Stephen Hawking
From RationalWiki
Stephen Hawking is a theoretical physicist noted for his work on cosmology, black holes and his popular written works. He is the author of several books about theoretical physics and cosmology, the most renowned being the popular science classic A Brief History of Time, published in 1998. Although successful as a book, it was widely considered to be impenetrable, and he wrote A Briefer History of Time as a sop to public understanding. Hawking is possibly one of the best-known scientists alive today and his overall ubiquitous fame may well rival Einstein, Newton and Darwin.
He has been the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University since 1979, a post that has been held by some seriously important scientists since the mid 17th century.[1] He retired from the position in September 2009, to be succeeded by string theorist Michael Green.[2][3]
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[edit] The famous disability
While still studying for his PhD, Hawking was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. After a pneumonia attack he was rendered unable to speak and famously conducts conversations from his motorised wheelchair using a speech synthesiser, using only his cheek to operate the predictive text machine, and sometimes taking many minutes to answer questions. Ironically, although he is British, he now "speaks" with an American accent. He initially wanted an upgrade to a British accent (which the manufacturers would have made for him), but the technology was slow to advance to that stage, and he now prefers his current American one, having not heard anything he likes better, and now being identified virtually worldwide with the voice the synthesiser has provided him for years.
[edit] Religious beliefs?
Unfortunately, Hawking has become a favourite target of quote mining by creationists[4] because of his tendency to use the word God in his writings as well as numerous references to "the Creator" with respect to his writings on the Big Bang. This is, of course, open to multiple interpretations; that this is a reference to a theistic deity, or it is intended to be a metaphor representing the natural laws of the universe (i.e., Spinoza's God). His question about whether the Creator had any choice in when to create the universe and his assurances that information cannot pass through the singularity of the Big Bang are indicative of deism.
Hawking is therefore often used by creationists as an example of a believing scientist. This is the logical fallacy known as an argument from authority (i.e., "If an intelligent person such as Stephen Hawking believes in God, it must be true"). Essentially, quoting Hawking - rightly or wrongly - as a believer proves nothing. Whatever the truth of his beliefs, Hawking is usually quiet about religious and philosophical beliefs and doesn't voice them openly unlike others such as Richard Dawkins or Michael Behe. As such, Hawking is certainly a good role model for keeping personal beliefs truly personal.
[edit] In popular culture
Hawking (in animated form) has made guest appearances on The Simpsons, Dilbert, Futurama, and Family Guy, surely the high point of any career. In person, he has appeared on Star Trek: The Next Generation and also makes an appearance in a popular YouTube tribute to Carl Sagan.[5]
To show how much balls Hawking has, he also went to the Tiger Tiger nightclub in 2007 after it was targeted by terrorists.[6]
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ Wikipedia - The Lucasian Professor of Mathematics
- ↑ Telegraph - Professor Stephen Hawking retires from Lucasian professorship
- ↑ The Register - Cambridge string theorist to succeed Stephen Hawking
- ↑ See this example
- ↑ | This clip is all win
- ↑ The Independent - An unexpected visitor illuminates the brief history of Tiger Tiger
