We gotta get out of this place. (“This place” being the Earth that we all know and love).
Stephen Hawking has come up with yet another doomsday prediction for humans, this time giving us just 100 years to skedaddle.
Professor Hawking’s apocalyptic predictions began in 2015, when he mentioned in a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) session that super intelligent AI might wipe us all out. He’s also cautioned against contacting aliens that might not be as friendly as we think.
In November last year, he gave us about 1,000 years to leave Earth. Then in March of this year, he hinted that a one-world government might be the answer to our myriad problems.
Now the respected physicist is warning that humanity needs to become a multi-planetary species within the next century in order to avoid extinction.
My question is this: What happened in the last in the last six months for him to shave 900 years off our time on Earth? It seems a little…rash.
OK, so the U.S. has its first orange president and North Korea’s Great Haircut is looking a little dangerous, but 900 years less? All due respect, but that’s a massive reduction in our life expectancy.
Professor Hawking made the prediction in a new documentary called Expedition New Earth, which the BBC will air on June 15.
In the documentary, Hawking claims that we need to leave Earth because of problems such as climate change, asteroid strikes, epidemics and overpopulation. He also travels the world with his former student Christopher Galfard and engineering professor Danielle George to find out how we could live in outer space.
In recent months, Mars has been dominating headlines as the most likely candidate for colonisation. The Red Planet has a lot going for it, including ice deposits, useful elements, the potential for renewable energy projects, an atmosphere (albeit thin), kinda tolerable temperatures, decent day length and manageable gravity.
On the minus side, it’s still damn far away and pretty hostile compared to the cushy comforts of Good Old Earth. It’s one thing to talk about leaving, but actually doing it will be very difficult and incredibly dangerous. Getting all of us off Earth within 100 years? No way.
Excluding a sudden meteor strike, to which there is no defence (except Bruce Willis), wouldn’t it be easier to just take better care of this planet?
Comments
Post a Comment