--- title: Stephen Hawking's Speech Program Released for Free description: Intel hopes developers will innovate and expand on the base system canonical: https://time.com/4005447/stephen-hawking-speech/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-20T20:34:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:02:37.967Z article:section: Science og:title: Stephen Hawking's Speech Program Released for Free og:description: Intel hopes developers will innovate and expand on the base system og:url: https://time.com/4005447/stephen-hawking-speech/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8266b99259a1edf4/6988604bcf40a8721ac3f54c/stephen-hawking.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3191 og:image:height: 1795 og:image:alt: Cambridge Film Festival: "Hawking" - Opening Night Premiere og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stephen Hawking's Speech Program Released for Free twitter:description: Intel hopes developers will innovate and expand on the base system twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8266b99259a1edf4/6988604bcf40a8721ac3f54c/stephen-hawking.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Stephen Hawking's Speech Program Released for Free > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=691e77ab-e022-49d3-a880-8b4b17ea312e&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) ## Video: 10 Questions for Stephen Hawking [Watch (HLS stream): 10 Questions for Stephen Hawking](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/e2C6Witp.m3u8) (4:47)  _Published 2010-11-04. The renowned physicist has a new book, The Grand Design. Stephen Hawking will now take your questions._ by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Aug 20, 2015 8:34 PM UTC  Professor Stephen Hawking attends the gala screening of "Hawking" on the opening night of the Cambridge Film Festival held at Emmanuel College on September 19, 2013 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire. Professor Stephen Hawking attends the gala screening of "Hawking" on the opening night of the Cambridge Film Festival held at Emmanuel College on September 19, 2013 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire. Karwai Tang—Getty Images by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Aug 20, 2015 8:34 PM UTC Intel has released the software Stephen Hawking uses to communicate available for free online. The famed author and physicists relies on the technology to speak, as well as perform other basic functions like browsing the internet. Hawking, 73, suffers from motor neuron disease, or Leu Gehrig’s disease, which has left him almost entirely paralyzed. Intel hopes that it can assist others with similar disabilities. Code for the software, called [Assistive Context-Aware Toolkit](https://01.org/acat) (ACAT), is available to developers for free. By open sourcing the program, Intel believes developers will innovate and expand on the base system. Hawking got an upgrade from the computing giant last year, increasing the efficiency of his system. ACAT’s upgrade works much like the predictive type features on an iPhone, allowing the software to guess what Hawking is trying to say based on what he’s already typed. ## Transcript >> Hi. I'm Jeffrey Kluger for TIME and we're here today to ask questions of Stephen Hawking, perhaps the world's best known living cosmologist, physicist and mathematician. Hawking is known as much for the body of his work as for the obstacles he's had to overcome to conduct that work. Ill with ALS or a Lou Gehrig's Disease since 1962, Hawking has been confined to a wheelchair and has been fully paralyzed for several decades. That hasn't stopped him however from producing six popular science books including the recently released, The Grand Design and two children's books written with his daughter Lucy. We sent your questions to Dr. Hawking three weeks in advance and in that time. He assembled his answers one letter at a time by computer and then expressed them through a voice synthesis system. Stephen Hawking will now take your questions. We have a question from Stanford Connecticut. " If somehow you could say something to Albert Einstein, what would you say? >> I would ask him why he didn't believe in black holes. The field equation of his generation theory of relativity implies that a large star or a cloud of gas would collapse in on itself and form a black hole. Einstein was aware of this. But somehow managed to convinced himself that something like an explosion would always occur to throw off mass and prevent the formation of a black hole. What if there was no explosion? >> Do you think our civilization will survive long enough to make the leap to deeper space? >> I think we have a good chance of surviving long enough to call [ unk ] solar system. However, there is nowhere else in the solar system, anything like as suitable as the earth, so it is not clear if we would survive if the earth was made unfit for habitation. To insure our law in terms survival, we need to reach the stars. That will take much longer. Let's hope we can last until then. >> Do you feel that your physical limitations have helped or hindered your study? >> Although I was unfortunate enough to get motor neuron disease, I have been very fortunate in almost everything else. I was lucky to be working in theoretical physics, one of the few areas in which disability was not a serious handicap and to had neglected with my popular books. >> What scientific discovery or technological advancement would you like to see realized in your lifetime? >> I would like nuclear fusion to become a practical power source. It would provide an exhaustible supply of energy without pollution or global warming. >> I guess everyone here will be asking you questions about the deepest mysteries of the Universe, so I will ask something more mundane. What is your favorite memory? >> It was when I visited Antarctica 1997. The Chilean Air Force flew a group of theoretical physicists down to their base on King George's Island off the Antarctica Peninsula. My wheelchair didn't-- has no change but they took me round on a snow mobile. >> Does the Universe end? If so, what is beyond it? >> Observations indicate that the Universe is expanding at another increasing rate. It will expand forever getting emptier and darker. All those, the universe doesn't have an end and a beginning of the Bing Bang. One might asks what is before that. But the answer is that there is nowhere before the Bing Bang, and thus has there is nowhere south of the south pole. >> Does it feel like a huge responsibility to have people expecting you to have all the answers to all of life's mysteries? >> I certainly don't have the answers to all the life's problems. While Physics and Mathematics may tell us how the Universe began, they are not much use in predicting human behavior, because they are far too many equations to solve. 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