Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 beta 3/9/83; site frog.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!epsilon!zeta!sabre!bellcore!decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!cybvax0!frog!john From: john@frog.UUCP (John Woods) Newsgroups: net.space Subject: Re: Who are Mach and Hawking? Message-ID: <209@frog.UUCP> Date: Tue, 25-Jun-85 12:07:06 EDT Article-I.D.: frog.209 Posted: Tue Jun 25 12:07:06 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 28-Jun-85 00:38:44 EDT References: <2366@mordor.UUCP> Organization: Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA Lines: 35 > From: FRIEDRICH%GAV@LLL-MFE.ARPA > A question a couple of days ago asked, in effect, "who are Mach and Hawking, > and what do they know?" > > Now, for something completely different. Mach's Principle remains a > conjecture only. Stephen Hawking is another story. Hawking is, in my > own humble opinion (and that of many others) the world's greatest living > astrophysicist. Unfortunately, he has a degenerative nerve disease that > has crippled and is slowly killing him. He does his mathematics in his > head and dictates to graduate students who have been specially trained > to understand his speech (mostly by experience, I gather). Charles River > Data Systems of Natick, Massachusetts, deserves a great big hearty THANKS > for donating a supermicro or two to Hawking, which will probably help him > communicate with others. > The book "Stephen Hawking's Universe", by I forget which author, tells a lot of fascinating tales about Dr. Hawking. Not only does he do mathematics in his head, but he has an immense memory for text: the book tells of one time when, three days after dictating several chapters of a latest book to his secretary, told her to correct a couple of words in a specific paragraph of a specific page, which he suddenly realized he had mis-dictated! One can, in fact, understand Dr. Hawking without a lot of trouble, at least if the room is quiet and you try real hard; when Dr. Hawking visited CRDS a while back (to express thanks for the machine [CRDS, in some meta-sense, also happily accepts your thanks, too :-)], drop off bug reports, and to show off a video tape about him made by the BBC), I also found that I could tell most of what he was saying -- though I was glad of the interpreter, as I wanted to be sure! (As an ex-physics student, I revelled in the chance to worship at the feet of a god!-) -- John Woods, Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA, (617) 626-1101 ...!decvax!frog!john, ...!mit-eddie!jfw, jfw%mit-ccc@MIT-XX.ARPA