Bill Gates Just Charmed Everyone At Davos With A Surprise Video From Stephen Hawking

Jim Edwards / Gates Foundation videoStephen Hawking on a video in Davos presented by Bill and Melinda Gates.

Bill Gates continued to show he has a weird ability in his post-Microsoft life to charm the masses and get their attention. Bill and his wife Melinda did a keynote panel in the main hall here at the World Economic Forum in Davos at which they showed, unannounced, a video from Stephen Hawking, the astrophysicist.

The video was introduced as coming from the one man on the planet smarter than Gates.

Fade to black. ... And there was Hawking on the big screen, speaking to Davos via his familiar synthesised robot voice.

Hawking began with a joke: "He's not quite as good looking as me."

And then it got serious. Hawking urged people to support the Gates' Foundation campaign to bring clean water, better education, online banking and basic healthcare such as vaccines to the developing world.

"I am very aware of the passage of time. Seize the moment. Act now," Hawking said. "At one point I thought I would see the end of physics but now I know that the wonder of discovery will go on."

Humanity needs to slow down global warming, invest in renewable energy and clean water, he said. "We are all travelling through time. Let us make the future a place we'd want to visit."