[escepticos] RV: HAWKING AT CALTECH ON TIPLER

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-----Original Message-----
De: Skeptic Mag Hotline <skeptic-admin en lyris.net>
Para: Skeptics Society <skeptics en lyris.net>
Fecha: viernes 13 de marzo de 1998 14:04
Asunto: HAWKING AT CALTECH ON TIPLER


>To: Skeptic Magazine Internet Hotline
>From: Michael Shermer
>Re: Stephen Hawking at Caltech
>
>I thought you all might enjoy this little story. On Wednesday, March 11,
>Stephen Hawking spoke at Caltech. As usual, there was a HUGE crowd. He
spoke
>in Beckman Auditorium, which holds 1,100 people. That was filled. There was
a
>video feed into Remo hall, which holds about 400 people. That was filled.
>There was even a video feed to Von Karman Auditorium at JPL. They even put
>speakers up outside the hall so the rest of the people could sit on the
lawn
>and listen to the master speak. We (the Skeptics Society staff) arrived at
6pm
>for an 8pm start. We were WAY too late, but fortunately we found someone we
>knew and got in the line at a 4:45 time spot. There were people up front
who
>had been there since 2 in the afternoon! (Don't give me a hard time about
>this--that line was growing in width almost as fast as it grew in
>length--everyone was doing it.)
>
>The atmosphere was as vestive as any rock concert I've been to (except
people
>were doing Coca Cola instead of cocaine, and playing chess instead of
>frisbie). Hawking got a standing ovation for arriving, a standing O upon
>completion of his lecture, and a standing O when he left. The subject of
his
>lecture was superfluous as most probably didn't have a clue what he was
>talking about (black holes and the usual stuff), but they sure laughed at
the
>jokes and cartoon slides he put up, including one of God with a white
flowing
>beard and sunglasses, and the final slide of himself playing poker on the
>Enterprise with Data, Newton, and Einstein, but this time he "imagined"
>Marilyn Monroe sitting on his knee, and there she was! Big laughs, of
course.
>But then, Hawking could say just about anything and get a laugh.
>
>The Q & A is the best part of these performances. Last year someone
actually
>asked him if there is a God; someone else asked about free will and
>determinism; like he KNOWS the RIGHT answer. This time, after the first two
>questions, the host announced, "Well, Stephen, since you answered the first
>two questions correctly you get to move to the bonus round...." Very funny.
>
>The next day Hawking put on a smaller, technical seminar just for Caltech
>folks, so I wondered over to see what he had to say to his colleagues.
Well, I
>still don't know what he said, but the jokes got just as good a laugh. No
>standing O in this group, however. For the Q & A no one raised their hand
to
>ask a question (everyone looked around at each other as if to seek
>permission), so I did. I asked:
>
>"You've been talking about the Omega Point and the Anthropic Principle.
What
>is your opinion of your cosmologist colleague Frank Tipler's book, THE
PHYSICS
>OF IMMORTALITY, and his theory that the Omega Point will reach back from
the
>far future of the universe into the past to reconstruct every human who
ever
>lived or who ever could have lived in the ultimate Holodeck?"
>
>Hawking sat their for a minute typing out his answer:
>
>"MY OPINION WOULD BE LIBELOUS."
>
>
>On another front, in two weeks, under the direction of James Randi, we will
be
>running a test of a guy who says he can dowse for golf balls. Seems he is
>impressed that with this Quadro-like device (the one Randi debunked last
year
>on Dateline) when he goes to golf courses he can find golf balls. Imagine
>that, golf balls at golf courses. Who would have thought it?!
>
>Shermer
>
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