ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many
people have helped me in writing this book. My scientific colleagues
have without exception been inspiring. Over the years my principal
associates and collaborators were Roger Penrose, Robert Geroch,
Brandon Carter, George Ellis, Gary Gibbons, Don Page, and Jim
Hartle. I owe a lot to them, and to my research students, who
have always given me help when needed.
One
of my students, Brian Whitt, gave me a lot of help writing the first
edition of this book. My editor at Bantam Books, Peter Guzzardi,
made innumerable comments which improved the book considerably.
In addition, for this edition, I would like to thank Andrew Dunn,
who helped me revise the text.
I
could not have written this book without my communication system.
The software, called Equalizer, was donated by Walt Waltosz of Words
Plus Inc., in Lancaster, California. My speech synthesizer was donated
by Speech Plus, of Sunnyvale, California. The synthesizer and laptop
computer were mounted on my wheelchair by David Mason, of Cambridge
Adaptive Communication Ltd. With this system I can communicate better
now than before I lost my voice.
I
have had a number of secretaries and assistants over the years in
which I wrote and revised this book. On the secretarial side, I’m
very grateful to Judy Fella, Ann Ralph, Laura Gentry, Cheryl Billington,
and Sue Masey. My assistants have been Colin Williams, David Thomas,
and Raymond Laflamme, Nick Phillips, Andrew Dunn, Stuart Jamieson,
Jonathan Brenchley, Tim Hunt, Simon Gill, Jon Rogers, and Tom Kendall.
They, my nurses, colleagues, friends, and family have enabled me
to live a very full life and to pursue my research despite my disability.
Stephen
Hawking
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR
Stephen
Hawking, who was born in 1942 on the anniversary of Galileo’s
death, holds Isaac Newton’s chair as Lucasian Professor of
Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. Widely regarded as
the most brilliant theoretical physicist since Einstein, he is
also the author of Black Holes and Baby Universes, published
in 1993, as well as numerous scientific papers and books.
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