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Stephen Hawking Says He Is Convinced That Humans Need To Leave Earth (sciencealert.com)

Posted by msmash on from the start-packing dept.

Reader dryriver writes: Back in May, renowned physicist Stephen Hawking made yet another doomsday prediction. He said that humanity has 100 years left on Earth, which knocked 900 years off the prediction he made in November 2016, which had given humanity 1,000 years left. With his new estimate, Hawking suggested the only way to prolong humanity's existence is for us to find a new home, on another planet (alternative source). Speaking at the Starmus Festival in Trondheim, Norway on Tuesday, Hawking reiterated his point: "If humanity is to continue for another million years, our future lies in boldly going where no one else has gone before," he explained, according to the BBC. Specifically, Hawking said that we should aim for another Moon landing by 2020, and work to build a lunar base in the next 30 years -- projects that could help prepare us to send human beings to Mars by 2025. "We are running out of space and the only places to go to are other worlds. It is time to explore other solar systems. Spreading out may be the only thing that saves us from ourselves. I am convinced that humans need to leave Earth," Hawking added.

3 of 391 comments (clear)

  1. However bad he thinks Earth is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Space is way, way worse. Unimaginably worse. Like, instant death worse.

    1. Re:However bad he thinks Earth is by swillden · · Score: 5, Insightful

      OR you could work to improve things here on Earth, rather than dreaming about leaving it.

      Or we could do both.

      You can't live anywhere else but Earth anyway.

      This is both illogical and demonstrably false, since people have been living off of this planet for most of the last half century. All human life is technology-dependent. Many of the places lots of people live are unsurvivable without fairly extensive technology. Living on other planets, or in space, will require more and different technology, but there's nothing inherently impossible about it.

      --
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  2. Easy to break things, hard to improve by XXongo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Here's my thesis, if you believe that one person has THAT much power, then we are already slaves to the power class

    Here's a useful observation: one person can make things considerably worse, but it takes a lot of people working together to make things better.

    This is the central problem with humans: breaking stuff is always much easier than making stuff.