Stephen Hawking Warns Against Confining Ourselves To Earth

alancronin writes with this excerpt from CNet: "Stephen Hawking, one of the world's greatest physicists and cosmologists, is once again warning his fellow humans that our extinction is on the horizon unless we figure out a way to live in space. Not known for conspiracy theories, Hawking's rationale is that the Earth is far too delicate a planet to continue to withstand the barrage of human battering. 'We must continue to go into space for humanity,' Hawking said today, according to the Los Angeles Times. 'We won't survive another 1,000 years without escaping our fragile planet.'"

Comments

Earth isn't delicate,

[Anonymous Coward]

Humans are. Earth will continue even in an environment not hospitable to us, and life too will probably go on.

Re: Earth isn't delicate,

[Anonymous Coward]

Earth, as a system for sustaining human life, most certainly is delicate. Which would be what Stephen Hawking is talking about, and what you should be concerned about. Whether or not there are rotifers once we've managed to murder ourselves is something of an academic question.

Re: Earth isn't delicate,

[gatkinso]

So let's just become a horde of locusts jumping from planet to planet consuming their resources and polluting them into lifeless rocks until a coalition of alien species has to band together to eliminate the threat humanity represents to the galaxy.

Or, learn how to survive on this planet before going out and colonizing another one.

Re: Earth isn't delicate,

[Intrepid imaginaut]

What misanthropic crap. We can survive on this planet just fine, despite this planet's repeated, persistent, and very nearly successful efforts to wipe us out many times throughout history. The realisation of what we were doing to the biosphere has been slow in coming but I'm greatly encouraged by recent developments. Mother nature has done far worse before we humans ever made an appearance, and in case you've forgotten, the fate of the planet and all its glorious diversity WITHOUT humanity is to become cold stellar dust.

We are also the first and perhaps only living beings to have adapted sufficiently to the environment to be able to go into space, and like it or not that makes us special. We do need to take advantage of that.

Re:CORRECTION

[benf_2004]

It's extremely small minded/short sighted of the worlds most famous physicist, to assume the current system will keep chugging along, with business as usual, for a THOUSAND more years. He should do a little historical research...

You're right. Given the historical precedent, I'd say mankind will probably find faster, more efficient ways to deplete the planet of its resources in well under a thousand years.

Re:Paradox

[khallow]

Hawking ought to be more concerned about remaining confined to his chair.

Hawking ought to be long dead by now. And he currently speaks at about one word per minute (via a twitch of a muscle on his cheek). Do you really think he doesn't get that? "Concern" doesn't magically reverse a medical condition for which we have no clue how to cure.

But his concern may help save the human race. I think his priorities are in order.

Re:Paradox

[killkillkill]

The Earth is one collision or one solar event away from complete sterilization. When you start considering the scales involved in spreading life over our cold, (At least mostly) lifeless, unforgiving galaxy, the chances of the rare balance currently existing here begin to diminish even without anthropocentric global warming and the like. Maybe ecosystems like earth are abundant in our reachabable speck in the universe, but I doubt it. Humans spreading across the stars is our only know chance of intelligent life sustaining an existence. What's the point of the universe if there is nothing to appreciate it?