(San Jose) Many people worship such celebrities as Julia Roberts, Michael Jordan, and Madonna. I worship Einstein, Feynman, and Hawking -- their achievements are far, far greater than any entertainer. So perhaps you can understand how thrilled, awestruck, and even spiritually moved I was to see the great Dr. Stephen W. Hawking in person! I was not alone however. Many in the audience felt the same way, calling it a "once-in-a-lifetime experience".
Hawking wheeled out onto the stage in his high-tech, computerized wheelchair, to a standing ovation and thunderous applause. There was perhaps a moment of tension after the applause died down and there was several seconds of dead silence. Then, his first four words emitted from the familiar Macintosh-like speech synthesizer: "Can you hear me?" -- to which the audience laughed and shouted "YES!"
Hawking then proceeded to deliver a popular science lecture with warmth and humor (which is some feat when you are constrained to speak with a robotic synthesized voice!), touching on a wide range of topics from super-symmetric string theories to time travel, evolution, genetic engineering, and computers.
Hawking livened up his talk with video clips such as his cameo appearance in Star Trek: The Next Generation (admitting that he is a "bit of a Star Trek fan" himself) and from the opening scene from Terminator as two different possible futures for humanity on Earth. Though Hawking is almost completely paralyzed, he perceptibly smiled whenever the audience laughed at his jokes. Example, while discussing the oddities of supersymmetry and the Casimir Effect, "You can subtract one infinity from another infinity and end up with a finite quantity -- much like the U.S. budget.". He discussed other esoteric topics, like the strange behavior of the Grassman Numbers, where X times Y does NOT equal Y times X, but kept it to a level where the general public could follow. As the Creationist Hawking fan (!) who sat next to me remarked, "Only someone who really understands a subject can explain in terms that a layman can fathom." I thought, "If Hawking can inspire even a Creationist, he is really great!." Though he expressed disappointment in Hawking's support of evolution, remarkably he was interested in the implications of the mass of a neutrino, and agreed with Hawking that the cancellation of the Superconducting Supercollider (SSC) was "short-sighted."
Hawking ended the lecture with some predictions on the shape of science in the next millenium. Somewhat jokingly, he gave 50/50 odds that we will achieve a Grand Unified Theory, the Holy Grail of physics, within 20 years (he had made exactly the same prediction 20 years ago). If it does, and it takes that form that we currently believe it will, then the speed of light will be a hard limit, meaning no Star Trek warp drives. He undoubtedly scared many in the audience when he said that genetic engineering of humans was inevitable, whether we like it or not. Not that he supports it, but there is nothing we can do to stop it, he says. Someone, somewhere will eventually create "improved" human beings, which will create "many social and political problems for us `unimproved' humans".
While we must face certain physical limits, there is no limit to the complexity of our creations. Hawking believes that computers will increase in complexity until they match, and then surpass the complexity of the human brain. Once this happens, the computers can then design the next generation computers, and so on. This will result in a pace of evolution orders of magnitude faster than biological evolution. I did catch Stephen in one technical mistake. He said that biological evolution is essentially a "random walk through the space of genetic possibilities." This is not true, although the correct explanation is too long and technical for this review.
Hawking even addressed an issue near and dear to the hearts of ArtBellians -- UFO's and aliens visiting Earth. Unfortunately, he said he doesn't believe this is the case, and that intelligent life is probably pretty unlikely elsewhere in the universe.
Though Hawking presented some chilling possible futures and difficulties for humanity, he thinks we will eventually manage to overcome the problems. In his own words, "I am an optimist!"
Hawking ended the lecture by answering a few written questions from the audience. I had submitted a couple questions of my own : 1) what is the current status of Hawking's "No Boundary" proposal in which time is imaginary and finite, but has no boundaries (ans. it remains unchanged, Hawking still believes this) 2) comment on Linde's "multiverse" theory of multiple universes (didn't get answered). Other questions (paraphrased from memory):
"What is your favorite science fiction movie?"
Ans. Darkstar!
"What are the implications of the discovery that neutrinos have mass?"
Ans. It means there may now be enough mass to close the universe and cause to collapse into a Big Crunch -- in about 20 billion years.
"What about time travel?"
Ans. Relativity seems to allow it, but Quantum Mechanics doesnt allow you alter history by killing your grandfather.