Hawking's Vision His body may be confined to a wheelchair, but the mind of Stephen Hawking soars, grappling with the most profound mysteries of the universe, from the birth and death of black holes to the fate of the cosmos itself. DISCOVER associate editor Kathy A. Svitil recently interviewed Hawking after he talked to a packed auditorium in San Jose, California, about the future of science. The theoretical physicist predicted the development of intelligent, self-aware computers that could match the human brain, not to mention space travel well beyond this solar system.
Svitil asked: What are the biggest unsolved problems in physics today? "The theory of everything," Hawking said--the name physicists give to the undiscovered laws that would unite all theories about the universe, from quantum mechanics to Einstein's general theory of relativity. "We feel that we are near, but we never get there. It always seems just over the rainbow's edge." Despite the difficulties scientists face in tackling the all-in-one theory, Hawking is certain the answer will come soon: "My money is on it."
Another enigma, he said, is "understanding the origin of the universe and why it produced the universe that we see." Too many theories, he suggests, explain some of the things we see in nature, but they can't be applied to all conditions. "Cosmology is not science if it does not produce theories with predictions that agree with what we observe," he said.
Finally, Svitil asked what Hawking thought of John Horgan's recent book, The End of Science, in which the author argues that all the fundamental problems of science have been resolved. Hawking likes to give succinct answers because he is disabled by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis--Lou Gehrig's disease--and must communicate by spelling out his words on a computer. His reply? "Garbage."
