Hawking: Colonize space in 100 years or face extinction

[Raiser]

The human race will become extinct if it doesn’t discover ways to live in outer space within the next century, renowned British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking is warning the world.

Mr. Hawking, who is back in the United Kingdom after a successful research visit to the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ont., has long been an advocate of colonizing space, but says because of overpopulation, resource depletion and war, the world has never been at greater risk than now, the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph reports.

“It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand or million,” Mr. Hawking told the website Big Think. “Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain inward looking on planet Earth but to spread out into space.”

“We have made remarkable progress in the last hundred years. But if we want to continue beyond the next hundred years, our future is in space. That is why I’m in favour of manned, or should I say ‘personned,’ space flight.”

Mr. Hawking said the frequency of disasters that could eventually obliterate humans will only increase with time.

“I see great dangers for the human race,” he said. “There have been a number of times in the past when its survival has been a question of touch and go. The Cuban missile crisis in 1963 was one of these. The frequency of such occasions is likely to increase in the future.”

“But I’m an optimist. If we can avoid disaster for the next two centuries, our species should be safe, as we spread into space.”

Earlier in the year, Mr. Hawking, 68, said it was “perfectly rational” that aliens exist, but that there was no reason humans should try to contact them because we have no idea what to expect.

“To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational,” Mr. Hawking said, according to The Sunday Times. “The real challenge is working out what aliens might actually be like … We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet.”

Source

There's no doubt that we'll face extinction soon, but I think the 100 years is a bit of a stretch.
Although by then, Earth will be extremely overpopulated, and without an eventual release of anti-polluting vehicles and such, we'll destroy our Earth even more.

 

[geoflcl]

Yes, we're definitely doomed. And with the world only getting worse, I don't doubt it'll happen in the sort-of-foreseeable future.

Meh, I don't know. I'll leave that up to you, Hawking.

 

[Sterling]

Honestly I will probably be dead in a 100 years, so it won't matter much to me. I can't even work a nuclear toaster, much less help research and create a mass migration to colonize space.

 

[VashTS]

we could start colonizing space right now, but people are too stupid to allow this to happen. religion being the separating factor between peace/cooperation and hatred/war. i would gladly join an organization that attempts to colonize space and i would help with the project for room and board and basic amenities, like electric and internets, no pay just provisions. I'm sure a lot more people would do the same.

 

[TM2-Megatron]

Spend hundreds of trillions now, or face extinction in a century or two when all the people who would've had to spend money would be dead, anyway? I think we know which course the elite would choose, when presented with the options. They'd rather hold on to their money in the here and now, die super-rich, and let the future work out its own problems.

However, I do think it's a bit alarmist. In any case, we don't have the technology to properly colonize space. If Hawking wants that, maybe he should devote some of his intellect to getting around that light-speed limit that scientists have been going on about for decades. If they weren't so focused on saying it was "impossible", they might've actually discovered that it's not by now.

 

[Bladexdsl]

if it wasn't for religion we'd be there now beyond the stars

 

[Sterling]

if it wasn't for religion we'd be there now beyond the stars

Wrong. If religion started with the heavens, it will end with the heavens. Also, if mankind wasn't so stubborn we would get so much more shit done. Obama has already suspended most of the US's space program, so it stands to reason there won't be much more progress on the US side of things for awhile. Also, what makes you people say that religion is why we have progressed less in space. Seriously, people of all sorts of religions were fascinated by what was beyond the clouds. The Egyptians, and the Maya are prime examples of celestial fascination. In fact if they had ever dreamed it was possible to go into space, they would have jumped on it like stink on an elephant.

 

[Rayder]

I'll likely be dead in about 40 years (very few men in my family ever make it to 80), so I don't care what happens 100 years from now. But I AM worried about what happens up until I die.

 

[Bladexdsl]

if it wasn't for religion we'd be there now beyond the stars

Wrong. If religion started with the heavens, it will end with the heavens. Also, what makes you people say that religion is why we have progressed less in space.

it didn't start with the heavens it started with the big bang! cos of religion and their backward/close minded ways in the DARK ages all technology or inventing was forbidden and it's held mankind back hundreds of years!

 

[Raiser]

if it wasn't for religion we'd be there now beyond the stars

Wrong. If religion started with the heavens, it will end with the heavens. Also, if mankind wasn't so stubborn we would get so much more shit done. Obama has already suspended most of the US's space program, so it stands to reason there won't be much more progress on the US side of things for awhile. Also, what makes you people say that religion is why we have progressed less in space. Seriously, people of all sorts of religions were fascinated by what was beyond the clouds. The Egyptians, and the Maya are prime examples of celestial fascination. In fact if they had ever dreamed it was possible to go into space, they would have jumped on it like stink on an elephant.

I think he's referring to the many years of scientific repression in the whole "Religion vs. Science" deal.
What was Obama's reason for doing that again?

I must say that the future of mankind looks grim. Very grim.

 

[Sterling]

if it wasn't for religion we'd be there now beyond the stars

Wrong. If religion started with the heavens, it will end with the heavens. Also, if mankind wasn't so stubborn we would get so much more shit done. Obama has already suspended most of the US's space program, so it stands to reason there won't be much more progress on the US side of things for awhile. Also, what makes you people say that religion is why we have progressed less in space. Seriously, people of all sorts of religions were fascinated by what was beyond the clouds. The Egyptians, and the Maya are prime examples of celestial fascination. In fact if they had ever dreamed it was possible to go into space, they would have jumped on it like stink on an elephant.

I think he's referring to the many years of scientific repression in the whole "Religion vs. Science" deal.
What was Obama's reason for doing that again?

I must say that the future of mankind looks grim. Very grim.

It was using a lot of funds. Honestly, they were better off going to the space program to begin with, instead of the shit now...(that's another topic though.

)

 

[Maz7006]

doesn't matter, i'd be dead by then.

 

[8BitWalugi]

Damn. And I really wanted to see what it was like to live like in Mobile Suit Gundam...

 

[SpiritBoy]

if it wasn't for religion we'd be there now beyond the stars

Wrong. If religion started with the heavens, it will end with the heavens. Also, what makes you people say that religion is why we have progressed less in space.

it didn't start with the heavens it started with the big bang! cos of religion and their backward/close minded ways in the DARK ages all technology or inventing was forbidden and it's held mankind back hundreds of years!

This post is so cliche'd I honestly have no idea if you're being sarcastic or not.

 

[Raiser]

Damn. And I really wanted to see what it was like to live like in Mobile Suit Gundam...

We wish. ;p

I was always curious as for the future of mankind even though I'd be long dead by the time anything I can vision becomes real.
Doesn't look like we have much of a future though..

 

[ChuckBartowski]

Space colonization does need to happen soon. I dont see why we havent done it with the moon yet. Its pretty much the only reason to go back to the moon. In the next hundred years, mars.

 

[meornot0]

I doubt that we will all die if we don't do anything. He didn't say any problems that can't be fixed.

Fix for overpopulation-use protection

Global warming- Does anyone know about the 1970s ice age scare? It was the same sort of thing that global warming is. It is 40 years from 1970. There is no snow around me.

Edit: It would also be extremely hard to replicate the environment we evolved/adapted to in a space colony.

 

[megawalk]

The human race will become extinct if it doesn’t discover ways to live in outer space within the next century, renowned British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking is warning the world.

Mr. Hawking, who is back in the United Kingdom after a successful research visit to the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ont., has long been an advocate of colonizing space, but says because of overpopulation, resource depletion and war, the world has never been at greater risk than now, the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph reports.

“It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand or million,” Mr. Hawking told the website Big Think. “Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain inward looking on planet Earth but to spread out into space.”

“We have made remarkable progress in the last hundred years. But if we want to continue beyond the next hundred years, our future is in space. That is why I’m in favour of manned, or should I say ‘personned,’ space flight.”

Mr. Hawking said the frequency of disasters that could eventually obliterate humans will only increase with time.

“I see great dangers for the human race,” he said. “There have been a number of times in the past when its survival has been a question of touch and go. The Cuban missile crisis in 1963 was one of these. The frequency of such occasions is likely to increase in the future.”

“But I’m an optimist. If we can avoid disaster for the next two centuries, our species should be safe, as we spread into space.”

Earlier in the year, Mr. Hawking, 68, said it was “perfectly rational” that aliens exist, but that there was no reason humans should try to contact them because we have no idea what to expect.

“To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational,” Mr. Hawking said, according to The Sunday Times. “The real challenge is working out what aliens might actually be like … We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet.”

Source

There's no doubt that we'll face extinction soon, but I think the 100 years is a bit of a stretch.
Although by then, Earth will be extremely overpopulated, and without an eventual release of anti-polluting vehicles and such, we'll destroy our Earth even more.

3 Following Subjects will save us alltogether:
A) Mechanaughts....very lively Mechanaughts
B) Mass Departure Ships to go into space with a colonization
C) Space Colonies

 

[mAlvarado]

Space colonization does need to happen soon. I dont see why we havent done it with the moon yet. Its pretty much the only reason to go back to the moon. In the next hundred years, mars.

A lot of people said that something scared them in the moon in theirs missions, so this is the reason why they haven't done anything on the moon.

for me it makes sense, since the moon is a good place to build an observatory, but who knows

I always wanted to travel into space and something that seems like my dreams is on this video, scroll to 1:40 and 2:30 and you'll see what I mean



Edit: spelling

 

[Sterling]

it didn't start with the heavens it started with the big bang! cos of religion and their backward/close minded ways in the DARK ages all technology or inventing was forbidden and it's held mankind back hundreds of years!

And where did the Big Bang happen? C'mon Mr. Science think really hard on that one.

Like I said, if religion began from looking at the heavens, it will end in the heavens. That's dual meaning SON. I will have to admit to the close mindedness of past religion, but seriously what does religion do now to hold back space exploration? Nothing. In fact, religion is actually looking past the stars for conformation of God, or what ever people believe in.

So your argument holds no dark matter.