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TRANSCRIPT
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A Rhetorical Analysis of Stephen Hawking's "Black
Holes and Baby Universes"
Melissa AveryOctober 13, 2003
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In "Black Holes and Baby Universes", Stephen Hawking introduces the
concept of "baby universes". These are self-contained universes that branch off from
our region of the universe. Objects that fall into black holes would enter baby
universes, only to emerge as a steady stream of particles from another black hole of
the same mass. "Black Holes and Baby Universes" was originally a lecture given at
the University of California, Berkeley, in 1988. Hawking uses the particular analogy
of space travel, combined with the effect of his diction, to draw in listeners and
readers and to emphasize the often highly theoretical nature of science and its
relation to science fiction.
Hawking's continued reference to the effects of black holes and baby
universes on futuristic space travel serves to make the subject matter much more
accessible to non-astrophysicists.
This sounds like just what is required to allow space
travel though black holes. You just steer your spaceship
into a suitable black hole. […] You would then hope to
reappear out of some other hole, though you wouldn't
be able to choose where. (121)
This paragraph primarily serves to simplify ideas such as, "This baby universe
may join on again, [appearing] to us to be another black hole that formed and then
evaporated. Particles that fell into one black hole would appear as particles emitted
by the other black hole" (121). To make the jump of logic from rejoining baby
universes and a "black hole that formed and evaporated" (121) to the emitting of
particles from neighboring black holes could be difficult for readers to make
automatically on anything other than faith, as there are details missing in Hawking's
explanation, as is necessary in a non-technical essay. It would be unreasonable for
Hawking to launch into mathematical details that demonstrate precisely how likely it
is for a baby universe to form and reconnect as a neighboring black hole of equal
mass, were he even to have such numbers. This issue with the missed details is
particularly relevant in the original context of the essay, that of a lecture, in which
Hawking must keep the attention span of the audience by ensuring that they
understand the basic concepts each step of the way, while not bogging them down
with mathematics. Yet, by keeping with his analogy, he not only keeps the reader
from becoming hopelessly confused with trying to untangle the possibility of his
"technical" explanation being true, but effectively glosses over the missing
information in his explanation by distracting the audience.
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As seen in the example of the analogy above, Hawking also keeps the tone of
the essay light, again serving to keep the audience interested, but with the added
effect of being much more convincing. Had Hawking preached to his audience on
how his theories are correct and everyone else's are wrong, he would have alienated
much of his audience. By leaving that idea quietly implicit in the presentation of his
ideas in a popular lecture, which is certainly more likely to affect the beliefs of the
public than a closed audience of astrophysicists, Hawking loses no followers and does
not create an image of a scientist desperate to get his ideas out and heard. Whether
he is or not is more likely to be a matter of discussion within the scientific
community than the public-at-large.
Couching his jokes in familiar, science fiction terms serves to lightly and
humorously play upon stereotypes of people who would attend an astrophysics
lecture or read a popularized astrophysics essay. When relating more technical
information, as shown in the example above concerning the rejoining of baby
universes with our own, he does not bore the reader with technical terms or
mathematics that would be above the level of a high school graduate or college
undergraduate student, and he rather quickly returns to the popular analogy of the
space traveler. Even his "technical" term of a "baby universe" does not strike the
reader as being overly scientific, and, thus as not being scary. In fact, some might
find the term silly, further serving to draw the reader in by leaving them curious as
to how the usage of the term will be justified scientifically, or as "scientific" as the
essay becomes.
Hawking's use of the space travel analogy also demonstrates the link he sees
between astrophysics and science fiction. He is quite aware, as are his readers and
listeners, of the fact that much of popular science fiction takes basic physics ideas
and stretches them, often to the breaking point, for the sake of entertainment or
exploring possible futures of humanity. Despite the tenuousness of the link between
current, existing astrophysics theories and the extremes they are carried to in
science fiction, there is an important link in Hawking's mind. His presentation of the
space traveler analogy is not to disregard the idea as frivolous and ridiculous to evenconsider, but almost to suggest methods of keeping science fiction within our current
realm of "realistic" ideas about the universe, while still being entertaining. "You just
steer your spaceship into a suitable black hole. It had better be a pretty big one,
though, or the gravitational forces will tear you into spaghetti before you get inside"
(121) and "In real time, an astronaut who fell into a black hole would come to a
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sticky end. He would be torn apart by the difference between the gravitation force
on his head and his feet. Even the particles that made up his body would not
survive" (121-2) prove this: his suggested "modifications" would almost make funny
science fiction short stories themselves!
While reinforcing the fun nature of the connection between science fiction and
the reality of astrophysics, however, Hawking subtly emphasizes both the distance
between the two and the closeness of the two. It is truly unknown if Hawking's ideas
will have any real bearing on future space travel. Nothing about his astrophysical
theories are testable in a personal sense (as in, via space travel) with our current
level of technology, and will most likely not be for quite some time. Thus, anything
in science fiction that bases itself on his theories and ideas is speculative at best;
this is not particularly surprising, as that tends to be the nature of science fiction.
What is interesting, however, is the idea that while astrophysics is a science founded
on observation and mathematics, Hawking, in his manner of delivery, makes it seem
almost as subjective as science fiction in some aspects, thus bringing the two fields
closer together in the minds of his readers and listeners. "In 1973 I started
investigating what difference the uncertainty principle would make to black holes. To
my great surprise and that of everyone else, I found it meant that black holes are
not completely black" (120). Here, Hawking makes the discovery of the emission of
radiation by black holes seem like something less than the scientific method and
more like intuition; to Hawking, science is not merely an objective exercise in the
Scientific Method, but something that can surprise and startle. This is further
evidenced by Hawking's rather sociable tone and diction—the subjects of science
fiction (and space travel) and astrophysics are both fascinating and interesting to
Hawking. "What all this means is that going through a black hole is unlikely to prove
a popular and reliable method of space travel. First of all, you would have to get
there by traveling in imaginary time […]. Second, you couldn't really choose your
destination" (122).
Hawking's use of a particular, popular analogy and a light, sociable tone serve
to keep his audience interested in his subject matter to express his feelings on thenature of his particular branch of science. Hawking has once again managed a
"successful" essay—easy for the non-astrophysicist to understand at a basic level,
successful in getting his ideas propagated to those even remotely interested in
astrophysics, and highly theoretical and experimentally unproven in subject matter.
Word Count: 1317