Stephen Hawking: mankind must move to outer space within a century

For being as smart as he is, I think he's got a few crackpot ideas... Humanity can survive another one hundred years, and we're nowhere close enough to being able to successfully colonizing space.dreDREb13

And living in space is out of the question, since the human body is not built to survive in a vacuum, or zero gravity environment.

harashawn

Artificial gracity could be used (through the centrifugal force), so it isn't like we would just be floating around 24/7. It is theoretically possible, technology (obviously) still has a long way to go though.

isnt there a mars trip for 2012? We are gonna start to set up a base there or something? Anyway, I dont think it would have to be in 100 years but, this man is pretty much a super computer so, i trust him. He really should get some new voices for his "voice box" tho, something that makes him sound like a big bodybuilder.

kipohippo021

It's spelled S-T-E-V-E-N Hawking. >_>

Let's break the speed of light first, and then we're golden.

Well, when we do start having manned space flight I want Stephen Hawking as my Spock.

Why don't we just build another earth?Agent-Zero

Ha ha ha ha ha, good one Andrew Ryan.

If he's so smart, why can't he walk. wstfld

AHAHAHAH!

:lol:

Oh my God its so sad that I find that so funny.

Best reply yet, good sir.

Its a pretty crappy thing to do to spread more human cancer onto other pure planets

Bollocks. We need to cancel space exploration to put more money into (your favorite social program here).

Bollocks. We need to cancel space exploration to put more money into (your favorite social program here).

Palantas

But I kind of like NASA.

[QUOTE="I"]

Bollocks. We need to cancel space exploration to put more money into (your favorite social program here).

metroidprime55

But I kind of like NASA.

Then you don't care about the starvin' children, and you're a meanie-meaniehead.

Its a pretty crappy thing to do to spread more human cancer onto other pure planets

Overwatch88

No it isn't. Humanity isn't a cancer. Its more like Athlete's Foot for Earth. We don't do any actual, serious, long term damage. The Earth can recover from everything we've done to it in a time frame so miniscule in comparison to the amount of time it's already had its more like mild footrot.

[QUOTE="metroidprime55"]

[QUOTE="I"]

Bollocks. We need to cancel space exploration to put more money into (your favorite social program here).

Palantas

But I kind of like NASA.

Then you don't care about the starvin' children, and you're a meanie-meaniehead.

But at least I will be Still Alive.

I dont see this happening anytime soon. Hawking has watched too much Moon,Pandora and Avatar.

[QUOTE="Pirate700"]

[QUOTE="xbox360isgr8t"]ill probably be dead in a century and he definitely will be. Lets just launch this guy to the moon.batman_is_aweso

:lol:

Imagine him yelling in his voice

[QUOTE="Overwatch88"]

Its a pretty crappy thing to do to spread more human cancer onto other pure planets

-TheSecondSign-

No it isn't. Humanity isn't a cancer. Its more like Athlete's Foot for Earth. We don't do any actual, serious, long term damage. The Earth can recover from everything we've done to it in a time frame so miniscule in comparison to the amount of time it's already had its more like mild footrot.

Quiet. You're ruining the fun for people who like to look cool by saying people are destroying the world.

But at least I will be Still Alive.

metroidprime55

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNFP1R4leYQ

[QUOTE="-TheSecondSign-"]

[QUOTE="Overwatch88"]

No it isn't. Humanity isn't a cancer. Its more like Athlete's Foot for Earth. We don't do any actual, serious, long term damage. The Earth can recover from everything we've done to it in a time frame so miniscule in comparison to the amount of time it's already had its more like mild footrot.

Palantas

Quiet. You're ruining the fun for people who like to look cool by saying people are destroying the world.

But at least I will be Still Alive.

metroidprime55

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNFP1R4leYQ

Thank you four giving me a compilation of my favorite type of Star Trek episodes and an awesome song to go with it.

[QUOTE="batman_is_aweso"]

[QUOTE="Pirate700"]:lol: I could just see him soaring through space.

JC346

:lol:

Imagine him yelling in his voice

[QUOTE="JC346"][QUOTE="batman_is_aweso"]

:lol:

Imagine him yelling in his voice

GHlegend77

That won't help, I think Lou Geriges disease is a nero-muscular desease, therefore we would have to replace his brain which would kind of doom humanity.

If he's so smart, why can't he walk. wstfld

Well... you think its stupid now... but i dunno. in a hundred years... anything could happen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bueZoYhUlg

[QUOTE="Overwatch88"]

Its a pretty crappy thing to do to spread more human cancer onto other pure planets

-TheSecondSign-

No it isn't. Humanity isn't a cancer. Its more like Athlete's Foot for Earth. We don't do any actual, serious, long term damage. The Earth can recover from everything we've done to it in a time frame so miniscule in comparison to the amount of time it's already had its more like mild footrot.

Well, why not think in terms of humanity then? What do you think will happen if we maintain the same population growth we've had over the last century into the next one? Not to mention that the global economic structure necessitates constant expansion. Being as hesitant towards changing habits as we are even at the individual level, a crash at the global level is hard to imagine as avoidable –and that'll certainly put-off space exploration for quite some time. Perhaps Hawking is worrying that if we don't start exploring now, we might not have the opportunity to for a long while after. I wonder when he'll get started on the Encyclopedia Galactica... (Nerdy Asimov reference.)

[QUOTE="kipohippo021"]

[QUOTE="harashawn"]

Stephen Hawking is at least slightly insane. He has said that if aliens visit Earth, they will take over, like the Europeans have done in the past, as if he knows for a fact that these aliens behave exactly like humans.

harashawn

It's not a matter of can we colonize another planet, it's a matter of finding a planet that can be colonized. Try finding a single black grain of sand in white sand beach. And living in space is out of the question, since the human body is not built to survive in a vacuum, or zero gravity environment.

He just wants the possibility of living through his sci fi fantasies in his lifetime.

Cypress_290

Sci-fi fantasies? The man is a genious and one of the most gifted physicists in history..

I think he has great vision, and yes, he is being very optimistic. Too bad humans are much, much busier fighting each other to cooperate on making it a reality.

'In a series for the Discovery Channel, he said humans should be wary about making contact with alien life forms as they may not be friendly'

I chuckled - I can just imagine him delivering such a profound statement and all of his scientific peers nodding in agreement -"Stephens right you know - they may even have ray guns".

[QUOTE="wstfld"]If he's so smart, why can't he walk. Big_Bad_Sad

Guys. I've put some serious thought into this issue, and...

Yes. I will do it. I will be an astronaut and be an ambassador for Earth.

[QUOTE="-TheSecondSign-"]

[QUOTE="Overwatch88"]

Its a pretty crappy thing to do to spread more human cancer onto other pure planets

D_Battery

No it isn't. Humanity isn't a cancer. Its more like Athlete's Foot for Earth. We don't do any actual, serious, long term damage. The Earth can recover from everything we've done to it in a time frame so miniscule in comparison to the amount of time it's already had its more like mild footrot.

Well, why not think in terms of humanity then? What do you think will happen if we maintain the same population growth we've had over the last century into the next one? Not to mention that the global economic structure necessitates constant expansion. Being as hesitant towards changing habits as we are even at the individual level, a crash at the global level is hard to imagine as avoidable –and that'll certainly put-off space exploration for quite some time. Perhaps Hawking is worrying that if we don't start exploring now, we might not have the opportunity to for a long while after. I wonder when he'll get started on the Encyclopedia Galactica... (Nerdy Asimov reference.)

Foundation FTW.

And yes, that's exactly the situation as I see it. The way that things are going now is not sustainable in the long term. There will be a global collapse, probably sooner than later. It's happened many times before in human history, just not on a GLOBAL level.

It's not a matter of humans not being around in 100 years. It's about the idea that if we wait too long to do the most that we can with our scientific progress, that we'll have squandered the opportunity. Civilization will collapse. We won't be dead, but we'll likely have taken such a step backwards that space travel is impossible.

The thing is, for people today it is easy to see the global civilization as progressing gradually (or rapidly) forever. In that point of view, space travel isn't really urgent. Since if we don't make it to the stars in 200 years, surely things will be better in a couple thousand years. But that's wrong. Civilation isn't a linear progression, there are peaks and troughs. Right now, we're probably on one of the peaks, and the way things are going now is unsustainable. We can't stay where we are forever, we're going to slide off that peak and fall into one of the troughs. And if we want to travel to the stars, it's gotta happen while we're on one of the peaks. Once we wait long enough for society to fall apart, we've missed our chance.

The problem here is that we aren't anywhere CLOSE to being able to colonise other worlds, even though we ARE on top of the highest peak of human achievement. We've gone higher than we ever had before, and we're still not CLOSE to leaving this world. And the clock is ticking. I see society collapsing long before we manage to get to where travelling the stars is feasible. We haven't progressed far enough to be able to accomplish that any time soon, and the way that things are set up now is unsustainable enough that we're going to fall before we manage to get much higher.

Basically, I say that we're ****ed.

That was one of the stupidest things I've read in a while.

Pirate700

I'd probably be be that human that sells out mankind to the alien juggernaut.

[QUOTE="-TheSecondSign-"]

[QUOTE="Overwatch88"]

Its a pretty crappy thing to do to spread more human cancer onto other pure planets

Palantas

No it isn't. Humanity isn't a cancer. Its more like Athlete's Foot for Earth. We don't do any actual, serious, long term damage. The Earth can recover from everything we've done to it in a time frame so miniscule in comparison to the amount of time it's already had its more like mild footrot.

Quiet. You're ruining the fun for people who like to look cool by saying people are destroying the world.

You think people are not destroying the planet? Wait...you don't believe in global warming do you?

Let's do it. I'm ready.

In fact, the idea of a Foundation is not a bad one at that.

If we accept that civilizations do collapse, and that we are at the highest peak of knowledge ever accumulated, then a Foundation makes damn good sense.

Right now, we are probably doomed. The thing is, civilizations, rise, fall, and then rise again. Just as civilization will collapse as shown by history, civilization will recover, as shown by history. We won't be the last civilization to fall, and we also won't be the last civilization to rise from the dirt and amass massive amount of scientific knowledge.

Again, look at the entire history of humanity as a series of peaks and troughs. We're on a peak now, and we're headed into a trough. The people on OUR peak are screwed, but we aren't residing on the final peak.

What we should be doing is making damn sure to accumulate and maintain our knowledge. Not for ourselves, but for the people on the next peak. For the people rebuilding civilization after our civilization has collapsed. The important thing isn't for us to personally go as far as is humanly possible, because we can't do that. What we CAN do is to preserve what we know so that the next civilization to arise doesn't have to start from scratch. Civilization will collapse, but that's only a prelude to the process of rebuilding. And when our grandchildren's grandchildren's grandchildren start to build from the ashes (as has been done countless times), it is most important that we preserve as much as possible for them to benefit from. So that THEY get a head start towards advancing, before their civilization inevitably collapses too.

We need to stop thinking on such a short-term scale. WE might be screwed, but HUMANITY might last a VERY long time. Yes, we are screwed. So let's make sure that when civilization is on the rebound, that they haven't LOST all of the knowledge that we have accumulated. Let's make sure that they don't have to start from scratch. Let's make sure that the knowledge that we have accumulated is preserved, and then maybe our descendants will succeed where we were destined to fail.

Again, look at the entire history of humanity as a series of peaks and troughs. We're on a peak now...

MrGeezer

Emphasis mine. How do you know that?

You think people are not destroying the planet? Wait...you don't believe in global warming do you?

chandu83

I can't speak for anyone else, but I don't think that humans are destroying the planet.

Again, peaks and troughs. Prehistory is full of an abundance of cases of life being wiped out and then recovering in a marvelous way. Even if we accept that humans are killing off many many species (which I absolutely accept), the planet will be fine. For two reasons...

1) The planet has been through a hell of a lot worse than us, and life still made it.

2) We depend on the planet WAYYYYY more than the planet depends on us. We aren't the most resilient species here. Other species will be able to survive and adapt to the changes that we force upon them, FAR more than we will be able to survive and adapt to the changes that we force upon ourselves. Even if we are "killing the planet", we are going to "kill ourselves" first. Make no mistake, we will NOT be the last species to roam and thrive on this great Earth. Worst case scenario, we kill a ****ton of species, then we kill ourselves off and remove ourselves from the equation. The surviving organisms will then inherit the Earth, but life and Earth are going to last far longer than us.

Keep in mind that destruction is creation. We wouldn't be here now (along with many of the other cute and cuddly mammals that we love so much) if God hadn't thrown a huge-ass rock at the Earth and exterminated a very good percentage of the life that was doing just fine. But...life survived, and the survivors inherited the Earth. The last time that happened wasn't the first time, and it won't be the last time. Destruction is creation, and people refer to to "destruction" when all they are really talking about is "change".

No, I am not the least bit worried for the Earth, or for Life On Earth. In any case, I'm telling you right now that humanity is NOT going to be what extinguishes that. Worst case scenario, we are an extinction level event that will wipe large parts of the canvas clear so that the remaining species can start a paradigm shift. And the survivors will thank their god that we were here to cleanse the Earth for them and allow them to gain a foothold. Destruction IS creation, and both creation and destruction are only different words for "CHANGE".