Slashdot Mirror
Abandon Earth Or Die, Warns Hawking
siliconbits writes "According to famed theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, it's time to free ourselves from Mother Earth. 'I believe that the long-term future of the human race must be in space,' Hawking tells Big Think. 'It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster on planet Earth in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand, or million. The human race shouldn't have all its eggs in one basket, or on one planet. Let's hope we can avoid dropping the basket until we have spread the load.'"
Back in 2006: Hawking Says Humans Must Go Into Space
And again in 2000: Hawking on Earth's Lifespan
No, he doesn't. He said that exact quote two years ago, to CNN. Of course, it may not necessarily be plagiarism, because he's been saying this for years, and it isn't like he types off the cuff.
You are missing the point entirely. It isn't for us to up and leave earth all together, it's to continue to inhabit earth while also colonizing other places.
If we live on multiple planets/moons/space stations, then any one disaster would have to be truly fantastic in scope (enormous gamma ray burst large enough to wipe out a large area of space) to take out all of us at the same time.
The problem is that one of the problems is this
Most of those rules were invented AFTER the language was invented, by people with anal tendencies. Such as outlawing the double negative. Prior to ~1700 the double negative was not only an accepted part of language, but often ran into triple or quadruple negatives. The purpose was to add additional emphasis.
The blue book claim "Who refers to people. That and which refer to groups or things," sounds like an invented rule, not a reflection of the actual speakers of the language. i.e Prescriptive rather than descriptive. Real wordsmiths like ee cummins, Shakespeare, and Chaucer didn't give a fuck about rules. They wrote whatever they felt like writing.
- "Ther nas no man no wher so vertuous" (i.e., "There was not no man nowhere so virtuous")
- "He nevere yet no vileynye ne sayde / In all his lyf unto no maner wight." (i.e., "He never yet no vileness not said / In all his life to no sort of man.")
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
What ignorance. Life is about metabolism and maintaining the efficiency of cells and the integrity of genetic sequences through cycle after cycle of mitosis. Most organisms degrade as this process repeats, leading to senescence AKA aging; however, some organisms such as Hydras are biologically immortal because they do not suffer the effects of senescence. Moreover there is a species of jellyfish that can actually reverse its life cycle and thereby is biologically immortal.
Death is biological problem, but there are signs in organisms that it is a problem that can be solved.
I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
Much better to spend the money on fixing the problems here (but that might cost corporations profits so not likely to happen).
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
In fairness, quite a bit has expanded in our understanding of the fundamental building blocks of life. DNA was first described in 1953... 57 years later, we are mapping genomes (with some organisms fully mapped), manipulating, replacing and removing genes, and discovering the genetic basis for numerous diseases and other traits at an ever-increasing pace.
Just because it ain't silicon & metal doesn't mean it ain't technology.