英国新闻听力 霍金一开口,世界侧耳听（在线收听）

He was a brilliant though by his own admission lazy physics student to the Oxford in the 1960s. “The course was ridiculously easy”, he said. But the career which followed like the stars he loved so much has shone brightly ever since. Despite being diagnosed with a rare form of Motor Neuron Disease when he was 21, and the physical deprivations it’s caused, his work on the laws which govern the universe have been groundbreaking.

It is of course Stephen Hawking, physicist, cosmologist and author of A Brief History of Time. Rather alarmingly, one observation he makes is that humanity is at risk from a series of dangers of its own making. In other words, our cleverness might be our downfall. BBC news online will be publishing the text of Professor Hawking’s lectures with accompanying notes from our science editor David Shukman. And David has this assessment of Professor Hawking’s standing in the scientific community.

Everything about him is distinctive. The terrible plight of a brilliant mind trapped in an increasingly disabled body. The slight smile. The plays on the face that can no longer move. The voice, delivered with an American accent, slowly and mechanically. It’s not always easy to hear, but it is immediately recognizable. Some years ago, before an interview in his office at Cambridge University, his staff had warned me not to make small talk because it takes him so long to compose his answers. But in the excitement of meeting him, I just blurted out “How are you” and had to wait guiltily for the reply.

Against all the odds, this remarkable figure has traveled the world, written bestselling books, appeared in comedy shows and acquired the status as a hugely popular science communicator. So when he speaks or gets his machine to, people listen. This year, he recorded two talks on the nature of black holes and the latest research into them. He also agreed to respond to prearranged questions.

He was asked about the fate of humanity. On a previous occasion, he’d said, artificial intelligence could wipe us out. This time, he singled out three scenarios, nuclear war, global warming and genetically engineered viruses, disasters that would be of our own making. And he said that further progress in science and technology would create new ways things can go wrong and that this becomes a near certainty in the next thousand or ten thousand years.

20世纪60年代，他是牛津大学物理系的一名学生，聪明绝顶却自称懒人一个。“课程简单得可笑，”他说。但是此后他的事业就像他喜欢的星星，闪烁耀眼的光芒。21岁时，霍金被诊断出患有运动神经元病的一种罕见病症，对他的身体造成了极大破坏，但是，他的关于统治宇宙法则的工作却是具有开创性的。

当然，他就是史蒂芬·霍金——物理学家、宇宙学家和《时间简史》的作者。他的一个观察发现相当令人担忧，那就是，人类制造了一系列危险，并将自食其果。换言之，我们的聪明可能导致我们的衰败。BBC新闻网将发布霍金教授演讲的文本并附以本台科学编辑大卫·舒克曼的注释。大卫这样评价霍金教授在科学界的地位。

他的一切都是独一无二的。糟糕的困境：杰出的大脑，日益消残的身体。浅浅的微笑。脸上永恒不变的表情。带有美国口音的缓慢而机械的嗓音。这个声音一般不容易听到，但却有极高的辨识度。几年前，我去剑桥大学霍金的办公室采访他，开始前，工作人员提醒我不要闲聊，因为教授要花很长时间组织答案。但因为见到他激动，我脱口而出“您好吗？”然后愧疚地等待教授的回答。

尽管面临重重困难，但是这个伟大的人物周游了世界、创作了畅销书、在喜剧中露了面，并且获得大受欢迎的科学传播者的地位。他一说话，或让他的机器一说话，人们都竖耳倾听。今年，他录了两个演讲，是关于黑洞的性质和最近的黑洞研究的。他也同意回答一些事先安排好的问题。

他被问到人类的宿命。他曾经说过，人工智能会消灭我们。这次，他单列出了三个场景：核战争、全球变暖和转基因病毒。这些都是我们自己制造的灾难。他还说，科技的持续进步还将为形势恶化创造新的途径，而且几乎可以肯定地说，接下来的一千年或一万年，这种预测会成真。