‘Colonize planets to save the human race’ – Professor Stephen Hawking

originally posted by: InfinityandBeyond
I'm predicting that it won't be so easy for ANY one person to "colonize" a planet without a background check of sorts...I believe the richest will be allowed to go first, hell maybe we will reenact the movie "Elysium". Earth will be left to the scrubs and corporate slaves.

The whole notion that we would all pack up and move to a different planet or planets is flawed to begin with, because even if we were able to find or make suitable planets for colonization, the colonists themselves would start breeding when they got there, and it probably wouldn't be long before they would severely limit the number of people who would be allowed to come there from "off world." So if you're planning on leaving, you better be one of the first to go, or you'll miss the boat (spaceship) entirely.

How? Rocket propulsion is a severely limited means for getting to other planets, if it wasn't wed be there already!

originally posted by: Borisbanger
Im talking about gene splicing appropriate characteristics for any given condition and purpose, borrowed from anywhere. Nobody has a say because if it can be done it will be.

Exactly. But human beings have always felt the need to modify their bodies, so the minute we get skilled at modifying out own genes, people will rush to do it voluntarily. I predict that a lot of people will add wings. Many will add scales. Some will decide they could use gills to live underwater.

And who knows how much genetic modification a human being can undergo before they're not even human anymore? Before they start to split off into different sub-species that can no longer interbreed?

It's this, combined with the creation of intelligent machines who will compete with us for precious resources, that will mean the end of humanity. And it's really not that far away. I would think that we'll develop the sentient machines and genetic modifications long before we develop a fast and efficient way to move between the stars. So, so long, humanity!

a reply to: 2012newstart

Stephen Hawking has been reflecting on these questions for years. Back in 2006 he took them to social media and posted a question on Yahoo answers. Yeah, it seem ridiculous right now and yet YA was a busy outlet back then

The questions was this:

In a world that is in chaos politically, socially and environmentally, how can the human race sustain another 100 years?

His favourite answer (out of hundreds) was this:

Ѕємι~Мαđ ŠçїєŋŧιѕТ answered 9 years ago

Political and social chaos has been with us for a very long time. Given the revolutions of the past and present, class warfare, and scheming of those seeking power, the human race has shown a remarkable resilience and managed to survive thus far.

The new factors in the equation of the balance of mankind and the rest of nature are the technological advances that have changed how political and social chaos can develop, and the advances in industry that have the potential to inflict serious environmental alterations. Threats of nuclear war, biological catastrophe, and climate change now bring into question as to how humanity can continue to survive.

Personally, I think that with the growth of true threats to survival, there has been growth of human ingenuity as well. We have yet to release a Frankenstein's monster of technology upon the world. Despite the stockpiles of nuclear weapons, there has been no global warfare. Medical research is in a renaissance of advance. Climate change remains a concern, but I believe that we are an adaptable species, as we have adapted before and will again.

The larger question is how will humanity survive, which is what is asked. It's very likely that the resources of today may no longer be available in a century. But consider the resources available today that were not available a century before. As stated before, we are an adaptable species, and when one window of resources closes, it's likely that other windows will be openable.

Of course, the speed that everything progresses at has increased. Will we be able to adapt in time? Perhaps not for a lot of us, but consider that in the 14th century, the Black Death wiped out over a third of Europe's population. Yet Europe survived and prospered. We may again have a catastophe that has similarly devestating effects, but I feel confident that after the catastrophe, humankind will prosper.

Why do I place this faith in humanity? Because I must. Without the belief that we will continue to grow and overcome the pains of social chaos as we mature as a species, we might as well not have any faith at all. I'm not talking religion (although that may or may not be a part in its current forms), but simply the same belief that we will survive just as much as the sun will rise the next day.

Hawking likes to speculate about worst-case scenarios and chose that answer because he's also optimistic and pragmatic. For all we actually know it's a current fact that we are the only known sentient life-form in the universe. On that basis alone, we're custodians of intellectual, artistic and exploratory life and hold a responsibility to ensure it perpetuates.

We are Sparta!! Testify!!

ETA - whoops...forgot my manners and links

Yahoo answers

Philosophy Now

The Great man's answer......

a reply to: Blue Shift

But human beings have always felt the need to modify their bodies, so the minute we get skilled at modifying out own genes, people will rush to do it voluntarily.

No . I am not talking vanity projects.
The creators will not actually benefit.
Its the children, the future generations.
Personally I cannot reconcile this as self interest unless its that I want my life to have meaning by preserving the species.
Anyway its better bet then on your knees kissing the ground praying for miracles.

Yes, that is the next step, but not under NWO or middle east. We need to stop this crapola and go out free and equal.

Space, colonizing, freedom of money and tax, a planet to myself..

I'm DOWN, now who will be my love making machine so we can colonize :3



(Extreme humor/sarcasm)

a reply to: 2012newstart

i've stopped reading at 'smarter than most of us'. you have very low threshold for 'smart', and probably very little understanding of the technology you talk about.

also, noone will just release the warp drive or whatever else technology they're working on or have already worked out, and noone will just let anyone who wants to, to go off planet.

why? because the so called break-away civilisation, assuming it exists, is already so advanced and has so different view of the reality, that the average humans are for them extremely primitive, and you can't blame them for that. facebook, tv shows, fast foods, aggression, wars - you want those values to spread across the universe?

they will obviously have their roots in black budget projects and such stuff, but if they already went off planet, it's doubtful they care about all the politics here - if anything, political situation may be limiting them, nothing else.

i know you would like it to be all star trek, universe exploration and such crap, but you have to notice some differences - in star trek the world war came first, and the folk that invented warp drive, was more or less a normal guy, drinking his ass off, not someone working for a military. existing global political and military structures as we know them, that would do everything to hide such discovery, were already non-existent, and to top all of that, aliens came in after his first flight, destroying any chance for a cover up.

in the world we live in, any such technology is in a hands of people that either don't want to release it, or cannot release it, and those in charge will do everything they can to keep it that way. whatever hawking says, doesn't matter for them. 'oh please, hawking says we're doomed, release the tech, save us, let us post crap on facebook from mars'? don't be naive.

originally posted by: 2012newstart
Perhaps indeed the collapse of earth's civilization is imminent if a pop star singing stupid texts would get 100 times more clicks.

entire civilisation - not so much.
life as we know it, with tv blabbling heads, facebook and mtv - you bet.

you have to understand one thing.
there is no other way for the humanity to wake up than by some huge cataclysm. and most people are so blind, or even outright dumb, that they won't be able to handle the reality - and they will die. it cannot be avoided.

originally posted by: sg1642
How do we know that earth isn't just a planet our kind colonised in the past?

we were not told that. We were told the opposite - that we were created unique in the image of God. If so, some of us must be saved for God's plan to succeed, whatever it is or being called as. Otherwise, centuries old prophecies and books should be tramped on the garbage. I doubt any politician, philosopher or thinker, including Hawking, would ever dare to do that, no matter what his personal view on the matter is. Simply the humanity cannot double cross its own history and heritage, and to continue being what it is. In other words, the spiritual survival of humanity precedes with one or more steps its physical survival, and it REQUIRES the latter. (even in case of Armagedonic scenario according to books we have survivors, much more in scenarios that are not religious based and pretend to save everyone regardless of religion).

Hawking is not the next conspiracy poster. He is Main stream scientist and already main stream public voice. May be good he is not politician (because he could be). So I'd expect the evacuation plans to be drawn up (they are already done) and to be announced and implemented in shortest terms possible.

70th anniversary of WW2 end is a good occasion to save humanity from itself in WW3.

And even if we humans are not unique for the galaxy, perhaps we are not in a more general view where every humanoid ET counts for being almost equa to human born on earth (still I think the experiment Earth is unique though)..., even then I will do everything possible to save my kids. I am very far from the thought to wait in religious trance for martyrdom, to "save our souls" but to lose our bodies, including those of the next generation children. It is not just suicidal, it is barbaric and even satanic.

Instead, I will join anyone who offers salvation in REAL TERMS. There are enough readied Triangles and other craft to save as many people as they want to be saved. Not everyone will want to be saved. Their free will should be respected. As well as ours who want to be saved and continue humanity.

We really haven't learned our lessons, have we? Instead of trying to live in harmony and balance with our planet, we continue to consume and consume and consume. When faced with the reality that we can't sustain ourselves this way, the answer is... to consume more! Find another planet to pillage in the pursuit of vanity!

Let's pray there's no one living where you people want to colonize, because if they're less technologically advanced than us (or just simply pacifists), they're f#d. Let's not have any delusions about the state of humanity's moral development. Let's not have any Trails of Tears on other planets.

We owe it to the universe to keep our bulls# to ourselves. If we can't learn to live within the bounds provided by the resources of our own planet, we're a doomed species. And a pretty stupid one at that, deserving of our fate.



And by the way, what difference does it make to any of you whether or not humanity is still around in a thousand years (or whenever)? Is it ego? "Human pride"? Go team?

Maybe if we focused more on caring for one another and living simply, within our means and responsibly, in the here and now, we wouldn't have to worry about the future at all.

As the earths population continues to expand we can expect conflicts arising from dwindling natural resources.Sooner or later we will run out.Exploring/colonizing new worlds are the only hope really.

a reply to: TDawg61

Im guilty of thinking from an emotional perspective – some thoughts I hope make sense on the conflict

My understanding is we are reliant on chemical processes to shift us about within a convention/group seeking allies and deciding enemies.
Because of developed communication processes our particular thing, that makes us human, is to also adhere to some sort of morality, rule or code. Magnified on the world stage it becomes conflict.

Therefore by extension of breeding programs and gene manipulation I imagine future humans, (I am talking many generation ahead) would be be totally alien to us. Maybe the advance guard are created solitary, humourless and self sufficient, able to withstand harsh conditions and horrible deprivation. Their implanted purpose no more then to carry forward gene permutations to enable continued adaptation and colonization as the op said for the sake of continued survival .

If the god gene is included I cant see the current crop of deity books having space in the ruck sack with out a serious rewrite btw

a reply to: NthOther

I agree we haven't learned our lessons, some 5000 y recorded history after the Flood.
The experiment on earth is about to end. I don't know what exact form it will take. Whether we humans will be permitted to do nuclear war, or some other cataclysmic event that is still kept secret (even after 2012 that seemed to be the grand test how humanity would react). For obvious reasons such an event wouldn't be announced any longer than 2 weeks in advance. Because otherwise we will die of hunger and riots even before that.

RT just posted about Mars expedition and the US public opinion. Together with BBC reporting of Hawking. I doubt it is all isolated and Hawking just slipped those words. Perhaps what is to come is not just US or Rus or China secret space program to save their elect ones. It is the last chance of humanity. We are still in the prep phase that may end as soon as one tomorrow. Then we will have 2 weeks to enter the arcs. For whoever wants it. I don't pretend to discover truth. I'd prefer it would be longer time and we would have ET contact for months if not years beforehand. It just doesn't happen. It is not my fault or yours. It is someone else who decides. I have decided on my part but that doesn't concern too many people.

and why exactly would we want to ensure the existence of the human race? us violent destructive and insane humans.

i wonder if ol steve knows if we are coming or going.
it wasn't that long ago that he said that if ET came here they'd likely kick our a@@.
i wonder what has changed his mind, or what makes him think we'd fair any better on another planet if we don't carry our weapons with us or develop better ones.

This video belongs to Discovery Communications LLC, and is being used for educational purposes only.
Stephen Hawking has revealed he strongly believes in aliens and warned that Earth could be at risk from an invasion. In a documentary series, the renowned astrophysicist argued that it is 'perfectly rational' to assume intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe. And in an extraordinary series of assertions, he said Earth might be at risk from what he imagines to be 'massive ships' which could try to colonise our planet and plunder our resources.

The existence of 100 billion galaxies each containing hundreds of millions of stars means Earth is unlikely to be the only place where life has evolved, Professor Hawking said. 'To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational. The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like,' he added.

Professor Hawking said: 'We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet. '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 colonise whatever planets they can reach.' It would be 'too risky' to attempt to make contact with alien races, he concluded. '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.'

this is the description for this video, you can also go back and search for Hawking statement on hostile aliens. you will find references as far back as 2010.

a reply to: Kandinsky

Yes Hawking talked about that before.

However, now there are several warnings of him in few months. CERN godparticle possibility to create unstable particles, AI danger of human civilization, and finally what is being discussed in this thread. Bil Gates and other scientists joined chorus about AI.

Hawking warned of hypothetical evil aliens in Discovery serials not that long ago.

I think he and the others are not doing all that by chance or coincidence.

I think its random what direction we take regarding future development. We could fall back into the dark ages and have to wait another few thousand years for enlightenment- this depends on how much self destruction is inflicted. Or a fire break is created by which I suggest its reasonable to expect right at this moment researchers are desperately searching for the antidote to the most potent killer man made virus, - created in the same lab of course- and your guesses are as good as mine on what would be behind that.

originally posted by: OneManArmy

originally posted by: Borisbanger
a reply to: OneManArmy

Looking at it differently
Isnt the implicit aim of genetic development, intelligence, longevity, indestructibility, working towards the ultimately aim of propagating the species – equipping humankind for space and its colonization.

The implicit aim of life itself is to survive.

My question is "Are we actually ready?"

Yes we are.

We have all the tools capable of starting such colonization today. The question is not "Are we ready?". We've been ready on a basic level since the 1980s.

The question is "What's taking so long?"

originally posted by: Borisbanger
a reply to: OneManArmy

My question is "Are we actually ready?"

no we are not.

We need to breed modified humans

While I agree that this would be helpful if we're talking about travel to the stars, I have to disagree when it comes to stepping out into the solar system.

Why do you think we need breed modified humans for colonization of the solar system?