Stephen Hawking thinks alien civilizations may well exist and warns that if we Earthlings know what’s good for us, we’ll stop trying to contact them.
Hawking’s Discovery Channel documentary hypothesizes some very strange looking reptilian and aquatic creatures.
The Times UK amplifies the potential alien alienation:
Such scenes are speculative, but Hawking uses them to lead on to a serious point: that a few life forms could be intelligent and pose a threat. Hawking believes that contact with such a species could be devastating for humanity.
He suggests that aliens might simply raid Earth for its resources and then move on: “We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet. I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach.”
He concludes that trying to make contact with alien races is “a little too risky”. He said: “If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.”
Are you kidding? Apparently Hawking hasn’t seen the glitzy Indian casinos dotting the American landscape.
Thank Columbus. And roll the dice. Baby needs a new pair of shoes.
Source: Times UK
This post was last modified on April 25, 2010
View Comments (4)
Trying to make contact with ET and having that happen would prove to be less difficult then trying and being successful at getting a peek at Obama's 'real' HI birth certificate.
Hawking thinks run in with beings from another world will turn out bad for humanity? Okay...
He is the physicist wheelchair dude. I thought he was not some psychic future fortune teller. Since what he talks of has not taken place now- it will or will not take place later on. But that must be LATER ON!
Should it take place later, then the outcome can be known. His putting out a cute guess and opining is just guessing and opinion sharing- regardless of his status in physics.
His remark is a long winded way of saying “I do not know. Still something might happen in the future and that something could be bad. Or that something that could happen might be good too. I don't know and that is later on whatever it is that might or might not take place”
I think he has been watching Independence Day way too much. Hawking is a known Will Smith fan after all...
The Borg may come and take over our earth but we'll never know if we don't try.
I saw this up on ninjavideo, but when i realized it was stephen hawking, i skipped it, that guy is a douche, and i knew this is what he would say. there is little more insulting than a THEORETICAL physicist being held in as high regard as hawking, id be like if we lived in the middle ages, i told you god is a muffin, and he lives in the 3rd hill over, and 90% of you actually friggin believed me
anyways, the probability of aliens, and the conduct of civilizations and governments throughout history has pretty much solidified them as an fact of life, and the best thing we can have happen to us is for the masses to see aliens, mostly because at this point, we "know" "everything" and its just about refining that knowledge, im afraid though, if we cannot expose ourselves to a new wonder, we will just stay in race to improve things to perfection, while there is something much better to be had
analogy:
the ps3, pc, and 360 all race to make games look more realistic, there is no change in gameplay at all
the wii comes along like an alien, and now ALL of gaming has suddenly entered into this new revolution of control, luckily, it will only take a single generation to perfect those controls, so we can right away focus on what gaming will mean in the future.
This is why we need to use as much oil, trees, water, and other natural resources as fast as we can. Otherwise Aliens might raid our planet, but if we have nothing they will pass us over.