Jump to content

Stephen Hawking warns against aliens


Guy

Recommended Posts

The one thing that strikes me about aliens is how perfect the earth is...just reading the wikipedia article tons of things jump out at me. Such as "30 km away, it would be too hot" "only known planet to have this composition, out of thousands studied", stuff like that. The Earth really is a miracle in many ways, which makes me think it's unlikely there is any other life out there.

 

But on the other hand, I'm a beleiver in God, and I beleive he wouldn't waste time. Why make so many planets if there was really no purpose for them?

 

In terms of an alien invasion, I think we can assume that knowing what we do about the universe they would have to be advanced to make it here in the first place. There's no solid proof an "invasion" is incoming, and even if there was their technology would be more than enough to eliminate us, so why worry about it?

polvCwJ.gif
"It's not a rest for me, it's a rest for the weights." - Dom Mazzetti

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 74
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Kill the peaceful aliens, reverse-engineer their technology, plunder their resources. Rinse and repeat = profit??!

(I wonder what the different governments would actually do if they had the opportunity)

One of the funniest things mentioned about topic like these was this quote:

 

"If we ever find aliens, the first thing we'll do is Christianize them."

 

The whole Exploration Era (1500s-1700s) will return for space.

"The cry of the poor is not always just, but if you never hear it you'll never know what justice is."

siggy3s.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think he makes an interesting point which probably hasn't been made quite so publicly before. You could also subscribe to the view point that any sufficiently advanced species will eventually destroy itself (a road we could well be going down, and almost went down in the past).

 

Anyway, I think the probability of there being some kind of life somewhere else in the universe is so close to one it hurts, I mean there are good candidates for life elsewhere in just our solar system. That life could have a very different chemistry/biology to us, but I think that in many ways it would be more similar than we might expect. I mean if we're looking for candidates of intelligent life then we're looking for Earth-like planets which will have similar selective pressures in terms of evolution as ours, and so by convergent evolution our "design" may well be optimal across the universe for planets similar to ours. Speculative, but interesting.

"Da mihi castitatem et continentam, sed noli modo"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kill the peaceful aliens, reverse-engineer their technology, plunder their resources. Rinse and repeat = profit??!

(I wonder what the different governments would actually do if they had the opportunity)

One of the funniest things mentioned about topic like these was this quote:

 

"If we ever find aliens, the first thing we'll do is Christianize them."

 

The whole Exploration Era (1500s-1700s) will return for space.

If the aliens find us first, they probably have better technology, and would probably try to convert us.

Generally, depending on who finds who, we might be on the receiving end of the whole colonize and exploit thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kill the peaceful aliens, reverse-engineer their technology, plunder their resources. Rinse and repeat = profit??!

(I wonder what the different governments would actually do if they had the opportunity)

One of the funniest things mentioned about topic like these was this quote:

 

"If we ever find aliens, the first thing we'll do is Christianize them."

 

The whole Exploration Era (1500s-1700s) will return for space.

If the aliens find us first, they probably have better technology, and would probably try to convert us.

Generally, depending on who finds who, we might be on the receiving end of the whole colonize and exploit thing.

That works too. :mrgreen:

"The cry of the poor is not always just, but if you never hear it you'll never know what justice is."

siggy3s.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The idea of colonizing aliens goes way back before Independence Day. Try reading David Gerrold's Chtorr series for a real gut-check.

 

Imagine a multi-generational ship bringing aliens + their equivalent of crops & livestock. They aren't coming to blow up the White House - they are coming to start a new ecosystem.

 

And the only way you fit into this new ecosystem is as an appetizer.

 

:shock:

PvP is not for me

In the 3rd Year of the Boycott
Real-world money saved since FT/W: Hundreds of Dollars
Real-world time saved since FT/W: Thousands of Hours

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm actually beginning to think the colonizing alien stories come from history. They're either showing that exploiting the environment is only fun when we're the exploiters or warning about what we could be doing if we clean out the planet.

 

On a funny, off-topic note, I'm reading all of the white text on black background links in your sig through the deflection skin.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Never said there couldn't be. All I'm *trying* to say is:

 

Proof for aliens:

Basically the chance of there being no other aliens is so small... Well its like yeah. (lol)

 

Proof for God:

Really gonna not get into this, debating God on off-topic is [developmentally delayed]ed. But for the Christians out there the proof they have is more than "the chance of there not being a god is so "infinitesimal"

Ohh I see what you mean now haha. Sorry it was the wording :unsure:

 

The one thing that strikes me about aliens is how perfect the earth is...just reading the wikipedia article tons of things jump out at me. Such as "30 km away, it would be too hot" "only known planet to have this composition, out of thousands studied", stuff like that. The Earth really is a miracle in many ways, which makes me think it's unlikely there is any other life out there.

 

But on the other hand, I'm a beleiver in God, and I beleive he wouldn't waste time. Why make so many planets if there was really no purpose for them?

 

In terms of an alien invasion, I think we can assume that knowing what we do about the universe they would have to be advanced to make it here in the first place. There's no solid proof an "invasion" is incoming, and even if there was their technology would be more than enough to eliminate us, so why worry about it?

Well the earth is only perfect to us because we evolved and adpated to its conditions.

 

But at the same time I agree with you, it seems that the way everything is for us, is slightly too convenient... lol :D

nabsigmar2011.png

[spoiler=My 99s (7)]9,638th to 99 Fletching ~ 29th January 2007

737th to 99 Hunter ~ 2nd July 2007

910th to 99 Agility ~ 28th January 2008

59,467th to 99 Defence ~ 23rd December 2009

92,762nd to 99 Hitpoints ~ 26th June 2010

102,704th to 99 Attack ~ 29th June 2010

144,091st to 99 Strength ~ 29th June 2010

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When Columbus came, he raped, butchered, and murdered our men women and children. (yet the history books make him out to be a hero)

 

Let's just hope the Aliens don't do the same thing.

arcy777-2.jpg
arcsig.jpg
2001-2006 the fourth and last legit 123 on classic
123 classic/137 rs2 Native American Pride

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When Columbus came, he raped, butchered, and murdered our men women and children. (yet the history books make him out to be a hero)

 

Let's just hope the Aliens don't do the same thing.

 

I want a source on this. In my history college course, he ended up bringing a bunch of the natives back to England and called them Indians because he thought he landed in India. I don't think anything of that sort was mentioned during the lectures.

I was going to eat hot dogs for dinner tonight. I think I will settle for cereal.

 

OPEN WIDE HERE COMES THE HELICOPTER.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When Columbus came, he raped, butchered, and murdered our men women and children. (yet the history books make him out to be a hero)

 

Let's just hope the Aliens don't do the same thing.

 

I want a source on this. In my history college course, he ended up bringing a bunch of the natives back to England and called them Indians because he thought he landed in India. I don't think anything of that sort was mentioned during the lectures.

 

 

 

His atrocities to the Native people were well documented in the journals of Columbus and of the various people he sailed with. He was also stripped of his governor title, arrested and sent back to Spain to stand trial to go to prison, but once there, the King freed him. His own men testified against him.

 

He was known to chop off the hands of people, children included. He enslaved the tribes on those Islands he settled. Those people he took back to Europe, were enslaved and made to go. Most of them died on the voyage back to Europe.

 

The natives in Cicao on Haiti all those above 14 years of age were required to find a certain quota of gold every three months. Upon their return, they would receive tokens that they wore around their necks. Any Indian found without a copper token had their hands cut off and subsequently bled to death.
- wikipedia

 

 

These are things people choose not to tell in history. People want to try and forget, or not criminalize a national hero. There is a movement amongst Native Americans and non-native supporters to actually abolish the Columbus day holiday and to bring light the atrocities he committed. http://www.transformcolumbusday.org/

 

 

If you want more details, you shouldn't have a hard time looking it up. Just don't rely on good ole American history books to dig up some dirt on a 'hero'.

arcy777-2.jpg
arcsig.jpg
2001-2006 the fourth and last legit 123 on classic
123 classic/137 rs2 Native American Pride

Link to comment
Share on other sites

just lost all respect i had for him.. i loved his books too

 

...

 

Is a damn joke.

11-1.jpg[

Guild Wars 2-In game screenshot, the MMORPG you are waiting for. Click for thread.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

These are things people choose not to tell in history. People want to try and forget, or not criminalize a national hero. There is a movement amongst Native Americans and non-native supporters to actually abolish the Columbus day holiday and to bring light the atrocities he committed. http://www.transformcolumbusday.org/

...But isn't the whole point of the holiday to acknowledge that the guy introduced Europeans to NA?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've always thought of it to be over-glorifying your own species when you believe that it's the only intelligent life in the universe, oh how humans think they're so great with their fancy omnipotent creator which they can't agree on the existence of. Slightly more seriously though, my personal opinion is that either life on Earth would be long-extinct by the time they arrive, or, if they're nearby then maybe they would be excited that they found intelligent life and possibly want to preserve us as the universe isn't likely to be densely populated with all the uninhabitable planets. On that, perhaps they won't be capable of living in our atmosphere or gravity anyway. But I think it differs from the situation with the Native Americans in that the Europeans were only being nasty to other human beings and not a completely unrelated fascinating new civilisation of weird creatures. It probably wouldn't apply. I hope and expect that Hawking was joking, I just can't see it happening like it does in the movies.

 

But anyway, our primitive race cannot comprehend such things in a complicated universe because we can't even agree with each other because of lack of evidence on all sides; we'd be better off waiting to see what happens or doesn't happen. Life goes on and we can't be any better prepared for what amazing things may happen in a distant future.

redarrows-1.png
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It would seem that Hawking supports a Lovecraftian based alien form. They're terrifying and not neccesarily organic.

 

Go ahead and look at some of those Lovecraft Aliens sometime. Often times they're sentient cosmic matter or living radiation or something crazy like that. And it's not too rare that they end up killing people or driving them insane simply because they happened to walk by.

 

If I'm walking down a road and an ant is in the way, I don't swerve my path to get out of the way. I probably didnt even notice it.

 

 

Everyone says that our planet wouldn't be worth harvesting for resources. If they're looking for Oxygen or Water...

enex2sigjpegkm3.jpg

Do you hate Wyverns or Warped Terrorbirds? Think again! Misunderstood Monsters!

Want to become a Champion of Champions like I once was? Champion Scroll Guide!

Feeling Bored? List of Sidequests

 

Rare Drops: Dragon Sq Half : 1, Dragon Med : 2, Dragon Claws : 2, Dragon Legs : 1, Dragon Boots : 60+, Granite Legs: 8

Link to comment
Share on other sites

...

 

Everyone says that our planet wouldn't be worth harvesting for resources. If they're looking for Oxygen or Water...

 

Or chlorophyll or meat...

 

I think the point is that we expect aliens to be friendly explorers, when it's just as likely they are harvesters.

 

Listening for messages via SETI is harmless. It's the transmitting of messages that could be harmful - and we've been unintentionally doing that for years via TV & radio signals.

PvP is not for me

In the 3rd Year of the Boycott
Real-world money saved since FT/W: Hundreds of Dollars
Real-world time saved since FT/W: Thousands of Hours

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Has anyone thought about.. What if there really are "aliens" what if they're almost within the same exact technology part as we are? I think it'd be cool.

I have all the 99s, and have been playing since 2001. Comped 4/30/15 

My Araxxi Kills: 459::Araxxi Drops(KC):

Araxxi Hilts: 4x Eye (14/126/149/459), Web - (100) Fang (193)

Araxxi Legs Completed: 5 ---Top (69/206/234/292/361), Middle (163/176/278/343/395), Bottom (135/256/350/359/397)
Boss Pets: Supreme - 848 KC

If you play Xbox One - Add me! GT: Urtehnoes - Currently on a Destiny binge 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

just lost all respect i had for him.. i loved his books too

 

...

 

Is a damn joke.

 

 

+1. I just watched a political satire on this. pretty hilarious.

 

Was it the Colbert Report?

 

Other known as Colbear Repor?

11-1.jpg[

Guild Wars 2-In game screenshot, the MMORPG you are waiting for. Click for thread.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.