British cosmologist and physicist Stephen Hawking believes that “however bad life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.” Hawking is an extraordinary soul, his life a rich tale of success against adversity. While living with the devastating condition of incurable motor neuron disease for more than a half century, he made his mark as both a great theoretical physicist and a celebrated bestselling author. Having reached a ‘venerable status’ age of 75 he is widely considered the smartest man of his generation and arguably the world's most famous “modern-era” scientist after Albert Einstein. Moreover, he is widely regarded as a paragon of motivation for beating death, disability, outliving a grim life expectancy estimate but is also deemed a classic example of great courage, intelligence, indomitable will and relentless positive attitude. Indeed, he is an inspiration to us all, particularly the people who have disabilities, health issues and who go through unbearable levels of psychological pain, depression and hopelessness.
CLICK-CLICK-CLICK: in documentary after documentary this sound is what one hears when a reporter, caregiver, or colleague interacts with Hawking. No voice, no other sounds, no facial expressions. For those who know him, Hawking may be able to communicate through his eyes, which even across the cathode rays of video and film transmission burn with fierce determination; but for the rest of us, his sole means of communicating is through infrared connection to his computer.
As he advances in years and his ability to communicate becomes more restrictive with the slow but steady advance of his condition it’s worth examining just who and what we are really celebrating: the man, the mind or … the machines?
The most elemental description of Hawking is that he has almost become a “brain encased in scrawny flesh and bone.” Since being afflicted with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (a.k.a. Lou Gehrig’s disease) almost 50 years ago, his muscles have stopped working, though his mind and senses remain unaffected. In some ways Hawking is, to borrow from Obi-Wan Kenobi referring to Darth Vader, “more machine now than man.”
In one version of Hawking’s eulogistic story, we praise him as the smartest person in the world, the brilliant physicist, one of the greatest cosmologists of our time. He fits perfectly well with our conception of how science and its heroes work: To be a genius all one needs is a powerful -- a “beautiful” -- mind a la John Nash. And indeed, because of his disability, Hawking embodies the mythical figure capable of grasping the ultimate laws of the universe with nothing but the sheer strength of his reasoning: he can’t move his body, so everything must be in his mind. What else would a theoretical physicist need?
But in another version of Hawking’s relentlessly compelling story, we notice that he is more “incorporated” than any other scientist, let alone human being. He is delegated across numerous other bodies: technicians, students, assistants, and of course, machines. Hawking’s “genius,” far from being the product of his mind alone, is in fact profoundly located, material, and collective in nature. This example has him more analogous to a quasi-cybernetic creature called a Borg from his cherished science fiction show ‘Star Trek: the Next Generation’, collecting information from multiple inputs and using the data to inform his extrapolations.
What becomes clear through all the books and programs is that to even try to understand Hawking, you had to understand the people and the machines without whom he would be unable to act and think; you have to understand the ways in which these entities augmented and amplified Hawking’s competencies. For example: The specialties of his students, which are spread across very different research fields, enable him to integrate diverse information and the different facets of a problem in a way that others cannot. His secretary provides him with a mental assistant many of us would never have, by sorting and arranging his data according to his interests and what he is able to process.
This is not just like exchanging ideas with colleagues or having someone sort our mail: This is multiplying the ideas and sorting the cues that drive our interactions with the world. It is in some ways about a race not against, but with machines. It is in more ways the ultimate realization of Doug Engelbart’s early vision of augmenting human intellect through technology. But it is mostly about living our lives – and creating the heroes in them – through machines.
Hawking’s condition makes necessary the mechanization (the hierarchization, standardization, and routinization) of his human-machine based environment. This extended body network -- composed of machines and human beings -- allows a simple yes or a no to become operational.
But there’s a complexity behind this simplicity, much like the way simple user interfaces we use everyday obscure the complex processes behind their use. Only in this case we’re talking about a human being -- not a smartphone or computer screen.
A “yes” answer to the question “Do you want to go to this conference?” will allow Hawking to travel from one end of the earth to the other -- without having done anything more than twitch an eyebrow. His artificial voice offers another instrument of thought: What is well conceived is well said, and this is true in Hawking’s case. Since he doesn’t speak conventionally, his disability forces him to be even more clear in his mind and less worried about all the work those utterances entail.
At the same time, this voice effaces -- and makes us forget -- the role of the machine insofar as it speaks for, comes from, and marks the presence of a public persona. This is despite the fact that every utterance is written in advance, either by Hawking or someone in his embodied network. In the same way his students perform the calculations upon which his speeches (and articles) will be based.
How is this different than other celebrities -- or even the President of the United States-- surrounded by an entourage responsible for meeting their needs and marketing their image?
Both Hawking and celebrities hold authority from their positions at the top of the hierarchy, while the bottom of that hierarchy makes it possible for these stars to enact and maintain their positions at the top. But in Hawking’s case, the network is much more -- almost completely -- distributed and intimately embodied. He isn’t just issuing remote commands and expressed desire: his entire body and even his entire identity have become the property of a collective human-machine network. He is a distributed centered-subject: a brain in a human shell, living through the world outside that shell.
Traditionally, assistants execute what the head directs or has thought of beforehand. But Hawking’s assistants -- human and machine -- complete his thoughts through their work; they classify, attribute meaning, translate, perform. Hawking’s example thus helps us rethink the dichotomy between humans and machines.
It also helps us rethink the dichotomy between those who are in charge, and those who execute. While far less embodied, just think about Trump’s brain trust on the night of the election: Were they not part of his brain? They helped make his success happen; they were as, if not more, invested in the outcomes; and they looked just as exhausted as Trump’s mind probably felt.
Someone who is powerful is a collective, and the more collective s/he becomes, the more singular they seem.
Yet behind all this infrastructure, this support, the essence of the man shines through his human and computerized chorus: for all its disparate parts Hawking remains the composer and orchestra conductor. Through this, he has beaten the odds, ensuring that his "voice" remains strong even as what is left of his body fades.
When a man who can neither move or talk, can conjure up wonders in his head and find a way to communicate them then why do some of us lose hope and accept failures? Hawking’s disability never held him back from reaching the space between the stars. So why should one’s disability allow him/her to fall in low spirits and push him/her down lower? There is no need to moan and groan about your misfortunes. One should combat adversities with optimism and positive thinking. Hawking’s strong character teaches us the value of what true education -- knowing oneself-- means, ignoring the unfair hand our lives have dealt us.
On the eve of his 74th birthday, Hawking sent a message to fellow depression sufferers by making a poetic comparison between depression and a black hole. “black holes are not as black as they are painted…it is possible to escape from a black hole of despair…..so if you feel you are in a black hole, don't give up - there's a way out.'”