Stephen Hawking: “My disability has been a help in a way”

EL PAÍS will on Friday publish an exclusive interview with theoretical physicist, astrophysicist and arguably the world’s best-known scientist, Stephen Hawking. Hawking is currently visiting the Canary Island of Tenerife in order to present the 2016 Starmus festival, which is held every two years and at its next edition will bring together a dozen Nobel prize winners, along with other figures from the worlds of science, education and space exploration.

In the interview, the British scientist reflects on the possibility of extraterrestrial life, about black holes (“Falling into one is like going over Niagara Falls in a canoe”), about his fears regarding artificial intelligence (“computers will overtake humans with AI at some point within the next 100 years”) and about the disease that has put him in a wheelchair for the last 46 years and, as he says, has allowed him to focus on studying and researching: “My advice to other disabled people would be, concentrate on things your disability doesn’t prevent you doing well, and don’t regret the things it interferes with.”