Hawking Incorporated: Stephen Hawking and the Anthropology of the Knowing Subject

278 Pages·2012·1.59 MB·English

by  Hélène Mialet

HAW KING INCORPORATED

HÉLÈNE MIALET
HAWK ING
INCORPORATED
Stephen Haw king and the Anthropology
of the Knowing Subject
(cid:2) e University of Chicago Press Chicago and London
Hélène Mialet has held positions at Cornell,
Oxford, and Harvard Universities. She currently
lives and teaches in Berkeley, California.
(cid:2) e University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
(cid:2) e University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2012 by (cid:2) e University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2012.
Printed in the United States of America
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 1 2 3 4 5
isbn-13: 978-0-226-52226-5 (cloth)
isbn-10: 0-226-52226-1 (cloth)
isbn-13: 978-0-226-52228-9 (paper)
isbn-10: 0-226-52228-8 (paper)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication
Data
Mialet, Hélène.
Hawking incorporated: Stephen Hawking and
the anthropology of the knowing subject / Helene
Mialet.
pages; cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-226-52226-5 (cloth: alkaline paper)—
isbn 0-226-52226-1 (cloth: alkaline paper)—
isbn 978-0-226-52228-9 (paperback: alkaline
paper)—isbn 0-226-52228-8 (paperback: alkaline
paper) 1. Hawking, S. W. (Stephen W.)
2. Physicists—Great Britain. 3. People with
disabilities in science. 4. Communication in
science. 5. Self-help devices for people with
disabilities. 6. Mind and body. I. Title.
qc16.h33m53 2012
530.092—dc23 2011050728
(cid:2) is paper meets the requirements of ansi/niso
z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
I. (cid:2) e Assistants and the Machines 11
II. (cid:2) e Students 45
III. (cid:2) e Diagrams 65
IV. (cid:2) e Media 79
V. Reading Haw king’s Presence
An Interview with a Self-Eff acing Man 119
VI. At the Beginning of Forever
Archiving haw king 139
VII. (cid:2) e (cid:2) inker
Haw king Meets hawk ing 173
Conclusion—A Recurring Question
From Exemplum to Cipher 191
Epilogue 199 Notes 201
Bibliography 247 Index 259

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I have incurred many debts in writing this book, beginning with a Marie
Curie Grant from the European Commission’s Human Capital and Mobil-
ity Program that allowed me to conduct my initial research at Cambridge
University. I am very grateful to the Department of History and Philosophy
of Science at Cambridge for welcoming me and providing such a stimulat-
ing intellectual environment in which to launch this project. I was able to
continue my research thanks to the support of the Maison Française of Ox-
ford and the Museum for the History of Science of Oxford, the Max Planck
Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, the Department of Science
and Technology Studies at Cornell University, the Departments of Rheto-
ric, Anthropology, and Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley,
and the Department of History of Science at Harvard University. Part of this
research was also supported by grants from the Society for the Humanities
at Cornell University and the President’s Council of Cornell Women.
Many have contributed in one way or another to the making of this book.
Indeed, this fact illustrates one of its principal arguments—that an individ-
ual is always a collective. I would like especially to thank Bruno Latour, Mi-
chael Lynch, Simon Schaff er, and Michael Wintroub for their wonderful in-
spiration, advice, and criticism. In addition, many friends, colleagues, and
students have helped me in this long journey; I cannot thank them enough,
but I would at least like to acknowledge my debts to Madeleine Ackrich, Ken
Alder, Malcolm Ashmore, David Bates, Jim Benne(cid:19) , Robin Boast, Robert
Brain, Michael Bravo, Charlo(cid:19) e Cabasse, Jimina Canales, Nina Caputo, Flo-
rian Charvolin, Yves Cohen, Lawrence Cohen, Harry Collins, Olivier Darri-
gol, Lorraine Daston, Arnold Davidson, Richard Drayton, Nathalie Dubois-
Stringfellow, Soraya de Chadarevian, Melanie Feakins, Marianne Ferme,
Claudio Fogu, John Forrester, Marion Fourcade, Beate Fricke, Christophe
viii Acknowledgments
Galfard, Liza Gitelman, Ken Goldberg, Jan Golinski, Sudeshna Guha, Ian
Hacking, Mitch Hart, Cori Hayden, Antoine Hennion, Anita Herle, Arne
Hessenbruch, Don Idhe, Sheila Jasanoff , David Kaiser, Wulf Kansteiner,
Devva Kasnitz, Lauren Kassell, Eivind Kahrs, Chris Kelty, Kevin Knox,
Catherine Kudlick, Dominique LaCapra, Svante Lindqvist, Jean-Pierre Lu-
minet, Lyle Massey, Andreas Mayer, Chandra Mukerji, Mary Murrel, Rich-
ard Noakes, Stefania Pandolfo, Vololona Rabeharisoa, Jessica Riskin, Mar-
garet Rigaud, Gene Rochlin, Oliver Sacks, Natasha Schull, Sam Schweber,
John Searle, Ann Secord, Jim Secord, Evan Selinger, Steven Shapin, Russel
Shu(cid:19) leworth, O(cid:19) o Sibum, Peter Skafi sh, Isabelle Stengers, Lucy Suchman,
Charis (cid:2) ompson, Keith Topper, John Tresh, Heidi Voskuhl, Loïc Wacquant,
Andrew Warwick, Hayden White, Mario Wimmer, and Alexei Yurkchak.
Aryn Martin helped me with the collection of information at the begin-
ning of this project, Liz Libbrecht with translating some of my work, Laurie
McLaughlin with the transcription of recordings, Susan Storch and Peter
Skafi sh with the editing of the manuscript, and Erica Lee with the prepara-
tion of the manuscript. I thank all of them.
I have presented portions of this book at Cornell University, the Univer-
sity of Michigan, Northwestern University, MIT, Harvard, Stanford, the
Universities of California at Berkeley, San Diego, and Davis, the University
of British Columbia, Cambridge University, Oxford University, Manchester
University, Brunel University, Cardiff University, Imperial College, the
Max Planck Institute, the Centre de Sociologie de l’Innovation de l’Ecole
Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris, and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes
en Sciences Sociales. I would like to thank all the many participants in these
talks, conferences, and seminars for their comments, feedback, criticisms,
and interest.
In addition, I would like to thank all those I interviewed in my research
for this book; though I did not cite everyone who took the time to answer
my many questions, all played an important role in its completion. I thus
want to thank each of the actors I interviewed, and especially Professor
Hawking, for their time, consideration, and insight. Without them, this
book would not have been possible.
Finally, my parents, my brother, and my family-in-law never despaired
of seeing this book appear. I thank them for believing in it. Michael Win-
troub, with his love for language and ideas, helped me at every step of this
project; he and Maxime, with their unconditional support and love, were
the driving force behind this project. I dedicate this book to them.
Portions of this book have been previously published. Chapter 5 ap-
peared as “Reading Hawking’s Presence: An Interview with a Self-Eff acing
Acknowledgments ix
Man,” in Critical Inquiry 29, no. 4 (2003): 571–98, and elements of chapter 4
were published in “Do Angels Have Bodies? Two Stories about Subjectivity
in Science: (cid:2) e Cases of William X and Mr. H,” in Social Studies of Science 29,
no. 4 (1999): 551–82. I would like to thank these journals for their permission
to reproduce my work here.