I Can Make Stephen Hawkings Walk Again

Stephen Hawkings has lived with ALS longer than just about anyone.  To have his great mind trapped in a useless body is terrible.  But I believe I might be able to enable him to function normally again.

Since ALS is a genetic disease, I would go with gene replacement first.  Since DNA is what programs the body to be what it is, the faulty gene would be discovered when the DNA is analyzed and replaced.  DNA referencing would be used to compare the DNA of other people, some with ALS, to see which gene is responsible.  When that is determined, gene replacement can go on. 

Gene replacement might be done by various methods.  One method is gene transplantation.  It would require the removal of tissue from a healthy person to harvest genes.  When the right one is discovered, it would be inserted into a bacterium and replicated to produce a supply of genes that can replace the faulty gene. 

Another method would be synthetic gene construction.  Since genes are basically molecules, it may be possible to produce an artificial gene that can be replicated.  When there is a supply of helathy genes, they would be inserted into the DNA of Hawkings to replace the faulty gene. 

A third method would be interspecies transplantation.  Since most of the genes in primates are similar to ours, once the appropriate gene is discovered, it could be replicated and inserted into the DNA. 

To allow him to walk now, I would use what I call a body suit that would do what muscles do.  The muscles would be synthetic muscles similar to what we have normally.  An electrochemical reaction would expand and contract the muscles so that the person can move.  Hawkings would tire easily since he hasn’t moved from his chair too much.  But in time his stamina may return. 

Useless muscle would have to be removed and replaced by synthetic muscle.  The nervous system would have to be checked out to see if there is nerve damage.  If there is, I would install nerve bypass units that are solidstate devices that are stimulated by the impulses of the nerves and pass along the signals to other nerves.  I would also use nerve bypass units to allow paralyzed people to walk again.  Christopher Reeves could have used them.  He lived no more than 40 miles away from me and the nerve bypass had been known by thousands of people since I talked about it on my TV program and it was talked about over the radio since the late 70’s. 

Since Hawkings needs an electronic voice, I would reactivate the nerves that go to the vocal cords and use biojunctions to attach them to another computerized “voice box” which wouldn’t require visual cues.  If possible, the existing natural voice would be reactivated so that Hawkings can talk normally.  But if this is not possible, I would try to find examples of him speaking before the voice disappeared and use it for sampling so the computrerized voice will sound like his natural voice. 

He would have to do exercise to enable his heart to become stronger.  If the heart needs to be replaced, I would install one of my synthetic hearts I described in a prevcious article.  It would use an electrochemical reaction to stimulate the muscles to expand and contract.  It may allow him to be stronger than normal. 

Since Hawkings is a man of science, he might be willing to be a man with an advanced synthetic body.  If my Experiencable Program Units can be perfected, I know he would use the computer to travel electronically around the world to experience places, information, and other people.  He could appear any way he chose.  I’ll be writing about that shortly. 

Stephen Hawkings should be freed from his physical prison and allowed to become a vital part of the science community.  If my technology can allow him to be free, I hope and pray others will perfect it and give Hawkings the chance to more than survive but truly lived.