Stephen Hawking

Speaker 10:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

Speaker 10:08

The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen ninety two, and the presenter was Sue Lawley.

Presenter0:30

My castaway for Christmas is a scientist. He didn't excel at school, but won a scholarship to Oxford. Once there he worked for the equivalent of one hour a day and got a first. Shortly after his twenty first birthday he was told that he was suffering from motor neurone disease and had only a few years to live.

Presenter0:48

This discovery transformed apathy into enthusiasm, and to day, thirty years later, he has achieved recognition as one of the greatest theoretical scientists since Einstein.

Presenter0:59

Although he's defied that original prognosis for his life, his physical condition has deteriorated. He's almost totally paralyzed, and can only communicate through a voice synthesizer. He is the best selling author of A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking.

Presenter1:16

In many ways, of course, Stephen, you're already familiar with the isolation of a desert island, cut off from normal physical life, and deprived of any natural means of communication.

Presenter1:26

How lonely is it for you?

Stephen Hawking1:30

I don't regard myself as cut off from normal life, and I don't think people around me would say I was.

Stephen Hawking1:38

I don't feel a disabled person, just someone with certain malfunctions of my motor neurons, rather as if I were colorblind.

Stephen Hawking1:48

I suppose my life can hardly be described as usual, but I feel it is normal in spirit.

Presenter1:56

Nevertheless, you've you've really already proved to yourself, unlike most castaways on desert island disks, that you are mentally and intellectually self sufficient, haven't you? That you've got enough theories and inspiration to keep yourself occupied.

Stephen Hawking2:10

I suppose I'm naturally a bit introverted, and my difficulties in communication has forced me to rely on myself.

Stephen Hawking2:19

But I was a great talker as a boy.

Stephen Hawking2:23

I need discussion with other people to stimulate me. The mere fact of having to organize my thoughts, so that I can explain them to others, often shows me a new way forward.

Presenter2:36

But what about emotional fulfilment, Stephen? Even a a brilliant physicist must need other people to find that.

Stephen Hawking2:44

I couldn't carry on with my life, if I only had physics.

Stephen Hawking2:50

Like everyone else, I need warmth, love, and affection.

Stephen Hawking2:55

Again I'm very fortunate, much more fortunate than many people with my disabilities, in receiving a great deal of love and affection.

Stephen Hawking3:06

Music is also very important to me.

Presenter3:09

So what's the first disk you put on on your desert island?

Stephen Hawking3:13

It is a glory of pipooling.

Stephen Hawking3:16

I first heard it this summer in As Penn, Colorado.

Stephen Hawking3:20

In the summer they have physics meetings.

Stephen Hawking3:24

Next door to the Physics Center, it's an enormous tent where they hold a music festival.

Stephen Hawking3:31

As you said working out what happens when black holes evaporate, you can hear the rehearsals.

Stephen Hawking3:38

It is ideal, it combines my two main pleasures, physics and music.

Stephen Hawking3:44

If I can have both on my desert island, I won't want to be rescued. Not that is, until I have made a discovery in theoretical physics, that I want to tell everyone about.

Presenter4:57

Rosanna Carteri singing part of Poulan's Gloria in G major with the chorus and National Orchestra of French Radio.

Presenter5:06

Radio can hide uh physical shortcomings, but on this occasion it's disguising something else, because seven years ago, Stephen Hawking, you literally lost your voice. Can you tell me what happened?

Stephen Hawking5:19

I was in Geneva, at CERN, the big particle accelerator, in the summer of 1985, I caught pneumonia, and was rushed to hospital.

Stephen Hawking5:30

The hospital in Geneva suggested to my wife that it was not worth keeping on the life support machine.

Stephen Hawking5:39

But she was not having any of that.

Stephen Hawking5:42

I was flown back to a Denbrick's hospital, Cambridge, where a surgeon called Roger Gray, carried out a trickyostomy.

Stephen Hawking5:51

That operation saved my life, but took away my voice.

Presenter5:57

But your speech was in any case by then very slurred and difficult to understand, wasn't it? So

Presenter6:03

Presumably the power of speech would have deserted you eventually anyway, wouldn't it?

Stephen Hawking6:08

Although my voice was slurred, and difficult to comprehend, the people close to me, could still understand me.

Stephen Hawking6:18

I could give seminars through an interpreter, and I could dictate scientific papers.

Stephen Hawking6:24

But for a time after my operation.

Stephen Hawking6:28

I was devastated.

Stephen Hawking6:29

I felt that if I couldn't get my voice back, it was not worth carrying on.

Presenter6:35

And then a a Californian computer expert read about your plight and sent you a voice. How does it work?

Stephen Hawking6:44

His name was Waldwaltas.

Stephen Hawking6:47

His mother-in-law had had the same condition as me, so he had developed a computer program to help her communicate.

Stephen Hawking6:56

A cursor moves across the screen.

Stephen Hawking7:00

When it is on the option you want, you operate a split by head or eye movement, or in my case, by hand.

Stephen Hawking7:10

Then this way one can select words.

Stephen Hawking7:13

When one has built up what one wants to say, one can send it to a speech synthesizer, or save it on disk.

Presenter7:21

But it's a slow business.

Stephen Hawking7:23

It is slow, roughly one-tenth the speed of normal speed.

Stephen Hawking7:28

British people describe its accent as American, but the Americans say it is Scandinavian, or Irish.

Stephen Hawking7:36

Anyway, whatever it is, everyone can understand it.

Stephen Hawking7:41

My youngest son, who was only six at the time of my tracheostomy, never could make me up before.

Stephen Hawking7:49

Now he has no difficulty.

Stephen Hawking7:52

That means a great deal to me.

Presenter7:55

It also means that you can demand good notice of any interviewers' questions and need only answer when you're good and ready, doesn't it?

Stephen Hawking8:03

For long recorded programs like this, it helps to have notice of the questions, in a way that gives me more control.

Stephen Hawking8:12

But I really prefer to answer questions off the cuff.

Stephen Hawking8:17

I do that after seminars, and popular lectures.

Presenter8:22

But as you say, the process means that you have control, and I know that that's quite important to you. Your your family and friends sometimes call you stubborn or bossy. Do you plead guilty to being those things?

Stephen Hawking8:34

Anyone with any nouns, is called stubborn at times.

Stephen Hawking8:40

I would prefer to say I was determined.

Stephen Hawking8:43

If I hadn't been thoroughly determined, I wouldn't be here now.

Presenter8:49

Let's have your second record.

Stephen Hawking8:51

The Bronx Violin Concerto.

Stephen Hawking8:55

This was the first LP I bought.

Stephen Hawking8:59

It was 1957, and 33 RPM records had recently appeared in Britain.

Stephen Hawking9:07

My father would have regarded it as recklessly self-indulgent, to buy a record player, but I persuaded him that I could assemble one from parts that I could buy a cheap.

Stephen Hawking9:18

That appealed to him as a Yorkshireman.

Stephen Hawking9:21

When I first heard this record in the shop, I thought it sounded rather strange, and I was not sure I liked it.

Stephen Hawking9:31

But I felt I had to say I did.

Stephen Hawking9:34

However, over the years it has come to mean a great deal to me.

Presenter10:39

Part of Brahm's violin concerto in D major, played by David Oustrach and the National Orchestra of French Radio, conducted by Otto Klemperer.

Presenter10:48

An old family friend, Stephen, has said that your family when you were a boy was, and I quote, highly intelligent, very clever, and very eccentric.

Presenter10:57

Looking back, do you do you think that's a fair description?

Stephen Hawking11:01

I can't comment on whether my family were intelligent, but we certainly didn't feel we were eccentric.

Stephen Hawking11:09

We may have seemed so, by the standards of St. Albans, which was a pretty state place, when we lived there.

Presenter11:18

And your father was a specialist in tropical diseases.

Stephen Hawking11:22

My father did research in tropical medicine.

Stephen Hawking11:26

He quite often went to Africa, to try out new drugs in the field.

Presenter11:31

So was your mother, would you say, the greater influence on you? And if so, how would you characterize that influence?

Stephen Hawking11:36

I would say my father was the greater influence.

Stephen Hawking11:41

I modeled myself on him.

Stephen Hawking11:43

Because he was a scientific researcher, I felt that scientific research was a natural thing to do, when one grew up.

Stephen Hawking11:53

The only difference was, that I was not attracted to medicine or biology, because they seemed too inexact, undescriptive. I wanted something more fundamental, and I found it in physics.

Presenter12:07

Your mother has said that that you always had what she described as as a strong sense of wonder. I could see that the stars could draw him, she said. Do do you remember that?

Stephen Hawking12:19

I remember coming home late one night from London.

Stephen Hawking12:24

In those days, they turned the street lights out at midnight, to save money.

Stephen Hawking12:29

I saw the night sky, as I had never seen it before, with the Milky Way going right across.

Stephen Hawking12:37

There won't be street lights on my desert island, so I should get a good view of the stars.

Presenter12:44

Obviously you you were very bright as a child, you were very competitive, apparently, in games at home with your sister but you could come practically bottom of the class at school and not care about it at all, couldn't you?

Stephen Hawking12:57

That was in my first year at St. Albans School.

Stephen Hawking13:02

But I should say that it was a very bright class, and I did much better in examinations, than in classwork.

Stephen Hawking13:10

I was sure that I really could do well, it was just my handwriting, and general untidiness, that caused me to be placed so low.

Presenter13:21

Record number three.

Stephen Hawking13:23

While I was an undergraduate at Oxford, I read Aldous Huxley's novel, Point Counterpoint.

Stephen Hawking13:32

This was intended as a portrait of the 1930s, and had an enormous cast of characters.

Stephen Hawking13:39

There was one that was obviously modeled on Huxley himself.

Stephen Hawking13:45

This man killed the leader of the British fascists.

Stephen Hawking13:49

He then let the party know he had done it, and put on gramophone records of Beethoven's string quartet, Op. 132.

Stephen Hawking13:59

In the middle of the third movement, he answered the door, and was shot by the fascists.

Stephen Hawking14:05

If I knew that a tidal wave was on the way, to overwhelm my desert island, I would play the third movement of this quartet.

Presenter15:14

Part of Beethoven's Quartet in A minor played by the Amadeus Quartet, and the theme of that section is A Thanksgiving on Recovery from Illness.

Presenter15:24

You went up to Oxford, Stephen, to University College, to read maths and physics, where you worked by your own calculations an average of about an hour a day, although it has to be said you rode, drank beer, and played silly tricks on people with some pleasure, according to what I've read.

Presenter15:39

What was the problem? Why couldn't you be bothered to work?

Stephen Hawking15:43

It was the end of the 50s, and most young people were disillusioned with what was called, the establishment.

Stephen Hawking15:51

There seemed nothing to look forward to, but affluence, and more affluence.

Stephen Hawking15:57

The Conservatives had just won their third election victory with the slogan, You've Never Had It So Good. I.

Stephen Hawking16:05

And most of my contemporaries at Oxford were bored with life.

Stephen Hawking16:11

There didn't seem anything worth working for.

Presenter16:14

Nevertheless, you still uh managed to solve in a few hours problems that your fellow students couldn't do in as many weeks. They were obviously aware, from what they've said since, that you had an exceptional talent. Were you aware, do you think?

Stephen Hawking16:28

The physics course at Oxford at that time, was ridiculously easy.

Stephen Hawking16:34

One could get through, without going to any lectures, but just by going to one or two tutorials a week.

Stephen Hawking16:44

You didn't need to remember many facts, just a few equations.

Presenter16:50

But it was at Oxford, wasn't it, that you first noticed that your hands and feet weren't quite doing what you wanted them to do. How did you explain that to yourself at the time?

Stephen Hawking17:00

In fact, the first thing I noticed, was that I couldn't draw a sculling boat properly.

Stephen Hawking17:08

Then I had a bad fall, down the stairs from the college junior common room.

Stephen Hawking17:13

I went to the college doctor after the fall, because I was worried that I might have brain damage.

Stephen Hawking17:21

However, he thought there was nothing wrong, and told me to cut down and appear.

Stephen Hawking17:27

After my finals at Oxford, I went to Persia for the summer.

Stephen Hawking17:34

I was definitely weaker when I came back, but I thought that was caused by a bad stomach upset that I had had.

Presenter17:42

But at what point did you give in and admit that there was something really wrong and decide to get medical advice?

Stephen Hawking17:48

I went home for Christmas.

Stephen Hawking17:52

That was the very cold winter of 62-63. My mother persuaded me to go and skate on the lake in St. Albans, even though I knew I was not really up to it.

Stephen Hawking18:04

I fell over, and had great difficulty getting up.

Stephen Hawking18:09

My mother realized there was something wrong.

Stephen Hawking18:12

She took me to the family doctor.

Presenter18:15

And then three weeks in hospital and they told you the worst.

Stephen Hawking18:19

I was in for two weeks, having tests, but they never actually told me what was wrong, except that it was not MS, and that it was not a typical case.

Stephen Hawking18:31

They didn't tell me what the prospects were, but I guessed enough to know that they were pretty bad, so I didn't want to ask.

Presenter18:40

And finally, in fact, you were told that you only had a couple of years or so to live. Let's pause at that point in your story and have your next record, Stephen.

Stephen Hawking18:51

The Foggy React 1. After I was diagnosed with motor neuron disease in 1963, I turned to Warner, as someone who suited the darkened apocalyptic mood I was in. Unfortunately, my speech synthesizer is not very well educated, and pronounces him Wagner.

Stephen Hawking19:12

I have to spell him V, A, R, G, N, E, R, to get it to sound approximately right.

Stephen Hawking19:22

The four operas of the ring cycle are Varnier's greatest work.

Stephen Hawking19:27

I went to see him at Barret in Germany, with my sister, Philippa, in 1964.

Stephen Hawking19:34

I didn't know the ring well at that time, and the Valkyrie, the second opera and the cycle, made a tremendous impression on me.

Speaker 419:45

Yes.

Stephen Hawking19:47

Let's start.

Speaker 419:48

Herb is ming purbis iron, it is lovely tombing, it's built in the time of the trouble.

Speaker 120:00

I must be staying on

Speaker 420:26

They still fit!

Speaker 420:32

Hermenna sit the saim zal von wunding so hocheit gelan.

Speaker 420:38

If ride I vibe, the sunger froth shacks.

Presenter20:45

Lotter Lehmann and Laritz Melchior singing part of Act One of Wagner's De Valkyrie with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Bruno Walter.

Presenter20:54

Reading about you, Stephen, it almost seems as if that death sentence, being told you had only a couple of years or so to live, woke you up, if you like, made you concentrate on life.

Stephen Hawking21:05

Its first effect was to depress me. I seem to be getting worse fairly rapidly.

Stephen Hawking21:12

There didn't seem any point in doing anything, or working on my PhD, because I didn't know I would live long enough to finish it.

Stephen Hawking21:22

But then things started to improve, the condition developed more slowly, and I began to make progress in my work, particularly in showing that the universe must have had a beginning, in a Big Bang.

Presenter21:37

But you've even said in one interview that you thought you were happier now than before you got ill.

Stephen Hawking21:44

I certainly am happier now. Before I got motor neuron disease, I was bored with life.

Stephen Hawking21:51

But the prospect of an early death made me realize life was really worth living.

Stephen Hawking21:57

There is so much one can do, so much that anyone can do.

Stephen Hawking22:03

I have a real feeling of achievement, that I have made a modest, but significant, contribution to human knowledge, despite my condition.

Stephen Hawking22:15

Of course, I'm very fortunate, but everyone can achieve something, if they try hard enough.

Presenter22:23

Would you go as far as to say that you mightn't have achieved all you have had you not had motor neurone disease, or is that just too simplistic?

Stephen Hawking22:33

No. I don't think motor neuron disease can be an advantage to anyone.

Stephen Hawking22:39

But it was less of a disadvantage to me, than to other people, because it didn't stop me doing what I wanted, which was to try and understand how the universe operates.

Presenter22:51

Your other inspiration when you were trying to come to terms with the disease was a young woman called Jane Wilde, whom you'd met at a party and fallen in love with and subsequently married. How much of your success, would you say, do you owe to her, to Jane?

Stephen Hawking23:07

I certainly wouldn't have managed it without her.

Stephen Hawking23:11

Being engaged to her, lifted me out of the slow of despond I was in.

Stephen Hawking23:16

Jane looked after me single-handed, as my condition got worse.

Stephen Hawking23:22

At that stage, no one was offering to help us, and we certainly couldn't afford to pay for help.

Presenter23:31

And together you defied the doctors, not only because you went on living, but also because you had children. You had Robert in nineteen sixty seven, Lucy in seventy, and then Timothy in seventy nine. How shocked were they, the doctors?

Stephen Hawking23:47

In fact, the doctor had diagnosed me, washed his hands of me, he felt that there was nothing that could be done.

Stephen Hawking23:56

I never saw them after the initial diagnosis.

Stephen Hawking24:01

Then the fact

Stephen Hawking24:02

My father became my doctor, and it was to him I turned for advice.

Stephen Hawking24:07

He told me there was no evidence that the disease was hereditary.

Stephen Hawking24:14

Jane managed to look after me, and two children.

Stephen Hawking24:19

It was only after the third child, Tim, was born, that we had to get a nurses to look after me.

Presenter24:27

But now you and Jane aren't together any more.

Stephen Hawking24:34

After my trichostomy operation, I needed 24-hour nursing.

Stephen Hawking24:40

That put a greater and greater strain on the merit.

Stephen Hawking24:45

We now live separately.

Presenter24:51

Let's have some more music.

Stephen Hawking24:53

Lucky devils, please please me.

Stephen Hawking24:56

After my first four rather serious choices, I would need some light relief.

Stephen Hawking25:03

For me, and many others, the Beatles came as a welcome breath of fresh air.

Speaker 425:12

I said these words to my girl

Speaker 425:18

I know you never even tried it.

Speaker 425:25

Come on.

Speaker 425:26

Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, we won't get that please you

Presenter25:38

The Beatles and Please Please Me.

Presenter25:40

Despite all the honours that have been heaped upon you, Stephen Hawking, and I should specifically mention that you're Lucasian Professor of Physics at Cambridge that's Isaac Newton's chair you decided to write a popular book about your work for, I think, a very simple reason you needed the money.

Stephen Hawking25:59

While I thought I might make a modest amount from a popular book, the main reason I wrote a brief history of time, was because I entire it.

Stephen Hawking26:09

I was excited about the discoveries that have been made in the last 25 years, and I wanted to tell people about them.

Stephen Hawking26:20

I never expected it to do as well as it did.

Presenter26:24

Indeed, it it's broken all the records and uh got into the Guinness Book of Records for the length of time it's been on the bestseller lists and it's still there.

Presenter26:31

Nobody seems to know how many copies have been sold worldwide, but it's certainly in excess of ten million, and it's not even in paperback yet, is it?

Presenter26:40

People buy it, obviously, but the question goes on being asked, do they read it?

Stephen Hawking26:48

I know Bernard Levin got stuck on page 29, but I know plenty of people have got further.

Stephen Hawking26:56

All over the world, people tell me how much they have enjoyed it.

Stephen Hawking27:02

They may not have finished it, or have understood everything they read.

Stephen Hawking27:07

But they have at least got the idea, that we live in a universe governed by rational laws, that we can discover and understand.

Presenter27:16

It was of course the concept of the black hole that first appealed to the public imagination and attracted renewed interest in cosmology.

Presenter27:25

Did you ever watch all those Star Treks to boldly go where no man has ever gone before and so on? And and if so, did you enjoy them?

Stephen Hawking27:32

I read a lot of science fiction when I was a teenager, but now I find most science fiction a bit facile.

Stephen Hawking27:41

That is so easy if you don't have to make it part of a consistent picture.

Stephen Hawking27:47

Real science is much more exciting, because it is actually happening out there.

Stephen Hawking27:54

Science fiction writers never suggested black holes, before physicists thought of them.

Stephen Hawking28:01

But we now have good evidence for a number of black holes.

Presenter28:05

What would happen if you fell into a black hole?

Stephen Hawking28:10

Everyone who reads science fiction, knows what happens if you fall in a black hole.

Stephen Hawking28:17

You get made into spaghetti.

Stephen Hawking28:20

But what is much more interesting, is that black holes aren't completely black.

Stephen Hawking28:26

They send out particles and radiation, at a steady rate.

Stephen Hawking28:31

This causes a black hole to evaporate slowly, but what eventually happens to the black hole and its contents, is not known.

Stephen Hawking28:41

This is an exciting area of research, but science fiction writers have not caught up with it yet.

Presenter28:48

But that radiation you mention is of course called Hawking's radiation. It wasn't you who discovered the black holes, although you've gone on to prove they're not black but it it was their discovery which made you begin to think more closely about the origins of the universe, wasn't it?

Stephen Hawking29:04

The collapse of a star to form a black hole, this in many ways like the time reverse of the expansion of the universe.

Stephen Hawking29:13

There's an important difference.

Stephen Hawking29:16

We are outside the black hole, but we are inside the universe. But both are characterized by thermal radiation.

Presenter29:25

You say, though, that it's not known what eventually happens to a black hole and its contents, but I thought that the theory was that

Presenter29:32

Whatever happened, whatever disappeared into the black hole, inc including an astronaut, would eventually be recycled as your as Hawking's radiation.

Stephen Hawking29:45

The rest mass energy of the astronaut will be recycled as radiation sent out by the black hole.

Stephen Hawking29:53

But the astronaut himself, or even the particles of which he is made, won't come back out of the black hole.

Stephen Hawking30:01

So your question is, what happens to them?

Stephen Hawking30:05

Do they get destroyed, or do they pass into another universe?

Stephen Hawking30:10

That is something I would dearly like to know, not that I'm thinking of jumping into a black hole.

Presenter30:18

Do you work, though, Stephen, on intuition? That's to say, do you arrive at a theory uh that you rather like and appeals to you and set about proving it? Or as a scientist, do you always have to make your way

Presenter30:32

logically towards a conclusion and you dare not attempt to guess it in advance.

Stephen Hawking30:38

I rely on intuition a great deal.

Stephen Hawking30:41

I try to guess the result.

Stephen Hawking30:45

But I didn't have to prove it.

Stephen Hawking30:48

And at this stage, I quite often find that what I had thought of, is not true, or that something else is the case, that I had never thought of.

Stephen Hawking31:01

That is how I found black holes aren't completely black.

Stephen Hawking31:06

I was trying to prove something else.

Presenter31:10

More music.

Stephen Hawking31:11

Mozart has always been one of my favorites.

Stephen Hawking31:15

For my 50th birthday earlier this year, I was given his complete works on CD, over 200 hours of it.

Stephen Hawking31:25

I'm still working my way through it.

Stephen Hawking31:28

One of the greatest is the requiem.

Stephen Hawking31:33

Mozart died before the requiem was finished.

Stephen Hawking31:36

The android we are about to hear, was the only part completely written and orchestrated by Mozart.

Presenter32:43

Part of Mozart's Requiem played by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra conducted by Karl Birm.

Presenter32:49

To oversimplify your theories hugely, and I hope you'll forgive me for this, Stephen, you once believed, as I understand it, that there was a point of creation, a Big Bang, but you no longer believe that to be the case. You believe there was no beginning and that there is no end, that the universe is self-contained. Does that mean that there's there was no act of creation and therefore there's no place for God?

Stephen Hawking33:17

Yes, you have oversimplified.

Stephen Hawking33:20

I still believe the universe has a beginning in real time, at a big bang.

Stephen Hawking33:26

But there's another kind of time, imaginary time, at right angles to real time, in which the universe has no beginning or end.

Stephen Hawking33:38

This would mean that the way the universe began, would be determined by the laws of physics.

Stephen Hawking33:45

One wouldn't have to say that God chose to set the universe going, in some arbitrary way that we couldn't understand.

Stephen Hawking33:54

It says nothing about whether or not God exists.

Stephen Hawking33:59

Just that he is not arbitrary.

Presenter34:03

But how if

Presenter34:05

There's a possibility that God doesn't exist. How do you account, Stephen, for all those things that are beyond science, love, and the faith that people have and have had in you, and indeed in your own inspiration?

Stephen Hawking34:22

Love, faith, and morality, belong into a different category to physics.

Stephen Hawking34:29

You cannot deduce how one should behave from the laws of physics.

Stephen Hawking34:35

But one could hope that the logical thought that physics and mathematics involves, would guide one also in one's moral behavior.

Presenter34:44

But I think that many people do feel that uh you have you, Stephen Hawking, have effectively dispensed with God. Are you denying that, then?

Stephen Hawking34:54

All my work has shown is, that you don't have to say that the way the universe began, was a personal whim of God.

Stephen Hawking35:04

But you still have the question, why does the universe occur to exist?

Stephen Hawking35:10

If you like, you can define what to be the answer to that question.

Presenter35:18

Let's have record number seven.

Stephen Hawking35:21

I'm very fond of opera. One had to be Werner, and eventually, I decided the other should be Puccini.

Stephen Hawking35:30

Taranda is by far his greatest opera, but again he died before he finished it.

Presenter36:34

Placido Domingo and Cattia Ricciarelli singing part of the second act of Puccini's Turundotte, played by the Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Herbert von Carrion. So tell me, Stephen, what does Christmas mean to you?

Stephen Hawking36:47

It is a bit like the American thanksgiving, a time to be with one's family, and to get thanks for a year past.

Stephen Hawking36:57

It is also the time to look forward to the year ahead, as symbolized by the birth of a child in a stable.

Presenter37:05

And uh to be materialistic about it, what presents have you asked for? Are you uh so well off these days that you're the man who has everything?

Stephen Hawking37:13

I prefer surprises.

Stephen Hawking37:17

If one asks for something specific, one isn't letting the giver have any freedom, or opportunity to use his or her imagination.

Stephen Hawking37:27

But I don't mind it being known that I'm fond of chocolate ruffles.

Presenter37:34

So far, then, Stephen, you've lived for thirty years longer than predicted. You've fathered children you were told you'd never have you've written a bestseller you've turned age old beliefs about space and time on their heads. What else are you planning to do before you quit this planet?

Stephen Hawking37:52

All that has been possible, only because I've been fortunate enough to receive a great deal of help.

Stephen Hawking37:59

I'm pleased with what I have managed to achieve, but there's a great deal more I would like to do, before I pass on.

Stephen Hawking38:09

I won't talk about my private life, but scientifically, I would like to know how one should unify gravity with quantum mechanics, and the other forces of nature.

Stephen Hawking38:23

In particular, I want to know what happens to a black hole when it evaporates.

Presenter38:30

Last record.

Stephen Hawking38:32

I will have to get you to pronounce this.

Stephen Hawking38:36

My speech synthesizer is American, a nobless at friend.

Stephen Hawking38:42

That is Siddha Paiov, singing Ni Ni Ragradri.

Stephen Hawking38:48

That just about sums up my life.

Speaker 438:50

Je alumina fur.

Speaker 438:53

Mes chagurl me pelaisi.

Speaker 438:56

Draw neck for rebuff water

Speaker 438:59

Buddy it is a m

Speaker 439:02

Ah vecular molo.

Speaker 439:05

Ballet Porto Roux

Speaker 439:08

Pro parazer Norien.

Presenter39:19

Edith Piaf and Jean-Roubtovigner.

Presenter39:22

Uh now, Stephen, if you could only take one of those eight records, which one would it be?

Stephen Hawking39:28

It would have to be the Mozart Requiem.

Stephen Hawking39:31

I could listen to that, until the batteries in my disc walkman ran out.

Presenter39:38

And your book,'cause uh the complete works of Shakespeare and the Bible are waiting for you.

Stephen Hawking39:43

I think I will take Middlemarch, by Storytelliet.

Stephen Hawking39:48

I think someone, maybe it was Virginia Woolf, said it was a book for adults.

Stephen Hawking39:56

I'm not sure I'm grown up yet, but I will give it a try.

Presenter40:02

And your luxury.

Stephen Hawking40:04

I will ask for a large supply of cream brula.

Stephen Hawking40:08

For me, that is the epitome of luxury.

Presenter40:13

Not the chocolate truffles, then a large supply of creme brulee instead.

Presenter40:17

Dr. Stephen Hawking, thank you very much indeed for letting us hear your desert island discs and happy Christmas!

Stephen Hawking40:23

Thank you for choosing me.

Stephen Hawking40:26

I wish you all a happy Christmas from my desert island.

Speaker 140:38

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Islandists Archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk/radio four.