# How is Stephen Hawking still alive? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 21, 2004, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-stephen-hawking-still-alive/256221 "2004-07-21T18:26:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-stephen-hawking-still-alive/256221/21 "2012-04-06T12:59:21Z")
Actually, thanks to Hawking, my mind now thinks any synthesized voice that isn’t overtly female is usually Stephen Hawking talking to me. It’s…weird. “Hey, Stephen Hawking is giving me driving directions!” ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-stephen-hawking-still-alive/256221/22 "2012-04-06T13:09:46Z")
> [@Thaumaturge](#): > > From our reference frame, a black hole never really gets to contract all the way. What actually happens is that it gets frozen in time ( or nearly so) the more it warps space-time around it. It evaporates long before it ever completes its contraction ( even if it is a trillion trillion years), so no singularity ever is formed. Fascinating. But surely the Hawking Radiation (black holes have hair) must be caught in the same local time. If so the radiation would eke out at a glacial pace. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-stephen-hawking-still-alive/256221/23 "2012-04-06T15:02:42Z")
> [@Thaumaturge](#): > > No, what he was saying was that there was no way that _information_ would make it back out of the black hole, that the hole would destroy all record of went into it. Now he’s saying that information is not destroyed when the mass comes back out. It is only frozen into the structure. > > From our reference frame, a black hole never really gets to contract all the way. What actually happens is that it gets frozen in time ( or nearly so) the more it warps space-time around it. It evaporates long before it ever completes its contraction ( even if it is a trillion trillion years), so no singularity ever is formed. > > All the worries over trying to figure out what goes on in a singularity forgot that a singularity never gets a change to form because of time dialation. The reference frame of the hypothetical person falling into the black is invalid because it forgets this. Oh. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-stephen-hawking-still-alive/256221/24 "2012-04-06T15:51:50Z")
> [@Ken001](#): > > Fascinating. But surely the Hawking Radiation (black holes have hair) must be caught in the same local time. If so the radiation would eke out at a glacial pace. The radiation is coming from the event horizon. While time is a bit slower there, I don’t think it is sloooowwwww. ---
**Author:** ![RedSwinglineOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a9adbd/32.png) [@RedSwinglineOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedSwinglineOne)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-stephen-hawking-still-alive/256221/25 "2012-04-06T16:54:30Z")
[Jason Becker’s not dead yet.](http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGFDWTC8B8g) Jason Becker was diagnosed 20+ years ago and he is still alive despite being given 3-5 years to live. He, like Hawking, may have been helped by the fact that that he has a ‘reason to live’. He has been able to maintain involvement in music. The above link is a trailer for a documentary about him. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2012, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-stephen-hawking-still-alive/256221/26 "2012-04-06T23:34:19Z")
Because he’s rich, beeyotch! (Sorry, felt appropriate since it was a zombie thread. And it’s also probably true.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-stephen-hawking-still-alive/256221.md?page=1)