Abandon Earth or Face Extinction, Stephen Hawking Warns -- Again

[웃 910]

***Here is a quote explaining how insignificant and microscopic our earth is in comparison to our galaxy:

"the nearest star [to Earth] is Proxima Centauri which is 4.2 light years away. That means that, if you were traveling at the speed of light the whole time, it would take 4.2 years to get there" -- or about 50,000 years using current rocket science."

NOTE: That is the NEAREST STAR!! We are talking about 1 freaking star among 100s of BILLIONS in our galaxy! And we are talking about 1 galaxy among 100-200 galaxies....All of which contain hundreds of billions of stars!!!! Try to imagine the size of our earth, and how large we think it is. Now multiply the earth times 1,000,000; now you have the size of our sun; and the sun is just 1 star....Cool to think about, at least to me...

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Abandon Earth or Face Extinction, Stephen Hawking Warns -- Again

It's time to abandon Earth, warned the world's most famous theoretical physicist.

In an interview with website Big Think, Stephen Hawking warned that the long-term future of the planet is in outer space.

"It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster on planet Earth in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand, or million. The human race shouldn't have all its eggs in one basket, or on one planet," he said.

"I see great dangers for the human race," Hawking said. "There have been a number of times in the past when its survival has been a question of touch and go. The Cuban missile crisis in 1963 was one of these. The frequency of such occasions is likely to increase in the future."

"But I'm an optimist. If we can avoid disaster for the next two centuries, our species should be safe, as we spread into space," he said.

That said, getting to another planet will prove a challenge, not to mention colonizing it for humanity. University of Michigan astrophysicist Katherine Freese told Big Think that "the nearest star [to Earth] is Proxima Centauri which is 4.2 light years away. That means that, if you were traveling at the speed of light the whole time, it would take 4.2 years to get there" -- or about 50,000 years using current rocket science.

Still, we need to act and act fast, Hawking stated. "It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand or million. Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain inward looking on planet Earth but to spread out into space. We have made remarkable progress in the last hundred years. But if we want to continue beyond the next hundred years, our future is in space."

This is not the first time Hawking has warned of impending planetary doom. In 2006, the physicist warned that Earth was at an ever increasing risk of being wiped out. And lately, Hawking has become quite outspoken.

In April, he warned of the dangers of communicating with aliens, telling the Discovery Channel that extra-terrestrials are almost certain to exist -- and humanity should avoid contact with them at all cost.

“To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational,” he said. “The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like.”

The answer, he suggests, is that most of alien life will be the equivalent of microbes or simple animals -- the sort of life that has dominated Earth for most of its history -- and they could pose a serious threat to us.

In May Hawking said he believed humans could travel millions of years into the future and repopulate their devastated planet. If spaceships are built that can fly faster than the speed of light, a day on board would be equivalent to a year on Earth. That's because -- according to Einstein -- as objects accelerate through space, time slows down around them.

“Time travel was once considered scientific heresy, and I used to avoid talking about it for fear of being labelled a crank," he said in Stephen Hawking's Universe.

"These days I’m not so cautious.”

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/08/09/abandon-earth-face-extinction-warns-stephen-hawking/

[Pooky 3,348]

Smart man. Right idea.

One E.L.E. and I don't care who you are, you'll be just as dead as me.

Edited August 15, 2010 by Pooky

[spookyturtle 9,465]

I'm heading for Australia.

[Ban Hammer 12,836]

he's speaking the obvious.

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

This shows just how insignificant we really are.

[HAL 9000 96]

I can sell spots on Discovery if need be.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

We could send frozen embryos into space in the hope that some intelligent life form would be able to have them develop into human beings. That's probably the only reasonable solution to Stephen Hawkings warning since the nearest inhabitable planet is at least 50,000 years away from earth.

[HAL 9000 96]

We could send frozen embryos into space in the hope that some intelligent life form would be able to have them develop into human beings. That's probably the only reasonable solution to Stephen Hawkings warning since the nearest inhabitable planet is at least 50,000 years away from earth.

Tooooooooo freaky Steven! If we're going to send out prime material, it may as well be our genetic material, all the building blocks for life, all the human knowledge base, and the robots programmed to put it all together to 'make' healthy humans in deep space once a set of suitable planets is located.

Hopefully stupidity will be left out, but you never know.

[웃 910]

Tooooooooo freaky Steven! If we're going to send out prime material, it may as well be our genetic material, all the building blocks for life, all the human knowledge base, and the robots programmed to put it all together to 'make' healthy humans in deep space once a set of suitable planets is located.

Hopefully stupidity will be left out, but you never know.

We need to send them your genes!!!!

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Tooooooooo freaky Steven! If we're going to send out prime material, it may as well be our genetic material, all the building blocks for life, all the human knowledge base, and the robots programmed to put it all together to 'make' healthy humans in deep space once a set of suitable planets is located.

Hopefully stupidity will be left out, but you never know.

I'm sorry Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that. ~ HAL9000

[HAL 9000 96]

We need to send them your genes!!!!

LOL, just not Marc's genes. J/K Marc, we could send some of the funny ones.

If this mission used VJer genes, whose genes would get to go on the trip and whose wouldn't?

[HAL 9000 96]

I'm sorry Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that. ~ HAL9000

I think that idea came out of a book I may have read when I was a teenager. Seeder ships is what they could be called.

If we notice any bad stuff coming to Earth, we could always put people onto ships and hope for the best. Real Hollywood-like but if push came to shove, there may be some nuggets of possibility even in our current lifetime.

[Pooky 3,348]

Tooooooooo freaky Steven! If we're going to send out prime material, it may as well be our genetic material, all the building blocks for life, all the human knowledge base, and the robots programmed to put it all together to 'make' healthy humans in deep space once a set of suitable planets is located.

Oh, the irony.

HAL 9000 advocating putting robots in charge of the future of mankind. Arthur C. Clarke would be in hysterics!

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

LOL, just not Marc's genes. J/K Marc, we could send some of the funny ones.

If this mission used VJer genes, whose genes would get to go on the trip and whose wouldn't?

Yes my genes are very rare indeed.

[HAL 9000 96]

Oh, the irony.

HAL 9000 advocating putting robots in charge of the future of mankind. Arthur C. Clarke would be in hysterics!

I think it was his book I got that idea from!

Yes, indeed... The Songs of Distant Earth