I just watched “The Theory of everything” movie on TV, and during the ad break this came up on my twitter feed:
It is a very interesting and quite poignant read, both from a tech perspective, and obviously because Stephen Hawking did not live for very long after the feat was completed. It also brought to mind the temporary nature of technology based sounds, in this case of course it was a large part of his identity, and was very distinctive, quite lo-fi yet somehow more natural than later speech synthesis techniques. The article gives a little detail about this.
It also got me thinking about distinctive electronic musical instruments and how they are also somewhat temporary, relying on obsolete technology, and how/if these will be preserved for future generations.
Anyway, the article is well worth a read.