Has the internet brought benefits to Stephen Hawkings life?
The internet has brought huge benefits because it allows Stephen Hawking to be an ordinary member of the scientific community. Scientists communicate using email: distributing papers, academic correspondence. It’s just what people are expected to use. While Professor Hawking’s rate of speech is incredibly slow, his rate of emailing people is not that slow. It’s often been the case that I’ve asked him something face to face, and it’s been quicker for him to email me the answer. He doesn’t really say things spontaneously, because its takes him five minutes to write a short sentence. There is no concept of writing something spontaneously. It’s all carefully thought out. In fact I think that’s part of the reason he has such a reputation for always being right. He doesn’t say the sorts of things he doesn’t actually mean. What irritates him? There are a lot of things he doesn’t like that you find you end up doing anyway. The most obvious is completing his sentences. If he is halfway through
