Don't Talk To Aliens, Warns Stephen Hawking

Megaport writes "Promoting his new series on the Discovery channel, Stephen Hawking has given an interview to the Times in which 'he has suggested that extraterrestrials are almost certain to exist but that instead of seeking them out, humanity should be doing all that it can to avoid any contact.' He says, 'I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach. ... 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.' Personally, I've always thought that the indigenous people of the world really had no chance to avoid contact here on such a small planet, but is hiding under our collective bed an option for humanity in the wider galaxy?"

Comments

if it happens to earth

[FudRucker]

then it is because we probably deserved it considering the way we humans treat each other...

or someday when the human race consumes the resources of earth if we build interstellar space craft we are forced to become the enemies of some other planet much like Hawkings is waring us about = we become the monsters from outer space to some other poor schmucks on some other rock orbiting some other star

New 'Godwin's Rule' Needed

[theshowmecanuck]

Trying explaining that to the families of the 104,000 Iraqi civilians that have died as a result of the US invasion since 2003.

Just as 'you must be a Nazi' is over-used, the tired mantra of blaming the Americans for the world's ills is getting very old. We need a new 'Godwin's Rule' to say the argument is over when people start jumping on this bandwagon.

Re:Buzz

[Lehk228]

i'm sure all the scientists and engineers working on the SETI project had no idea what they were doing, thank you for clarifying this for us.