Thank You Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking was an inspiration to numerous people, so it's no surprise his work has had a pivotal impact on my own life and work.

The dream of most fiction writers — I'd assume, having not taken a formal poll — is to have their work made into movie. So far, that's happened to me just once. And it's because of Stephen Hawking's work.

In 1994, Wired magazine published a short article by me, "Telnet to the Future," in which I argued that time travel was impossible. Shortly later, I received a note from Jack Sarfatti, a physicist who believed the opposite. But he acknowledged that none other than Stephen Hawking apparently agreed with me, having recently published about his "chronology protection conjecture," which allowed that, even were time travel physically possible, the universe would not allow it, and would act in its own defense against its unraveling by time travelers to stop any time travel from happening.

In my always slightly deranged mind, a science fiction murder mystery immediately suggested itself, and resulted in The Chronology Protection Case, which Stan Schmidt was good enough to publish as a novelette in Analog Magazine in 1995. It's been nominated for the Nebula Award, been reprinted half a dozen times, and has been a required text in a writing class in the midwest for a going on a decade now.

And Jay Kensinger made it into a high concept, low budget movie, which screens at science fiction conventions around the country, has been a finalist in several film festivals, and for the past two years has been available for free viewing on Amazon Prime.

If we ever come out with a new version — which we did in 2013 for the original movie made in 2002 — I'll be sure to thank Stephen Hawking — not just for inspiring this little movie, but for work and a life that has inspired millions and will no doubt continue to do so until the end of time.