Advice from Stephen Hawking: Flee earth before it's too late

[+Mirumir Subscriber¹]

It's been a few weeks and I'm surprised no one has posted this yet.

 

It does seem like the transition from type 1 to type 2 civilization will be worrisome and painful. Let's just hope it won't be apocalyptic.

 

Quote

 

"Although the chance of a disaster to planet Earth in a given year may be quite low, it adds up over time, and becomes a near certainty in the next thousand or ten thousand years,"

 

"By that time we should have spread out into space, and to other stars, so a disaster on Earth would not mean the end of the human race.

 

"However, we will not establish self-sustaining colonies in space for at least the next hundred years, so we have to be very careful in this period."

 

Multiple sources

[FloatingFatMan]

TBH, short of colonising worlds around other stars, no Sol based colony would survive an extinction level event on Earth, not even self-sufficient ones.

[DocM]

Why? A self sufficient colony on Mars would spend 75+% of it's time hundreds of millions of miles from Earth, much of it on the opposite side of the Sun. Even at its closest, ~56 million miles, a major asteroid impact on Earth wouldn't be more that a light show, and perhaps a rain of small expelled objects.

[FloatingFatMan]

26 minutes ago, DocM said:

Why? A self sufficient colony on Mars would spend 75+% of it's time hundreds of millions of miles from Earth, much of it on the opposite side of the Sun. Even at its closest, ~56 million miles, a major asteroid impact on Earth wouldn't be more that a light show, and perhaps a rain of small expelled objects.

Not from any risk of physical damage, more the emotional trauma.

 

Try to imagine it. You wake up every day to what can only be a harsh life, knowing that 99.99% of the human race are gone. That there's no relief coming, no supplies, no trades, no mail. No contact with anyone except the small group of people on your colony.  I doubt most would be able to take it for long, tbh.

[DConnell Member]

7 minutes ago, FloatingFatMan said:

Not from any risk of physical damage, more the emotional trauma.

I'd think we'd be too busy running from the people who drank the unfiltered water on Mars to get emotional trauma about Earth.

 

[DocM]

2 hours ago, FloatingFatMan said:

Not from any risk of physical damage, more the emotional trauma.

 

Try to imagine it. You wake up every day to what can only be a harsh life, knowing that 99.99% of the human race are gone. That there's no relief coming, no supplies, no trades, no mail. No contact with anyone except the small group of people on your colony.  I doubt most would be able to take it for long, tbh.

People who migrated before the onset of worldwide communications survived this many times.

[FloatingFatMan]

Just now, DocM said:

People who migrated before the onset of worldwide communications survived this many times.

No they didn't. They knew there were people back home. They knew they could return if they had to or wanted to, and they knew there were others still there, back home.

[DocM]

2 minutes ago, FloatingFatMan said:

No they didn't. They knew there were people back home. They knew they could return if they had to or wanted to, and they knew there were others still there, back home.

Only the migrating generation. For subsequent generations "home" is where their ass lands for dinner.

[Draggendrop Veteran]

IMHO, those who are colonizers and explorers are a different breed from the general populace. It would be a  difficult choice for a few but not all, and some of us would be happy to have a chance. The memories will always be yours.

 

[Emn1ty]

1 hour ago, FloatingFatMan said:

No they didn't. They knew there were people back home. They knew they could return if they had to or wanted to, and they knew there were others still there, back home.

The people who migrated to the Americas early on did not have this guarantee. A 66 day journey which saw 5 die, and ~45 more dead at shore during that winter. A journey like that isn't so easy to come back from. There being "people at home" is irrelevant, because they lack any means of communication and even if they had a means it'd take double that for anyone to reach them with aid.

When 50% of the pioneering crew dies during the journey and just after landing at their destination they will find a way to make it work where they are without relying on those so distant it may as well be another galaxy. Many of these people have to come to terms with before or during the trip that it may just be one way.

[Torolol]

remind me of Oregon Trail game, but it will be Mars Trail Simulator game.

[DocM]

1 hour ago, Draggendrop said:

IMHO, those who are colonizers and explorers are a different breed from the general populace. It would be a  difficult choice for a few but not all, and some of us would be happy to have a chance. The memories will always be yours.

 

It's called wanderlust, and it has taken us from the Rift Valley of Africa to every habitable and uninhabitable corner of Earth. Now there are more worlds beckoning. See my Sig.