Stephen Hawking Read Online Free Page A

in his cluttered, joke-inventor’s den. Our talk turned to the meaning of life—a topic I felt pretty hot on at the time—when suddenly I was arrested by an awful realization: he was encouraging me to make a fool of myself, and watching me as though from a great height. It was a profoundly unnerving moment. 2
    Their interest in Christianity lasted for most of the year. The group of friends met at each other’s houses as they had done to play board games. They still drank orange squash and even played games occasionally, but for most of the time they would hold intense discussions on matters of faith, God, and their own feelings. It was a time of inner growth, a struggle to find meaning in the tumble of events and stimuli surrounding them, but it was also an important group activity. One member of the group has since intimated that there was an undoubted tinge of schoolboy homosexuality about the whole thing.
    This was a difficult time for Stephen. He wanted to be involved, to be part of the group, but the rationalist in himwould not, even then, allow his emotions to compromise his intellect. Yet he managed to keep his friends, remain detached, and learn a number of social skills that would hold him in good stead for the future. The irony is that at the end of the third year, at the height of the craze, Stephen won the school divinity prize.
    After Christianity came the occult. The group began to turn its attention to extrasensory perception (ESP), which at the time was beginning to capture the public imagination. Together and in the privacy of their own dens, they started to conduct experiments during which they would attempt to influence the throw of a die by the power of their minds. Stephen was far more interested in this—it was quantifiable, real experimental work, and there was a chance that the idea could be proved or disproved. It was not simply a matter of faith and hope.
    The craze did not last long. With the others, Stephen attended a lecture by a scientist who had made a study of a set of ESP experiments conducted at Duke University in North Carolina in the late fifties. The lecturer demonstrated that when the experimenters obtained good results the experiments could be shown to be faulty, and whenever the experimental technique was followed correctly, no results were obtained. Hawking’s interest turned to contempt. He came to the conclusion that it is only people who have not developed their analytical faculties beyond those of a teenager who believe in such things as ESP. 3
    Meanwhile, at school things carried on pretty much as before. Stephen was poor at all sports with the possible exception of cross-country running, for which his wraith-likephysique was perfectly suited. He endured cricket and rugby, but special loathing was reserved for the Combined Cadet Force, the CCF. Like most private boys’ schools in Britain, St. Albans School maintains a schoolboy army, the original aim of which was to prepare young men for national service. Each Friday the entire school, with six exceptions, wore military uniform. The exceptions were those whose parents were conscientious objectors. Despite Isobel Hawking’s political leanings, Stephen’s parents did not object and he took part in the same war games, drills, and parades as the others.
    For those with little interest in things military, the memories of the CCF are sour—cold winter Fridays in driving rain, clothes drenched through, biting January sleet numbing face and fingers, and the enthusiastic boy-officers yelling orders. Stephen had the rank of lance corporal in the Signals, the section into which those with a scientific bent were traditionally placed. By all accounts he hated every minute of it, but it was endured. In some respects the alternative was worse. Those who did not wish to play their part in defending Queen and Country had to run the gauntlet of persuasive tactics. First, the objector was taken to Colonel