Stephen Hawking's Universe

[wblastyn]

NM.

 

[notto]

http://www.washington.edu/doit/Press/hawking4.html

Hawking reminisces with disabled students
"I didn't die," famed physicist says about predicted demise

by Tom Paulson
P-I Reporter

Students Aleysa Reed, Mitch Weddle, Waikin Chiu, and Anna Schneider were among the students who met Stephen Hawking yesterday. Photo by Robert De Giulio/P-I Stephen Hawking, the famous theoretical physicist widely recognized for his work on black holes and most recently for his role playing himself on television's Star Trek, yesterday met with disabled students in Seattle.

Hawking told about 25 students gathered at Seattle University of his own disability, how he refused to let it hinder him and how the knowledge of his growing physical limitations only sharpened his interest in the world. He was in town to speak at the first evening of a science lecture series.

Hawking, 51, was told 30 years ago, when he was a not-very-remarkable college student, that he had ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The progressive and degenerative nerve disease primarily affects the muscles and has today rendered him incapable of speech or much independent movement.

"Before my condition was diagnosed, I had been very bored with life," he said, speaking from his wheelchair through a computerized voice synthesizer.

The world-renowned cosmologist and author of "A Brief History of Time" spoke yesterday evening on "Black Holes and Baby Universes" at the Seattle Opera House. The talk, which is also the title of his next book and an argument against the standard Big Bang theory, was the first in a series co-sponsored by Microsoft, KCTS, the nonprofit Institute for Science, Engineering and Public Policy and Seattle University.

Hawking told the students that doctors had predicted decades ago that he had only a few years to live, based on the typical rapid progression of the disease. As a result, he became more determined to get the most from a life he had previously taken for granted.

"I didn't die," Hawking noted.

Instead, as his condition worsened, his reputation in scientific circles continued to grow, as if to show the mind's repudiation of the body's limitations.

After fellow British physicist Roger Penrose in the mid-1960s came up with the theory of black holes resulting from the gravitational collapse of stars, Hawking showed that by mathematically reversing this event one could explain the expansion of the universe.

He noted with irony that he was now working to disprove a good part of the work that first made his name in science.

Hawking, who now believes there was no single Big Bang beginning to the universe, said his focus these days is to see if he can show whether the collapse of black holes results in the elimination of "information" - meaning the energy and matter taken in by the gravitational sink hole.

"Other physicists don't like the idea," he said.

But the disabled students, participants of a collaborative program with the University of Washington, appeared to be more interested in Hawking's short bout as an actor on Star Trek (the episode appeared last weekend) and with his experience as a disabled person.

After giving a brief talk, Hawking fielded questions from students. His responses were delayed by the time it took him to manipulate a clicking device that constructed sentences vocalized by a sound synthesizer, a critical tool for those whose voices are disabled, he noted.

Renowned cosmologist Stephen Hawking, who suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, talked to students through a computerized voice synthesizer. Photos by Robert De Giulio/P-I "The only trouble is it gives me an American accent," Hawking joked.

Mike Gallagher, a young Bellevue man and SU student with cerebral palsy and a slight speech impediment, kidded the scientist introduced as the "smartest man in the world" by arguing a point.

"I think your synthesizer has a Norwegian accent," Gallagher said, prompting peals of laughter from the crowd.

Aleysa Reed, an 11-year-old Seattle girl also with cerebral palsy, asked how Hawking could help her get on TV and how he manages to sign legal documents.

Sally Reed said her daughter became enamored with Hawking years ago after seeing him featured on a public television show.

"The thing that most impressed her was here was this brilliant man who needed help eating, just like she needed help," Sally Reed said.

Hawking responded that it was largely an accident he appeared on Star Trek, the script hastily arranged for the show when producers learned he was at a nearby studio for other reasons.

As for his signature, the cosmologist said he just uses a thumbprint.

Hawking said his diagnosis of ALS years ago, besides giving him an appreciation for life, also helped focus his attention on research.

Along those lines, he was asked yesterday if his person feelings about his illness - "Why did this happen to me?" - could also have driven his interest in cosmology. This branch of science basically seeks ultimate answers to why anything and everything has happened.

After mustering a big smile, the sometimes mischievous Hawking worked the buttons his synthesizer for a period of time as if preparing a profound response to the question. "No."

 

[JohnR7]

http://www.washington.edu/doit/Press/hawking4.html

Hawking reminisces with disabled students
"I didn't die," famed physicist says about predicted demise

Hawking, 51, was told 30 years ago, when he was a not-very-remarkable college student, that he had ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The progressive and degenerative nerve disease primarily affects the muscles and has today rendered him incapable of speech or much independent movement.

"Before my condition was diagnosed, I had been very bored with life," he said, speaking from his wheelchair through a computerized voice synthesizer.

Hawking told the students that doctors had predicted decades ago that he had only a few years to live, based on the typical rapid progression of the disease. As a result, he became more determined to get the most from a life he had previously taken for granted.

"I didn't die," Hawking noted.

So are you suggesting that a change in attitude had nothing to do with Hawking living 30 years longer then the doctors said that he was going to live? Perhaps it was just a coincidence and we should go looking for another reason why he has remained alive these last 30 years.

Do you have any suggestions on where we should begin to look?

 

[JohnR7]

There's something in your eye.

What do you think is in my eye, a log or Einstein's gulf?

Matthew 7:3
And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?

 

[Cantuar]

Do you feel he has done nothing wrong and that he is in no way to blame for the condition that he finds himself in?

The cause of ALS is unknown. Theories about the cause include (according to the LouGehrigsDisease site)

Glutamate Excitotoxicity
* Oxidative* Injury
* Protein Aggregates
* Axonal Strangulation
* Autoimmune-Induced Calcium Influx
* Viral infections
* Deficiency of nerve growth factor
* Apoptosis (programmed cell death)
* Trauma
* Environmental Toxins

What sort of things did you have in mind that Professor Hawking would have done to be blamed for any of the above?

 

[JohnR7]

The cause of ALS is unknown.

Dessert Storm Gulf War vets are said to have a 500% higher rate of ALS.

So that could lean things a bit to the Environmental Toxins theory.

 

[Drotar]

John R7 you're a good guy, and I like you, but I'm going to have to ask that you forgive me if I respectfully disagree with the claim that Hawkin's impiety led to his illness.

The very fact that he was NOT a Christian can be traced to the sovereign election of God. Which is UNCONDITIONAL. God does not work His decrees around whom He foresees will be the most or least virtuous.

And, with all due respect, a good point was brought up, about the man in your church. And did impiety lead to the pope's illness? I usually try to avoid sharing, but what about me? I've got a dysfuncational immune system. Flu season for me lasts a majority of the year. There are no promises I'll even be alive in the next 20 years. I usually don't like to reveal this to anyone because it's embarrasing,. Don't get me wrong- I put a lot of thought into this and I'm GRATEFUL for this because this fueled my desire to make a difference and a contribution to defending the Christian faith, instead of studying to be an architect. But the question remains, is infidelity the cause?

I think you're a great defender of the faith, and this thing with Stephen Hawkings was an interesting theory, but I respectfully don't subscribe to it. TTYL Jesus loves you!

 

[Volos]

Of course there is evidence, people are healed. Even they have a camera that will photograph the healing power that heals the people. We have seen a lot of people receive their miracle or their healing.

Of course the body has the ability to be able to heal itself. That is the difference between someone who is healed and someone who receives a miracle. A miracle is something the body is not able to do on it's own. Either way, it is the power of God at work.

Larry Dossey is a medical doctor and a researcher who has spent years looking into the effect of prayer on illness. One of his more famous long term studies involved having religious groups pray for specific seriously ill individuals. What he found was that the individual being prayed for recovered significantly faster, had fewer complications reported less side effects, and were less likely to die.

His findings upset many conservative Christians because it showed no difference in the effectiveness of prayers from Christian groups compared to any other religion. Christian prayers worked as well as Buddhist prays, as Islamic prayers, as Hindu prayers as Wiccan prayers.
Worse the religion or spiritual beliefs or the seriously ill people had no effect on their recovery.
Prayer works. But it is not exclusive to Christianity.

 

[Melange_Thief]

Dessert Storm Gulf War vets are said to have a 500% higher rate of ALS.

So that could lean things a bit to the Environmental Toxins theory.

It's not a THEORY. It's a HYPOTHESIS. This particular idea is NOT WELL-SUPPORTED ENOUGH by the EVIDENCE to convince all of the SCIENTISTS in the field of MEDICINE that it can be considered PROVISIONALLY TRUE. If you do not listen to this post, then you are officially a troll.

 

[Drotar]

Well said.

(That troll bit was a bit much though.)

 

[Melange_Thief]

(That troll bit was a bit much though.)

If we don't say that, he can pretend to never have read that. And trust me, he'll do that.

ROMANI ITE DOMUM

 

[Just An Atheist]

It is no problem to show that people who live christian lives live longer. But it would be difficult to break that down for each individual illness that people can die from.
http://www.family.org/focusoverfifty/articles/a0019095.html

This study is a red herring. You specifically connected Prof. Hawking's ALS to his lack of piety. You even used the naming of the disease to make the connection. But now you find it difficult to show the data. I'm getting a bad smell here.

 

[Drotar]

OK, Wilikers!

He made a mistake guys. What's more, I think he knows it, but after that starting in-depth explanation, and having come all this way, he won't admit it. It was just, as you said, a hypothesis that was incorrect. We don't need to corner him and shove it in his face. I think that he knows its wrong too, but it's just too late to back down. I think I'm going to bed now. TTYL Jesus loves you!

 

[JohnR7]

And, with all due respect, a good point was brought up, about the man in your church.

He was of the opinion that miracles and healings had ended with the early church. That God does not still heal people today. So, without hope, without faith, it is impossible to please God. I am not aware of him seeking after God in any way for a miracle or a healing, becasue he just did not believe that he could receive anything in that way from God.

 

[JohnR7]

It's not a THEORY. It's a HYPOTHESIS. This particular idea is NOT WELL-SUPPORTED ENOUGH by the EVIDENCE to convince all of the SCIENTISTS in the field of MEDICINE that it can be considered PROVISIONALLY TRUE. If you do not listen to this post, then you are officially a troll.

The word troll gets used so much on here that the only thing it means is someone who does not agree with your prespective or your viewpoint. If it even has that much meaning.

 

[Nathan Poe]

OK, Wilikers!

He made a mistake guys. What's more, I think he knows it, but after that starting in-depth explanation, and having come all this way, he won't admit it. It was just, as you said, a hypothesis that was incorrect. We don't need to corner him and shove it in his face. I think that he knows its wrong too, but it's just too late to back down. I think I'm going to bed now. TTYL Jesus loves you!

If he did it once, it would be an honest mistake. But John has a history of willful ignorance and promoting his own allegedly Holy-Spirit-guided infalliblity, even in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence. That makes him a troll.

Check his previous posts and decide for yourself.

 

[Nathan Poe]

Well either he is the innocent victom of a ravaging disease, or he is not so innocent. Are you here to defend his innocence and purity?

Do you feel he has done nothing wrong and that he is in no way to blame for the condition that he finds himself in?

I'll answer that question as soon as you tell me what Job did that was so wrong.

I still have your friend at the church and scripture to tell us why bad things happen to good people.

Exodus 4:11 --And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD?

Matthew 5:45 -- That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

And, as I said before, pretty much the entire book of Job.

But you still don't agree with Stephen Hawking, so all the facts and all the scripture in the world probably won't stop you from reducing God to your own private thug. So be it, I suppose.

 

[JohnR7]

But you still don't agree with Stephen Hawking, so all the facts and all the scripture in the world probably won't stop you from reducing God to your own private thug. So be it, I suppose.

You just don't get it do you. Your only judging your own heart not mine. You are not even able to judge my heart.

 

[JohnR7]

That makes him a troll.

On this forum all that it means to call someone a troll, is that you do not agree with what they are saying.

 

[MartinM]

Larry Dossey is a medical doctor and a researcher who has spent years looking into the effect of prayer on illness. One of his more famous long term studies involved having religious groups pray for specific seriously ill individuals. What he found was that the individual being prayed for recovered significantly faster, had fewer complications reported less side effects, and were less likely to die

Interesting - I don't think I've come across that one before. Is it as bad as all the other power of prayer studies? Got a link?