The Truth Is in the Stars Page #9

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Uh, I've been

waiting a long time,

not only here

but for a long part of

my life to meet you.

I've been waiting so

long I feel like it's

a lost lover and

you've come, finally,

and we're meeting once again.

How nice to see you.

Thank you so much

for taking the time

and letting us come

into your house.

Greetings, Captain Kirk.

I have not met you before,

but I appeared on The Enterprise

as a hologram in a poker game

arranged by Commander Data.

But then I said,

"In that frame of reference,"

the perihelion of mercury

"would have recessed in

the opposite direction."

That is a great story!

Quite amusing,

Dr. Hawking.

You see, Sir Isaac,

the joke depends on

an understanding

of the relativistic

curvature of spacetime.

Do not patronize me, sir.

I invented physics.

The day that apple

fell on my head

was the most momentous day

in the history of science.

Not the apple story again.

I won 141 Federation credits,

but I don't know

the exchange rate.

Oh, it's tremendous,

but now that uh,

that you've left

the European Union,

it's a lot less.

I made you laugh.

I probably

have succeeded beyond

my wildest dreams.

I've made you smile.

I've traveled a great distance

through time and space

to come here to see you today.

It's a great honor to meet you

in person and I...

I hope to find answers

to the deepest questions

of the universe.

My question, therefore, is.

Star Trek explored many of

the mysteries of the universe,

time travel, warp speed,

teleportation, alien

civilizations,

black holes, parallel universes.

What role do you

think Star Trek plays

in inspiring humanity?

Many of the things

Star Trek foresaw

have come to pass,

or will in the not

too distant future.

We have discovered

many black holes

and space travel is

now commonplace.

We can travel forward in time

by moving at almost

the speed of light.

But I have shown that

it is not possible

to warp spacetime so much

that one can travel

into the past.

Hmm!

Yuri Milner and I

have announced plans

to use radio telescopes

to listen to signals

from alien civilizations.

We plan to send

miniature nanocraft

pushed by a giant laser at

20% of the speed of light

to Alpha Centauri and

search for alien life.

What were your favorite

aliens, and why?

For you to ask me

that is really funny,

when I imagine you

thinking of life

on other worlds

uh, and what they

must look like.

So, first of all

there was The Horta.

Who we thought was a

terrible thing, uh being,

and it turned out it was a

mother protecting its young.

The best Star Treks

had the best aliens,

and they were the best aliens

because they had a purpose

and a reason, and a being,

those were my favorite aliens,

the-the intelligent ones.

Why do we wanna believe

that we're not alone?

It seems that life arose

spontaneously on Earth.

We also believe that the

universe is infinite.

The discovery of even

primitive alien life

would have a profound effect

on our view of the universe

and our place in it.

When I was Captain of

the Starship Enterprise,

we came across alien life forms,

some of them good, some bad.

What should we expect when we

discover intelligent beings?

Intelligent aliens

are likely to be

much more advanced

because they have had galactic

time skills to evolve.

Whereas our civilization is

less than 10,000 years old.

If the alien life

is intelligent,

it is likely to be

much more advanced.

We could learn a lot,

that is,

unless civilizations

become unstable

when they reach a certain

level of technology

and destroy themselves.

This is a depressing thought,

but it could explain

why we haven't received

any signals from aliens.

Looking back I've

come to conclusion that.

Star Trek and other

science fiction

are part of our mythology,

our way of seeking

to explain the things

we don't understand.

Tell me if and-and how.

Star Trek has inspired

and influenced you?

Star Trek inspired me

to want to go into space.

Wow!

I took a flight on the

Vomit Comet in 2007

to experience zero gravity.

This is the training

astronauts have.

Since then,

I have been waiting

for Virgin Galactic.

Me too.

I will be one of

the first passengers

if my doctors allow me to go.

Well, we might be

passengers together.

Maybe I'll sit beside you

as we go into space together.

The focus of your

research right now

is on black holes.

Do your dreams lead to research,

or does your curiosity

lead to your dreams?

My research is

inspired by curiosity,

curiosity about the universe

and the laws that govern it.

If one understands the laws,

one controls the

universe, in a sense.

My ultimate aim would be to find

a complete unified theory

that combines general relativity

with the other laws of physics.

That may be string theory,

but this is not yet clear.

The advances in-in

medicine and technology

since you were diagnosed

with Motor Neuron Disease,

have enabled you

to have a career

that would have

been unimaginable

even ten years earlier.

What do you think your

life would be like

in the 23rd Century?

I hope it would be much better.

It seems my condition

may be caused by a defect

in the repair mechanism

for nerve damage.

We have identified

that gene responsible

and hopefully by

the 23rd Century,

we shall be able to correct it.

Well, I'm a lot older than you,

and uh, the end is near,

and I've been born

too early as well.

I'd love to be able

to extend my life.

We've always dreamed

of immortality,

and we're afraid of dying

and losing all of this.

Do you think science at

some point in the future

will help us

achieve immortality?

Nothing is immortal.

The human repair

mechanisms wear out

like everything else.

To extend life

further would require

a major redesign of

the human genome,

which is unlikely to happen

by the time of Star Trek.

Thank you so much

for taking the time.

Um, it was very generous of you,

and I personally

have fulfilled a,

a longing to meet

you and to see you

and this, um, this, uh, show,

this, uh, program,

has become basically

my journey to see you.

What a privilege

and how grateful I am

for you to have let us into

a small part of your life.

That is a wrap!

Sure, you're in a

movie part once,

and now you're an actor, sure!

How wonderful!

How wonderful!

God, I wish I could have

an evening with you

and-and, uh, talk

about those things.

I had the best time.

I felt like I was

beside a holy man.

I would love to stay for dinner.

What a remembrance I'll have

for the rest of my life.

Wow!

Holy cats!

In this little cottage

by the Cam River,

came into contact with

somebody who is gigantic.

Wow!

Okay, I wonder

what's for dinner?

He invited me for dinner.

He invited me for dinner!

University,

universe,

two words united in meaning,

symbolizing a

universe that connects

each and every one of us.

The River Cam runs through

the heart of Cambridge,

past the colleges

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