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An essay about Stephen Hawking
An essay about Stephen Hawking
An essay about Stephen Hawking
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Stephen Hawking is an interesting and famous person. He is simultaneously part of two different groups of society which most people view as existing on opposite ends of a spectrum. He is profoundly disabled, requiring much care. He is also a brilliant academic who has been compared with Einstein. Stephen Hawking, in his popularity, shows that our society is generally understanding and accepting of very unique people. He has ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. It slowly weakens his muscles, he is unable to move most of his muscles that are directly controlled by the brain. This obviously confines him to a wheelchair. He is also unable to use his voice, as he is unable to move control his vocal chords. A special computer system has been set up for …show more content…
This shows that most people are kind and at sympathetic in both directions. Sympathetic towards others, and towards themselves. Most people are not Stephen Hawking, and never will be, most are also not upset about this. Perhaps if people were more envious about their lack of similar abilities, they would push themselves to be better. On the other hand, it would be easier for most to just sulk in resentment. Towards Hawking, most still have sympathy. His ability does not outweigh his disability. Stephen Hawking has a major disability, it does not “subtract” from his abilities. It should be easy to be respecting of those who look and act radically different than ourselves. If one were to meet Dr. Hawking without an introduction would assume based on his physical appearance that he was a mental vegetable when in fact quite the opposite is the case. While he is an extreme example, it shows how wrong one can be when they see other’s disabilities and personal issues while overlooking their abilities. Most are too quick to assume that someone else has similar abilities, motivations, and concerns as themselves. In interactions with others, it is good to remember that the other person is likely very different than oneself. If someone met Hawking without knowing him and without an introduction, but was patient and had a conversation, they would be understanding and accepting towards …show more content…
A Brief History of Time. London, The Folio Society, 2016. Hawking, Stephen W. “Stephen Hawking.” Stephen Hawking, www.hawking.org.uk/. Accessed 9 June 2017. McCarten, Anthony, and Jane Hawking. The Theory of Everything. Working Title Films, 2014. Rowley, Sarah. “Stephen Hawking - the tech helping him talk and write revealed.” SwiftKey Blog, TouchType Ltd, 10 Sept. 2015, blog.swiftkey.com/swiftkey-reveals-role-professor-stephen-hawkings-communication-system/. Accessed 9 June 2017. Taylor, Jeri. “Descent.” Star Trek: The Next Generation, CBS, 21 June
This ironic phrase demonstrates the pride she finds in a label that others find offensive, but she finds it truthful and correct. Mairs embraces her condition because it has become part of her. Mairs continues to demonstrate her tone, now with humor when she states, “my God is not a handicapper general” (Mairs). Mairs uses this phrase to demonstrate she is different than most people including her god, but this does not stop her from being confident. She is aware of her difference but she knows she is capable of achieving all her desires. Furthermore she demonstrates that she continues to live a normal life with her family. Although individuals view Mairs differently she demonstrates her capability of achieving a regular life; for example, Stephen Hawking is a highly educated cripple who has achieved more than any other individual who does not have his condition. Hawking and Mairs prove that a disease will not stop them from living their
She told her readers that she has a muscle-wasting disease and she could only move three fingers on her right hand. She wrote that the reactions she got from most people were “Decidedly negative” (Johnson p.98) She wrote that she would hear thing such as “I admire you for being out; most people would give up.” And “You don’t let the pain hold you back do you?” (Johnson p.98) There is often talk about how popular culture teaches people to both see and not see the people with disabilities. Comments such as these are an example of such blindness. When a child sees a disabled person a parent’s first reaction would be to tell them not to stare. We teach children that it is impolite to be curious about people who live life differently than others. We carry the “its-not-polite-to-stare” idea into adult hood therefore when we come across a disabled we try not to make eye contact not as if we are being rude but because we are taught that it would offend them. All curiosity and attempts to understand are shut down at a young age for fear of offending someone. Therefore, any attempt to encourage is met with a deep misunderstanding of how the life of someone with disabilities truly works. Just because a person has a disability does not mean they are incapable of enjoying
Most people feel relatively uncomfortable when they meet someone with an obvious physical disability. Usually, the disability seems to stand out in ones mind so much that they often forget the person is still a person. In turn, their discomfort is likely to betray their actions, making the other person uncomfortable too. People with disabilities have goals, dreams, wants and desires similar to people without disabilities. Andre Dubus points out very clearly in his article, "Why the Able-bodied Still Don't Get It," how people's attitudes toward "cripples" effect them. It's is evident that although our society has come a long way with excepting those with physical disabilities, people do not understand that those with physical disabilities are as much human as the next person
Disability in our day in age is seen as being worse than death. People with disabilities should not feel like they don 't belong. They are just like everyone else and want to be treated like everyone else. Many without disabilities think that it can be contagious and stray to even look at people with disability. This is not the case for it 's not contagious and one should not be seen as a different person just because of their disability. They didn 't choose that life and shouldn 't be mistreated for what they are. “People with disability should be treated equally to everyone else.”
Michael needs to use a wheelchair, but that does not define
There might be hundreds of movie stars but Sean Connery is a very good one. Sean Connery is a very interesting man and has done many things in his life as a child, movie actor, and a father. He has become a very famous man because of his acting career.
I was always the person to shy away from a disabled person because I didn’t know how to handle it. I always thought if I avoided them I wouldn’t have to face the truth, which is I was very uncomfortable with disabled people. However, since our discussions in class, reading the book, and going to the event my views on the disabled have changed drastically since then. I learned that people with disabilities can do the same things, if not more, that a person without disabilities can do. I realized that I need to treat people with disabilities just like any other person, like an equal. People shouldn’t be ostracized for something that they cannot control. Everyone should treat disabled individuals with respect, dignity, and concern. This is why from now on I will not shy away from a disabled person I will welcome them with open arms because they are no different than
He would sometimes fall while just walking, but not trip over anything. He would also catch himself slurring words when trying to have a conversation, but he kept quiet and revealed his secret to no one. Although attempting to hide his physical imperfections, his father ended up taking notice to this one day and took him to see a doctor. Stephen then spent about two weeks in a clinic undergoing numerous tests. Shortly after the age of twenty one Stephen William Hawking was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. This diagnosis meant that the nerves controlling his muscles were starting to shut down. The doctor gave Stephen another two years to live. Hawking once stated that before his diagnosis, he was becoming bored with life, but after being diagnosed, he feels like now he has things he wants to do and he really started to bury his head in his work and research. Hawking would soon realize that living with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis would drastically change his
The two essays “On Being a Cripple” by Nancy Mairs and “A Plague of Tics” by David Sedaris are excellent pieces of work that share many similarities. This paper would reflect on these similarities particularly in terms of the author, message and the targeted audience. On an everyday basis, people view those with disabilities in a different light and make them conscious at every step. This may be done without a conscious realisation but then it is probably human nature to observe and notice things that deviate from the normal in a society. In a way people are conditioned to look negatively at those individuals who are different in the conventional
In fact, most of the handicapped people in society do not appreciate being treated in a way different from anyone else. They just want to be accepted as human beings.
Hawking suffers from Lou Gehrig’s disease. Lou Gehrig’s disease is a disease that attacks the spinal cord and the brain. This made him be in a wheelchair for life. When Hawking was twenty one, he was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease, a disease where nerves cells in the body die. He married Jane Hawking in 1965, and
“Where do we come from? How did the universe begin? Why is the universe the way it is? How will it end?” This quote by Stephen Hawking, a physicist famous for his work in theoretical physics, illustrates his fascination with the universe. Hawking has been known for the development of theories about the universe, including his work on black holes and theories on the origins of the cosmos. Aside from his amazing discoveries, Hawking has a unique personal story. (Stephen Hawking's Universe) He was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a debilitating neurological disease that affects muscle control, must use a wheelchair and has to speak through a computer and voice synthesizer. Despite his physical limitations and difficulties communicating, Hawking’s research and discoveries in the field of physics have been compared to those of Albert Einstein. His ultimate goal - the understanding of the universe in its entirety – has led to many major ideas. Two of his very fascinating discoveries were the Hawking radiation and the Unified Field Theory.
The first thought that crosses the mind of an able-bodied individual upon seeing a disabled person will undoubtedly pertain to their disability. This is for the most part because that is the first thing that a person would notice, as it could be perceived from a distance. However, due to the way that disability is portrayed in the media, and in our minds, your analysis of a disabled person rarely proceeds beyond that initial observation. This is the underlying problem behind why disabled people feel so under appreciated and discriminated against. Society compartmentalizes, and in doing so places the disabled in an entirely different category than fully able human beings. This is the underlying theme in the essays “Disability” by Nancy Mairs, “Why the Able-Bodied Just Don’t Get it” by Andre Dubus, and “Should I Have Been Killed at Birth?” by Harriet Johnson.
Quantum computing is the first step into all technologies of the future. It involves using electric patterns in the brain to control electronics. A twenty-six-year-old quadriplegic has an implant the size of an aspirin sitting on the top of his brain that allows him to play simple video games, control a robotic arm, and even turn on and off a TV. By 2012 cyber kinetic chips could be able to process thoughts as fast as speech (Taylor). The transition eventually will be made from implants to headbands with unimaginable power. With this headband “Any kind of information is available anytime [a user wants]it, simply speak a question or even think it. [Once connected, a person]will always be connected wirelessly to the network, and an answer will return from a vast collectively-prodeuced data matrix. Google queries will seem quaint”(Kirkpatrick). With this breakthrough, the necessity to learn languages may disappear (Kirkpatrick). The biggest step is “network e...
People with disabilities are still people, they are people with hearts and they are actual physical beings; people with disabilities do their best to live every day to their fullest, yet that is still not enough for others. I feel like as a whole, humans are generally uncomfortable with people who have disabilities. Let’s think of it this way, people live their life every day in their normal lives and then they come across a person with a disability and suddenly their life is interrupted, like it is such a barrier in their flow of life to come across someone different from themselves.