<P> Hawking did not rule out the existence of a Creator, asking in A Brief History of Time "Is the unified theory so compelling that it brings about its own existence?" In his early work, Hawking spoke of God in a metaphorical sense . In A Brief History of Time he wrote: "If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason--for then we should know the mind of God ." In the same book he suggested that the existence of God was not necessary to explain the origin of the universe . Later discussions with Neil Turok led to the realisation that the existence of God was also compatible with an open universe . </P> <P> Further work by Hawking in the area of arrows of time led to the 1985 publication of a paper theorising that if the no - boundary proposition were correct, then when the universe stopped expanding and eventually collapsed, time would run backwards . A paper by Don Page and independent calculations by Raymond Laflamme led Hawking to withdraw this concept . Honours continued to be awarded: in 1981 he was awarded the American Franklin Medal, and in 1982 made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). Awards do not pay the bills, however, and motivated by the need to finance the children's education and home expenses, in 1982 Hawking determined to write a popular book about the universe that would be accessible to the general public . Instead of publishing with an academic press, he signed a contract with Bantam Books, a mass market publisher, and received a large advance for his book . A first draft of the book, called A Brief History of Time, was completed in 1984 . </P> <P> One of the first messages Hawking produced with his speech - generating device was a request for his assistant to help him finish writing A Brief History of Time . Peter Guzzardi, his editor at Bantam, pushed him to explain his ideas clearly in non-technical language, a process that required many revisions from an increasingly irritated Hawking . The book was published in April 1988 in the US and in June in the UK, and it proved to be an extraordinary success, rising quickly to the top of bestseller lists in both countries and remaining there for months . The book was translated into many languages, and ultimately sold an estimated 9 million copies . Media attention was intense, and a Newsweek magazine cover and a television special both described him as "Master of the Universe". Success led to significant financial rewards, but also the challenges of celebrity status . Hawking travelled extensively to promote his work, and enjoyed partying and dancing into the small hours . He had difficulty refusing the invitations and visitors, which left limited time for work and his students . Some colleagues were resentful of the attention Hawking received, feeling it was due to his disability . He received further academic recognition, including five more honorary degrees, the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1985), the Paul Dirac Medal (1987) and, jointly with Penrose, the prestigious Wolf Prize (1988). In 1989, he was appointed Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH). He reportedly declined a knighthood . </P> <P> Hawking pursued his work in physics: in 1993 he co-edited a book on Euclidean quantum gravity with Gary Gibbons and published a collected edition of his own articles on black holes and the Big Bang . In 1994, at Cambridge's Newton Institute, Hawking and Penrose delivered a series of six lectures that were published in 1996 as "The Nature of Space and Time". In 1997, he conceded a 1991 public scientific wager made with Kip Thorne and John Preskill of Caltech . Hawking had bet that Penrose's proposal of a "cosmic censorship conjecture"--that there could be no "naked singularities" unclothed within a horizon--was correct . After discovering his concession might have been premature, a new, more refined, wager was made . This one specified that such singularities would occur without extra conditions . The same year, Thorne, Hawking and Preskill made another bet, this time concerning the black hole information paradox . Thorne and Hawking argued that since general relativity made it impossible for black holes to radiate and lose information, the mass - energy and information carried by Hawking radiation must be "new", and not from inside the black hole event horizon . Since this contradicted the quantum mechanics of microcausality, quantum mechanics theory would need to be rewritten . Preskill argued the opposite, that since quantum mechanics suggests that the information emitted by a black hole relates to information that fell in at an earlier time, the concept of black holes given by general relativity must be modified in some way . </P>

Who is the guy in the wheelchair that talks with a computer