Stephen Hawking says disease means no 'boring' committees

[BobbyB]

Stephen Hawking says disease means no 'boring' committees
British physicist Stephen Hawking says his debilitating illness has one big advantage: It keeps him off "a lot of boring committees".

Hawking, 64, who uses a speech synthesiser and a wheelchair because of Lou Gehrig's disease, gave an upbeat account of his life on an Israeli talk show.

The mathematics professor from Cambridge University is visiting Israel for the fourth time.

Hawking's groundbreaking theoretical work has allowed for the classification and greater understanding of black holes.

He earned world fame for his four books, including A Brief History of Time and The Universe in a Nutshell, and for keeping a busy career and lifestyle despite being paralysed.

In the interview, Hawking joked about his physical condition and his celebrity status.

"The downside of my celebrity is that I cannot go anywhere in the world without being recognised," he said.

"It is not enough for me to wear dark sunglasses and a wig. The wheelchair gives me away. People want to be photographed with me, but it can be a nuisance when I am in a hurry."

Hawking was asked if he had ever considered suicide.

"I think a person should have a right to end their life if they want, but I think it would be a great mistake," he replied. "However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.

"While there is life, there is hope."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/physicist-hawking-says-disease-means-no-boring-committees/2006/12/12/1165685650206.html

[BobbyB]

Meanwhile, back on Earth


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



"I think the brain is the most wonderful, the most interesting, the most complex, the most fascinating organ. Then I think, who's telling me this?"

—Unknown comedian/philosopher

By Dorworth Hawking

Stephen Hawking, arguably the most and certainly among the most intelligent human beings who have ever lived, at least in terms of theoretical physics, has a brain that has spent a lot of time in deep space. His 1988 book, "A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes," was a bestseller.

"My goal is simple," he says. "It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all."

This lofty goal should keep a brain busy for a few lifetimes, though perhaps it is tainted with hubris. People of such genius live in their heads more than most. Hawking, who is completely disabled with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease), has lived longer and done far more than most people with this crippling neurological disorder. He is unable to move or even speak on his own. Yet his brain clearly functions: He writes books, gives lectures and ponders the universe and existence itself. Hawking's head is surely a fascinating and exciting place to live and undoubtedly gives him a measure of comfort and motivation in dealing with his physical and experiential limitations. He is a man to admire, pay attention to, learn from, even though in reality only a handful of fellow theoretical physicists can be said to grasp the elements of his thinking.

Still, Hawking's thinking warrants more skepticism from the less-refined brains of the rest of mankind. Or, perhaps, his thinking only illustrates the limits of the human brain or, more likely, the consequences of brain power detached from the organic, biological environment of planet Earth.

Earlier this year he came out with a startling opinion: "It is important for the human race to spread out into space for the survival of the species. Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of."

He said that within 20 years humans could have a permanent base on the moon and a colony on Mars within 40 years. Hawking also said, "We won't find anywhere as nice as Earth unless we go to another star system."

And just last week NASA, always looking for funding and a reason to exist, announced an idea without a plan, much less a blueprint, to build a permanent base on the moon within 20 years.

What futile nonsense.

I'm a traditional, old-fashioned sort of Earth dweller, and I'm not thrilled at the thought of my grandchildren living on Mars or the moon, much less wandering around other star systems looking for what they already have at home. There are big mountains to climb on Mars, but there are really bad dust storms, not much oxygen, no running water and no place to grow organic carrots. The moon is even worse. There are no rivers, lakes, forests, meadows, oceans, wild creatures, snow storms or rain squalls in either place. There aren't even any clouds to reflect sunup and sundown. Even if it were possible to create sustainable "bases" and "colonies" on the moon and Mars, the day-to-day reality of living in them would make places like Leavenworth and San Quentin on Earth seem like health spas for the privileged and pampered. They would be bunkers, and we know who gets to live in bunkers. It won't be my grandchildren or yours.

If this is the best that the best human brain in history can come up with in terms of the survival of the (human) species, not to mention (which Hawking didn't for obvious reasons) all the other species sharing and surviving (or not) the planet Earth with us, then it is obvious the human brain isn't the wonderful, interesting, complex, fascinating organ it tells comedians it is. After all, global warming, nuclear war, genetically engineered viruses and much more are problems created by the human brain. Perhaps their solutions are in the brain as well.

The German astronaut Sigmund Jahn said, "Before I flew I was already aware of how small and vulnerable our planet is; but only when I saw it from space, in all its ineffable beauty and fragility, did I realize that human kind's most urgent task is to cherish and preserve it for future generations."

The human brain urgently needs to turn to cherishing, preserving, making sustainable all life on Earth, not just man's. To think of abandoning Earth for the moon and Mars as a survival mechanism is not wonderful, interesting, complex nor fascinating. It is just really, really crazy.



http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?issue_date=12-13-2006&ID=2005113449

[BobbyB]

http://chooseability.org/uploaded_images/stephen_hawking-768653.jpg

Hawking will give DNA sample to help scientists understand Lou Gehrig's disease
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH


Cambridge University theoretical physicist Prof. Stephen Hawking has decided to donate DNA samples to the Human Genome Project in the hope that the data will help scientists identify the causes of Lou Gehrig's disease, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

The incurable neurological disease, also known as amytrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), has afflicted Hawking for 43 years, since he was a graduate student at Cambridge.

The cause of ALS, which causes eventual paralysis and death, is not known, but doctors believe there is a genetic component.

The renowned scientist - reportedly the longest ALS survivor in the world - has been offered implantation of electrodes in his brain, a procedure that has been of help to some Parkinson's patients in Israel and abroad, but he turned this down, saying he did not want to undergo brain surgery. Most victims of the disease die within a few years of diagnosis.

The 64-year-old Hawking, currently nearing the end of an eight-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority, met Israeli physicists at the Center for Excellence at Neveh Shalom before visiting Tel Aviv University on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he will deliver a lecture at Birzeit University in Ramallah; on Thursday, he will speak on "The Origin of the Universe" before 1,000 invitees at the Hebrew University's Mt. Scopus campus.

On Monday, he was the guest at an intimate dinner at Jerusalem's King David Hotel of the Israel Academy of Sciences and the Arts, headed by Prof. Menachem Ya'ari.

He was toasted by British Ambassador Tom Phillips and Ya'ari, who "celebrated the triumph and exhilaration of science and of a human spirit over adversity."

Phillips, who arrived here in August, said he had so far met two kinds of people - those who haven't read Hawking's books on cosmology and physics and those who have read them but understood only some of the ideas.

He was sure that Academy of Science members had read them and understood them. Phillips said that he asked Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, when he received Hawking in his office on Sunday, whether he had read the brilliant physicist's A Brief History of Time, Olmert assured him that he had.

Hawking said, "I am happy to be back in Israel again. I have been here three times before, the last in 1990... I was sad to see how the [security] wall separates [Israelis and Palestinians]. There is a great difference between universities on this side of the wall and those on the other side. But it is good to hear what you are doing in cooperation with Palestinian scientists."

[isic]

Too bad we all aren't Hawkingses. BE REAL.