Bizarre conspiracy theory claims Stephen Hawking was replaced with a lookalike

A conspiracy theorist has claimed that the last 30 years of Stephen Hawking's life have been a complete hoax.

The theory about the world-renowned physicist re-surfaced after IFL Science posted an article about it in the week following the professor's 76th birthday.

The rather bizarre conspiracy is detailed in a peculiar paper exploring the idea that Professor Hawking died in the early eighties and was replaced with an impersonator.

The writer behind it, Miles Mathis, claims he analysed a series of photos of the scientist's face and teeth to ‘demonstrate’ that the professor we know today is not the original Stephen Hawking.

He claims:

They found a guy with the same nose and big ears, but otherwise they don't look that much alike.

This is the guy you have been looking at for the past thirty years.

Mathis, who says he has written several works on the physicist, added that it should not come as a surprise if you are aware of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) - the condition that has gradually paralysed Professor Hawking.

He says that statistically those with ALS cannot survive for over 52 years and pointed to the average survival time of four years.

He writes:

It would be like Justin Gatlin running the 100 meters in 9.8 seconds, and Usain Bolt beating him with a time of 4.5 seconds. In other words, statistically, it doesn't happen. 

When Hawking was first diagnosed in 1963, doctors gave him two years to live. And yet here we are, 52 years later and counting. Should you believe it?

Well, no.

Mathis goes on to acknowledge he has no proof the professor died, but assumes his 'death' was the reason behind his replacement.

In a further twist, he claims new evidence shows that the Hawking imposter is also dead; and that current appearances we see today are thanks to a hologram - like that time Professor Hawking's body was beamed to Hong Kong from his office in Britain.

Other clues the conspiracy theorist points to included Stephen Hawking's voice-synthesizing computer; he believes that Nasa astrophysicists are typing words and sending messages to the computer for the world to hear.

Go figure.

HT IFL Science

More: Stephen Hawking has perfect advice for people with depression