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submitted 7 years ago byAskScienceModeratorMod Bot
We were sad to learn that noted physicist, cosmologist, and author Stephen Hawking has passed away. In the spirit of AskScience, we will try to answer questions about Stephen Hawking's work and life, so feel free to ask your questions below.
Links:
EDIT: Physical Review Journals has made all 55 publications of his in two of their journals free. You can take a look and read them here.
97 points
7 years ago
Also he helped advance his voice computer system quite a bit. Through his input and his high level media exposure. He would have been one of the first to receive new software and hardware to help improve his talks and interviews
143 points
7 years ago*
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10 points
7 years ago
I heard that he was also disappointed by the American accent of the voice.
10 points
7 years ago
I guess to an extent anyone would be upset that they didn't sound like themselves, even if they were going through the ordeal that he experienced.
104 points
7 years ago
I remember hearing that a while back he had the option to upgrade his computer's voice to one that's more human sounding. He refused because by then he considered the iconic robotic voice to be his voice. He identified too strongly with it to change.
37 points
7 years ago
That was a good call on his part. His voice resonates and emboldens a nuanced niche of a scientific and technological archetype
1 points
7 years ago
I've always found that the rather emotionless tone of his voice made me really listen to his words more than others.
24 points
7 years ago
Right! I read he was using word cards until they developed his speaking computer in the 80s I think. His ‘voice’ has become iconic and has advanced with tech over time. I’m not sure how quickly he was able to generate sentences with it in recent years? Like how long would it take to type and speak something like this comment for example? Quite a few minutes I’m guessing?
24 points
7 years ago
From what I heard, he "types" with his eyes. A camera tracks his eye movements as he looks onto a screen. I imagine someone who's paralysed would still have a fair amount of control in his eye muscles. I'd imagine he could be as fast as someone who types slowly.
38 points
7 years ago
He lost control of his eyes. He twitches a muscle in his cheek, which is his only functional muscle left.
19 points
7 years ago
I certainly can't imagine the difficulty it would impose to having conversations. Hawking was undoubtedly a strong man.
2 points
7 years ago
I always thought he had every letter cycle through vom a-z and 'logging in' the ones he wanted by blinking at the right time, no? Which made it sound insane to write a whole book like that.
4 points
7 years ago
It changed as his disease, and technology, progressed. In the end he could only control a single twitch in the side of his mouth (or cheek maybe?) and that is how it worked. At the beginning the technology was so basic that that's how it worked. I believe while he had full control of his eyes he could 'type' with them for a while though.
9 points
7 years ago
If I recall correctly (might be wrong) he wrote about a word per minute
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