my kitty cat ran away, dumb motherfucker."
...And if Hawking did become an atheist out of spite, it was probably due to the church's past and present treatment of fellow scientists - astrophysicists like Galileo, who was lucky to be put on house arrest instead of killed.
First of all, I doubt that Steven would introduce the employee as "My bitch", he would certainly be more respectful than that. He would probably refer to the person as "My technical assistant" or "The genius that makes it possible for me to communicate".
The circles that he would travel in would be quite prestigious. In the science community he'd be regularly in the presence of some of the greatest minds alive today. In the political community, he's among the "Rock Stars" that politicians want to have pictures of themselves standing next to... as if the association would make them smarter.
On top of that... companies focused on making hardware/software solutions would almost certainly consider a person who worked directly with Steven Hawkings on his accessibility solutions as an ideal CTO for their company. If a person is interested in accessibility solutions as a career and would be interested in starting a business, obtaining government grants or simply raising money for the company would be simple having had that position earlier.
I'd imagine that there are even some great UN posts for someone who held this position. Technical adviser or chairman of this committee of another.
So... while the pay sucks majors balls... if a person sticks around in this position for 4-5 years... they can almost certainly gain the visibility and even a certain level of prestige which would secure their future indefinitely.
Oh... the fact that the person could in theory learn something along the way or even have the opportunity to test their system upgrades by having high level conversations about theoretical physics with a person, who though not as amazing as the press makes him, but still certainly capable of holding his own might be a big bonus for some.
If I weren't married with kids, I would seriously consider this position.