Excerpts - the rest here - bold is mine:
THE aliens are out there and Earth had better watch out, at least according to Stephen Hawking. He has suggested that extraterrestrials are almost certain to exist — but that instead of seeking them out, humanity should be doing all it that can to avoid any contact.
The suggestions come in a new documentary series in which Hawking, one of the world’s leading scientists, will set out his latest thinking on some of the universe’s greatest mysteries.
Hawking’s logic on aliens is, for him, unusually simple. The universe, he points out, has 100 billion galaxies, each containing hundreds of millions of stars. In such a big place, Earth is unlikely to be the only planet where life has evolved.
“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.”
What ... to your "mathematical brain?" Who the hell are you ... the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics (see footnote) at Cambridge or something? Sheesh @ the ego on this guy.
Now, using his logic of "huge numbers make anything probable," I'd like to point out that those numbers make it probable that huge numbers of intelligent civilizations formed long before ours. And I mean REALLY long before ... long enough to figure out how to travel through interstellar space (if that is possible.)
And, if that IS possible then we'd have encountered aliens long before now ... but we haven't. (You followin' me, camera guy?) That means that it's either impossible, in which case we have nothing to fear, or, that is IS possible but hasn't been done, which means there are no other intelligent civilizations.
Please keep in mind, he is justifying his thinking by using VERY big numbers. To me that means if there's one intelligent civilization then there might as well be millions. That's my Klownasian mathematical brain at work (which luckily, doesn't really take math, just logic.)
Hawking believes that contact with such a species could be devastating for humanity. 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.”
A little too risky? Oh, COME ON!! Surely any advanced society is full of liberals filled with love for "mother universe" and all that's in it. Probably the worst we have to fear is being condescended to death. God help us if they catch us letting the polar bears float on those little pieces of ice breaking off the arctic.
Similarly, Lord Rees, the astronomer royal, warned in a lecture earlier this year that aliens might prove to be beyond human understanding.
“I suspect there could be life and intelligence out there in forms we can’t conceive,” he said. “Just as a chimpanzee can’t understand quantum theory, it could be there are aspects of reality that are beyond the capacity of our brains.”
"Beyond the capacity of our brains "... this is something that need to be said more often
Also, I just want to go on record as being a HUGE fan of Stephen Hawking. I've read a couple of his books and I love how he can put very complicated ideas into very simple terms so that I can damn near understand them.
FOOTNOTE:
An important Professorship of Mathematick was deeded in December 1663 at Cambridge University, England, as a result of a gift from Henry Lucas, M.P. for the university. The Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics is the most famous academic chair in the world. This is due in no small part to the current holder of the chair, Professor Stephen Hawking, who is a well known theoretical physicist, and Sir Isaac Newton who was the second holder of the chair. What is not so commonly known is that the chair has been held by others who represent the best and most influential minds in science and technology the world has known. As a group, the seventeen men who have held the chair have made a unique contribution to the world. The three hundred thirty years that have passed since its founding have seen a dramatic evolution of science. The Chair represents a microcosm of the world's progress over the last three centuries, from the Scientific Revolution to the world of technology that we know today. More here:
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3 comments:
What Hawking says is true but irrelevant. There are billions upon billions of possibilities for life to exist elsewhere in the universe. However, the likelihood that they exist at the same time as us and are looking for us at the same time we're looking for them is infinitesimally small.
Humans have existed on Earth for only 50,000 years and it's only been within the past 150 years that most of our technology has been invented (including the automobile, electricity, telephones, indoor plumbing, and television to name the very ordinary). To think that our species will survive long enough to make contact with an alien species is egotistical to say the least.
To further presume that we would not only be on equal footing with whatever aliens we'd encounter and that we wouldn't be subjected to massacre and/or slavery can only be imagined by Liberals who don't believe in God yet can somehow convince themselves that Humans are the height of intelligence in this Universe. Something tells me that double-talking, mealy-mouthed nonsense spewed by Liberals and diplomats would save us for only as long as it would take for an alien race to liquefy our insides and drink us like a deliciously warm milkshake.
I've always believed - like Hawking - that the sheer number of stars, planets, etc. in the universe made the whole idea of alien life not only plausible, but practically irrefutable. I have never, though, considered how the aspect of time really affects those numbers in the way WOMBAT very eloquently described. I hate to say it, but I am going to have to alter my thinking about something that for some great time I have taken for granted.
CURSE YOU, WOMBAT!
Well they will not be able to land in Arizona now.
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