Would Stephen Hawking have made the same contributions without ALS?

[Jupiter60]

How do you think Stephen Hawking would have been if he didn't have the disease that he had and wasn't physically handicapped?

 

[phinds]

I think he would have spent his life chasing girls. I figure that speculation is just as good as any other.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Life is impossible to predict. Maybe he would have died in a bike accident 50 years ago and not had accomplished as much as he had.

 

[fresh_42]

I once heard him say: "Good, I haven't become a surgeon. I would be needless today, but I can still do physics."

 

[DennisN]

He would be out on the streets hawking his theories.

EDIT, a serious sidenote: I liked the movie, The Theory of Everything, which is about his life.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

EDIT, a serious sidenote: I liked the movie, The Theory of Everything, which is about his life.

I still need to see this!

 

[pinball1970]

I have tied to get a grip on some of the stuff he did this week and I stumbled on this BBC Horizon prog from 2005 called the Hawking paradox, you can get it on you tube.
Besides the paradox itself the programme describes how he worked by visualizing shapes patterns space time in 4 dimensions then dictating the ideas and putting the maths together with the help of research students. I am not sure from period he did this, perhaps from the late 70s?

If he had been able bodied he would not have had to do all this in head but then again, he may not have had some of the insights he had.

Besides the physics (which is a bit out there) its a great little feature on him, Krauss Kip Thorne and Susskind are all on there too. Worth a go.

 

[pinball1970]

if he didn't have the disease that he had and wasn't physically handicapped?

The above is for you

 

[davenn]

He would be out on the streets hawking his theories.

EDIT, a serious sidenote: I liked the movie, The Theory of Everything, which is about his life.

I still need to see this!

It was on TV last nite, here in Australia ... good movie
then on another channel was a doco about his life as told mainly by himself

Dave

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Just finished watching it and woah! Was not expecting it to be so emotionaly intense but also incredibly inspiring. I was on the verge of tears the entire movie!

 

[DennisN]

Just finished watching it and woah! Was not expecting it to be so emotionaly intense but also incredibly inspiring. I was on the verge of tears the entire movie!

I was also surprised by this, it was a very emotional movie. And very good acting too, in my opinion.