Professor Hawking: risky communicating with aliens
source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/stephen-hawking/8996654/Prof-Stephen-Hawking-man-faces-nu...
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Professor Stephen Hawking has revealed his thoughts on communicating with aliens during a radio interview to mark his 70th birthday.
He made the comments in a BBC Radio 4 question and answer session for the Today programme, saying: “The discovery of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe would be the greatest scientific discovery ever. But it would be very risky to attempt to communicate with an alien civilisation.”
Professor Hawking went on to compare the possible encounter with the colonisation of America. “If aliens decided to visit us then the outcome might be similar to when Europeans arrived in Americas. That did not turn out well for the Native Americans.”
Other subjects covered by the listener questions were the laws of physics, whether there was a time in the universe when there was nothing and the possibility of humans living on other planets.
Talking about the future of mankind, Professor Hawking expressed a pragmatic view: “It is possible that the human race could become extinct but it is not inevitable.”
However, the outlook wasn’t entirely positive: “I think it is almost certain that a disaster, such as a nuclear war or global warming, will befall the earth within a thousand years.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/stephen-hawking/8996654/Prof-Stephen-Hawking-...
He made the comments in a BBC Radio 4 question and answer session for the Today programme, saying: “The discovery of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe would be the greatest scientific discovery ever. But it would be very risky to attempt to communicate with an alien civilisation.”
Professor Hawking went on to compare the possible encounter with the colonisation of America. “If aliens decided to visit us then the outcome might be similar to when Europeans arrived in Americas. That did not turn out well for the Native Americans.”
Other subjects covered by the listener questions were the laws of physics, whether there was a time in the universe when there was nothing and the possibility of humans living on other planets.
Talking about the future of mankind, Professor Hawking expressed a pragmatic view: “It is possible that the human race could become extinct but it is not inevitable.”
However, the outlook wasn’t entirely positive: “I think it is almost certain that a disaster, such as a nuclear war or global warming, will befall the earth within a thousand years.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/stephen-hawking/8996654/Prof-Stephen-Hawking-...
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