Hawking Gives Humans 1,000 Years to Escape Earth

VOA ^ | 4/11/13

[LibWhacker]

Famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking warns that humans will need to go beyond the planet Earth if they are to survive as a species.

“We must continue to go into space for humanity,” Hawking told a gathering this week in Los Angeles, California. “We won’t survive another 1,000 years without escaping our fragile planet.”

Hawking, 71, has long been a proponent of space exploration.

Speaking at a 2008 ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the U.S. space agency, NASA, Hawking called for a new era in human space exploration, comparable, he said, to the European voyages to the New World more than 500 years ago.

“Spreading out into space will have an even greater effect," Hawking said. "It will completely change the future of the human race and maybe determine whether we have any future at all.”

[Squidpup]

OK - you first Steve

[areukiddingme1]

Yeah...they were saying that...like 7 million years ago, so...

[Moltke]

comparable, he said, to the European voyages to the New World more than 500 years ago.

He should know better.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The world survived for billions of years before Steve came along, and it will be around for billions of years after.

[Vaquero]

Not a bad idea not to put all out eggs in one basket

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

...our fragile planet...

Oh you mean the planet that has been around for "B" for billions of years throughout meteor strikes, massive volcanoes, hurricanes, typhoons, nukes, and Justin Beiber yet is still around like a bunny on a warm spring day? Maybe the Professor can define for me the word "fragile" because if the earth is "fragile" I'd hate to see what his definition of "tough' is.

[EEGator]

Off topic, but wasn’t he only supposed to live into his 40’s?

[dfwgator]

Besides, there is nothing wrong with the planet. Nothing wrong with the planet. The planet is fine. The PEOPLE are f----d. Difference. Difference. The planet is fine. Compared to the people, the planet is doing great. Been here four and a half billion years. Did you ever think about the arithmetic? The planet has been here four and a half billion years. We've been here, what, a hundred thousand? Maybe two hundred thousand? And we've only been engaged in heavy industry for a little over two hundred years. Two hundred years versus four and a half billion. And we have the CONCEIT to think that somehow we're a threat? That somehow we're gonna put in jeopardy this beautiful little blue-green ball that's just a-floatin' around the sun?

The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through all kinds of things worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles...hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worlwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages...And we think some plastic bags, and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? The planet...the planet...the planet isn't going anywhere. WE ARE! -George Carlin

[rarestia]

I agree with Hawking in every sense. I disagree on the timeline, however. I’d say if humanity is not making a concerted effort to get off this rock in a permanent way in the next 200 years, we’re done for overall.

It’s sorta like a nuclear family living under one roof. Sure it’s possible, and yeah it’s going to save everyone quite a bit of money; but you’ll NEVER have consensus on everything, and at some point, tempers will boil over.

We need to use the moon as an outpost, begin testing new technologies for space faring and learning how to biologically beat space. We need to reach out to Mars for long term civilization and colonization and use that as our launch point to the asteroid belt and the moons of the gas giants.

Io at Jupiter and Enceladus and Titan by Saturn make enticing targets for future exploration.

[Blood of Tyrants]

It will be around but will we be able to live on it?

[EEGator]

The way things are going, I'd love to get off this rock. I want to be on a ship with seven of nine though.

[tired&retired]

“Maybe the Professor can define for me the word “fragile” because if the earth is “fragile” I’d hate to see what his definition of “tough’ is. “

The earth is fragile for the same reason that Sodom & Gomorrah were fragile.

[EEGator]

The Moon colony might rebel...

[KC_Lion]

Rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh, you touch my mind, fumbling in ignorance, incapable of understanding. There is a realm of existence so far beyond your own you cannot even imagine it. I am beyond your comprehension. I am Sovereign.

Reaper? A label created by the Protheans to give voice to their destruction. In the end, what they chose to call us is irrelevant. We simply... are.

Organic life is nothing but a genetic mutation, an accident. Your lives are measured in years and decades. You wither and die. We are eternal, the pinnacle of evolution and existence. Before us, you are nothing. Your extinction is inevitable. We are the end of everything.

Confidence born of ignorance. The cycle cannot be broken. The pattern has repeated itself more times than you can fathom. Organic civilizations rise, evolve, advance, and at the apex of their glory they are extinguished. The Protheans were not the first. They did not create the Citadel. They did not forge the mass relays. They mere found them - the legacy of my kind. Your civilization is based on the technology of the mass relays. Our technology. By using it, your civilization develops along the paths we desire.

We impose order on the chaos of organic life. You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it. My kind transcends your very understanding.

We are each a nation - independent, free of all weakness. You cannot grasp the nature of our existence. We have no beginning. We have no end. We are infinite. Millions of years after your civilization has been eradicated and forgotten, we will endure.

We are legion. The time of our return is coming. Our numbers will darken the sky of every world. You cannot escape your doom.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

No, because human beings don't live for billions of years.

Humans weren't around a billion years ago, and they won't be around a billion years from now.

You have heard of evolution, right?

The area around Chernobyl is a wildlife paradise. According to your thinking, it should be a wasteland. Shows you how wrong your thinking is.

You didn't invent life. Nature did. Nature knows a whole lot more about it than you do.

[rarestia]

That’s fine, they’re allowed to do so as long as we’ve got a way to get past them and to Mars. It’s when they set up that pesky orbital blockade when we’ll start having problems.

[Vaquero]

Jerri Ryan gave us zer0bama. But I won’t hold THAT against her.

[faithhopecharity]

Hawking is a tremendous optimist. If the muslems (or norkors) keep attacking and threatening and beheading and raping and pillaging us, they can probably provoke the end of human life on earth much, much faster than 1,ooo years. Try 10? Or even possibly sooner? I’m all for space colonies!

[Vaquero]

Mars like the moon, will be a harsh mistress