Stephen Hawking : life after death

For a man with superhuman powers of thinking it might seem a bit greedy to seek more, but Stephen Hawking is trying to cram as much into his life as possible.

“If I had to choose a super hero to be, I would pick Superman. He’s everything that I’m not.”

The genius of this world famous Cambridge Professor isn’t limited to his academic work on theoretical cosmology. He knows how to command attention, make you laugh and understand a little of his world, trapped by motor neurone disease.

Hawking has made a film about himself and it is a touching glimpse of an extraordinary life. His first wife Jane is mesmorising as she talks about falling in love with a brilliant student coming to terms with the discovery of his dreadful illness.

His sister Mary reveals their chaotic, stimulating childhood surrounded by books and filled with lively argument. His colleagues and former students talk of caring for him in return for learning from him. Colleagues explain just how special his thinking and discoveries still remain.

And his carers reveal the joys and frustrations of living with a man who can travel to the edge of space in his mind and yet is unable to move, talk or breathe for himself. It leaves you with dozens of questions.

Strangest interview

We meet in Cambridge, at the gala premiere of Hawking, surrounded by his family and friends. It is striking that his first wife Jane is there, with son Tim who works in marketing and Lucy, a children’s author, who I soon realise I met at university twenty five years ago.

They all find the screening emotional and it is no wonder given how it talks so openly about the family’s happiness and divorce. Friends and academics had come from all over the world, including Hawking’s close friend Professor Kip Thorne and the man who devised his speech computer Walt Waltosz.

I am there to do an interview and field audience questions after the screening.

But this is the strangest interview I have ever done. Breaking all normal journalistic rules I have had to send all my questions in advance.

Before we have even met he decides which few of them he will answer, and undergoes the painstaking process of composing his response. When I greet the professor his assistant Jonathan picks up his hand for me to shake.

I try to make eye contact and look for any movement in his face. He smiles, and that makes me instantly relieved. While most of us take one second to speak three words it takes Stephen Hawking at least one minute.

‘Threat of an early death’

He controls a computer by twitching his cheek muscles, scrolling through letters and words which are then spoken by his now famous voice synthesiser. Devised many years ago when computerised voices were rather primitive he could have it improved anytime if he wanted.

But Hawking has grown fond of his voice and knows the power of its sound. If the disease ever gets to those cheek muscles he will be unable to communicate forever, save the smiles in his lips and eyes.

Hawking has lived for almost fifty years knowing he could die at any moment and I ask what affect that has on his thoughts and behaviour.

“The doctor who diagnosed me with ALS, or motor neurone disease, told me it would kill me in two or three years.”, he says, “All my life, I have lived with the threat of an early death. So I hate wasting time.”

It is hard not to take that answer as some sort of chastisement, but I try not to think he referring to me.

In the film Hawking wonders if he is as famous for his disabilities as he is for his discoveries. He is also honest about enjoying the glamorous consequences of fame. He clearly enjoys being feted, traveling and meeting world leaders.

“I enjoyed the media attention, and witnessing everyday people getting more involved in understanding the physics of our universe”, he says in the film.

But he also confronts the downside and intrusion into his private life. The low point, he says, was the breakdown of his second marriage being accompanied by unsubstantiated and untrue allegations in the press about him being physically abused. ”

To my mind this was a gross invasion of our privacy,” he says “and was an extremely hurtful and damaging experience for us both. Unfortunately being in the public eye can have its drawbacks.”

‘Life after death’

Hawking has always been blunt about not believing in God. His work is about how the universe created itself, how there was no need for God even in sparking the Big Bang.

But for a man whose theories are so beyond the imagination of most people, and whose conclusions about black holes have never actually been observed I have to ask him about consciousness and the mind.

Does he think it is possible they could survive after physical death? Hawking gives a tantalising answer. “I think the brain is like a program in the mind, which is like a computer. So it’s theoretically possible to copy the brain onto a computer, and so provide a form of life after death.”

However just when you imagine he’s going to reveal a theory of how this could be done he leaves your hopes dashed, explaining this is way beyond our present capabilities. “I think the conventional afterlife is a fairy tale for people afraid of the dark.”

Hawking is passionate about reaching mass audiences. In the film he explains his desire when thinking about “A Brief History of Time” to write an international bestseller about the universe, the kind of book people would buy in airports and take on holiday.

This is a man whose academic work has left halls full of physicists stunned in the past but even now he tells me “A Brief History of Time” is the book he enjoyed writing the most.

“I tried to share with the public my excitement about the progress we have made, in understanding the laws of nature, and the history of the universe. In particular, whether it had a creator.”

Next year Hawking may get closer to his discoveries with a trip into space itself. Sir Richard Branson has offered him the only free trip on his commercial spaceship Virgin Galactic.

Hawking has told Branson to hurry up, as his time on earth is limited. You cannot meet Hawking without wishing he gets to do it. You just know something amazing will come from it.

Returning to his Superman dream he adds “I would love to be able to be to leap from building to building. And I had a crush on Margo Kidder who played Lois Lane.” That infectious smile spreads again.

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A version of this article was published in the Sunday Mirror on September 22nd