10 Questions for Randy Pausch

He's a Carnegie Mellon professor with terminal cancer. His stirring final speech became an Internet sensation and the basis for a new book, The Last Lecture. Randy Pausch will now take your questions

From your lecture, you seem like a very modest person. How are you handling the adulation? —Vernon Hines, Columbia, Md.
First off, I reject the premise. Anyone who knows me well will tell you that arrogance is one of my flaws. As for handling the response from people, this has been a tough time, and it has been greatly buoying to my spirits to have so many people rooting for me.

Do you believe that you were chosen to deliver a message of hope? —Catherine Pilie, New Orleans
Well, gosh, I've never really thought about that. I attribute it to bad luck and nothing else. Certainly if I had the choice, I'd give it all back if I could give the cancer back with it. I'm glad I am making the best of a bad situation, but I certainly would rather have not been in a bad situation to start with.

Are you leaving special letters or videos for your family? —Elizabeth Hicks North Hills, Calif.
Yes. One of the most important things is that children need to know they're loved. That's something that I am communicating very directly to them while I'm alive and something they can look at later on.

Have you given your wife permission to remarry? —Gbolohan Omotola, Lagos
It's not my permission to give. But I will leave this message for my children [ages 6, 3 and 22 months]: If the time comes when she should remarry, you might have a lot of mixed feelings about that, and you're entitled to them all. If you're wondering how Dad felt, he wants Mom to be happy.

I'm 54 and have terminal cancer. I wanted to be an artist but ended up in IT. Do I keep working till I die? Do I quit and go to art school? Do I travel the world? What the hell am I supposed to do? —Terry Asdell, Indianapolis
Everybody's situation is unique. From your description, I'd bet on art school.

My sister is dying of liver cancer. What can be done to find better cancer treatments? —Becca Hallock, Canton, Conn.
Hard question. Pharmaceutical companies have a financial incentive to find a single drug that would beat a disease. But I think with cancer we're seeing what we saw with AIDS. The answer is really in cocktails.

Have you looked at alternative remedies? —Dr. Julius Kryss Frankfurt, Germany
I've received 10,000 e-mails—that's a real number—many of them telling me about different remedies. But my first filter is, Has it been through any kind of clinical study? The plural of anecdote is not data, so if you know three people that did some alternative cure, that's positive, but it's not the same thing as real, clinically proved data.

I know you as a pioneer from when I took your computer-science class in college. What milestones in virtual reality do you want those who follow in your footsteps to reach? —Mathew Morton, Boston
Virtual reality thus far has focused on bizarre, interesting perceptual thrills. I'd like to see them move on and try to really tell interactive stories. How do you put the user in control? It's a nuanced problem that's going to take a lot of smart people working for a long, long time.

What can schools do to help students dream bigger? —Anna Wei, New York City
All universities ought to do a better job of encouraging students to take courses outside of their major. Dreams come from broadening your horizons and rubbing elbows with different kinds of people.

What music do you turn to for comfort? —Tatsuhiko Yamada, Tokyo
When you are going through chemotherapy, you can't listen to the theme from Rocky too many times.