Hawking says Earth doomed, if ...

[Hum]

According to British physicist Stephen Hawking, Earth is doomed if space exploration does not continue. Prof. Hawking spoke recently about his views at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Calif. The Belfast Telegraph shared the details on April 10.

Hawking toured a laboratory working on stem cell research, where the focus is on trying to slow down Lou Gehrig's disease progression. Prof. Hawking has had the disease for 50 years, and he is well-known for his work as a physicist. Though his ALS has taken a heavy toll on his physical mobility, his mind has never stopped.

As for Hawking's Earth is doomed philosophy, he says that he does not believe humans can make it another 1,000 years ?without escaping beyond our fragile planet.? Prof. Stephen Hawking's ability to keep going and contributing to the world of physics is astounding to many. He has said that no matter how difficult life is, one can always find a way to succeed.

As The Huffington Post notes, space exploration has been subjected to many budget cuts of late. Prof. Hawking is clearly passionate about the continuation of exploration programs, but will Hawking's "Earth is doomed" approach resonate with anybody? That remains to be seen.

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[Xerxes]

Well he does have one point, we are doomed if we remain on this planet forever. Like everything else in this universe, this planet won't be around forever and unless the human race colonizes other worlds (beyond this solar system or at the very least the outer reaches of this one, to escape the destructive effects of our sun dying when it happens) we will die with the Earth. Us not lasting another 1,000 years? dunno, alot can happen in that time (nuclear war, extinction level natural event(s) etc) then again nothing might happen. Providing we don't blow ourselves up I think we have plenty of time to find a new home. However, because of the time it will take to find a suitable world, develop the technology to get humans there safely and allow time to actually get there..it's something we need to be looking at now and not at the last minute when things are about to turn nasty. Well that is my opinion on this matter at any rate, take with a grain of salt.

[Azies]

The issue with his statement is that the exploration of space will have little to no effect on Earth's current going ons, there will still be people on earth, pollutting, destroying, and so on. Large earth ending events will still occur, regardless. What's at stake is humanity, the earth will adapt, and continue.

[Detection]

I was thinking about Hawking the other day, I read he is 71 years old now, and it must be close to 40-50 years since he has been able-bodied, so does that prove that the human body does not actually need to do any exercise to live a long life ?

Some people who look after themselves and keep fit die younger, I'd have thought his heart would have needed regular cardio to keep pumping this long

[Hum]

Oh go take a pill Stephen ... :rolleyes:

[Growled Member]

He does have a point. Any specie has to grow and evolve, and if they don't they die.

[Hum]

^ The Future of Humans is assured, six ways from Sunday ...

[+Raze Subscriber²]

The Earth will do fine. It's the humans living on it using and wasting the resources, poisoning our own environment and eventually overpopulation that may lead to the destruction of a sustainable, livable world. The planet will go on, life forms come and go, and we may be the victims of our own short sightedness.

[exotoxic]

I would give human existence on earth another 500 years max.

[Hum]

^ The Time Travelers form Earth's Future would disagree with you. ;)

[+Raze Subscriber²]

The Time Travelers from the future would probably be very angry - "You twits, you left us a fine mess to clean up!" :angry:

[Growled Member]

^ The Time Travelers form Earth's Future would disagree with you. ;)

John Titor?

[Hum]

^ Not really -- there is a whole Team from Future centuries, sprinkled in several eras.

How do you think we got this far ... ? ;)

[PGHammer]

The issue with his statement is that the exploration of space will have little to no effect on Earth's current going ons, there will still be people on earth, pollutting, destroying, and so on. Large earth ending events will still occur, regardless. What's at stake is humanity, the earth will adapt, and continue.

Except for one thing that is practically undeniable - practically every issue that we face is due to one undeniability - too many people and not enough planet.

Let's face reality here - the struggle to get to the top of the PLANETARY food chain goes on, even AFTER humanity has gotten to the apex; now the struggle is WITHIN humanity.

We have two choices - reduce the number of humans (Malthus' Retaliation - that is exactly the approach that ZPG and NPG have been pushing since before I was born; however, it also ties into not-so-nice things like eugenics and genocides) or "grow the pie" by extraplanetary colonization.

[Torolol]

well, human need to able colonize barren celestial bodies like moon first.

[+Xinok Subscriber²]

Hawking says Earth humankind doomed, if...

There's a limited time frame in which the Earth is habitable, until our Sun makes life here impossible. We're roughly half way to that point, when in about 5 billion years, the Sun will be a red giant, possibly becoming large enough to engulf the Earth.

My point being, life has survived through half of the habitable time frame on Earth. I don't think any catastrophic event, natural or man-made, will wipe out all life on Earth before that point. Humankind might perish, but life will persist.

[Arachno 1D]

The planet Earth would be just fine if Humans had not evolved as they did and merely been a species much like any other that populates this little green planet, so them aliens that altered our genetics have a lot to answer for...

[theyarecomingforyou]

There's nothing new here - he's been saying this since at least 2010. And he's right. The best chance for the human race to survive is to explore space and colonise other planets, as the prospect of a nuclear holocaust on Earth remains a distinct possibility.

[MikeChipshop Member]

Gotta agree with him.

There's no way that humans wont eventually move away from mono-planetary living to colonize other lumps of rock.

Will we see it in our life times? Nope, but it will happen.

[Arachno 1D]

Its no good populating somewhere else if we carry on polluting and wasting a planets resources the way we have up to now as we merely prolong the fight to survive.After all it will only be the fittest or richest that get to leave just as the theme in any SciFi movie

[Noir Angel]

He's right.

Firstly, the rate at which we are using up our resources is completely unsustainable, and secondly it's not just us that is being doomed, the damage we are doing to the planet is likely to make it uninhabitable for a lot of life.

[Orange Battery]

Hawking always gets like this after a few beers, he will be fine tomorrow. He is a good guy. :rofl: