Stephen Hawking Webcast

Watch some of this webcast of world-reknown physicist Stephen Hawking, who "spoke" at Zellerbach Auditorium yesterday, March 13th. Note that the talk doesn't begin in earnest until 19 minutes into the webcast. How does the technological mediation involved in this talk--from Hawking's speaking apparatus to the media player through which you download and view the webcast, trouble the concept of "liveness" that we expect from an in-person speaker?

Strictly Speaking: Stephen W. Hawking
Born exactly 300 years after the death of Galileo, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University Stephen W. Hawking is widely considered to be the greatest scientific thinker since Newton and Einstein. In a talk aimed at the general public, Professor Hawking discusses theories on the Origin of the Universe. He explains how time can have a beginning and the progress made by cosmologists in an area that has traditionally belonged to theologists and philosophers.