Hypothetical.

no i woiuld rather be dumb as a rock. i would not be able to live the way he does.

maybe for a short time. I don’t think I’d want it permanant.

Aisyna, Randy- selfish.

Kidding. But seriously.

I’d do it for a limited time. I think we’d both gain something from the experience, and in the end, I think both of us would be happy to return to our original states.

Hawking has ALS, not MS. ALS is quite possibly one of the worst diagnosis one can have.

I work with people who have the same degree of impairment in communication and mobility for other reasons and still manage to lead rich lives, but ALS very slowly paralizes the body until one can no longer breath or swallow.

harp- beside the point.

I would not have switched bodies with Lou Gherig.

I just can’t get past the ALS, having two relatives that have died from ALS, I just can’t imagine trading places with him. Harp is right, it is a horrible, terrible disease. I have cancer, more than one form and things aren’t looking up for me, these days, but ALS, is absolutely my biggest fear – outside of something harming my children.

As far as a trade, he is an amazing thinker, I think he’d be bored in my mind!

@ebenezer
If I ask you if you’d be willing to be bitten by a snake in exchange for an astronomically high IQ, would you consider it irrelevent what kind of snake it was?

Harp- I want to change bodies not minds.

Ah, I get your point.

Well, this may not count, but sure, why not? We both have ALS. His body is in worse shape than mine at this point, but wtf ! There is not a lot he can do with this body, but much more than I’d be able to do with his. It would postpone his doom a bit and expedite mine, but he is a great mind and if it would somehow benefit mankind….well, that would be a pretty good legacy. Besides, this whole mess has a nasty way of wearing on you.

WTF- thanks for understanding what I was getting at.

No way! I would never be strong enough to deal with something as horrible as ALS!!