Stephen Hawking fears aliens and so should you!

[Forresto]

Well many of you have probably heard or read of this, but very recently the acclaimed British physicist Stephen Hawking stated to the public his views on Aliens. I'll let you read this article if you have'nt already but he basiclly says that he believes alien life to be mostly either microbes, animal life, and the intelligent ones to be scavengers. He also warns us that it would be extremely risky for us to contact another alin species as it could turn out to be hostile. That is just the basic view and I would suggest reading one of the articles.

msnbc.msn.com

Huffington Post.com

BBC News.co.uk

Recently on The Colbert Report. Stephen Colbert, a very popular political comedian here in the states, has shared a very hillarious view of the whole thing. Here's a link to the video which I would totally suggest watching!

Link

I somewhat agree with Stephen Hawking about his theories, but to be honest I find them a little to....narrow. He seems to limit it to aliens either being animals or highly advanced conquerors. Now I do agree that if we were invaded by aliens it would probably be very much like the conquistadors in South America or Chris Colombous discovering the new world. However I really doubt that all aliens that have reached a certain level of intelligence would be completely hostile. I think that he may be on to something but with everything it is theoretical.

Now what do you think?

[General Magma]

It has never been proved that they do exist, but who knows..

There's an endless amount of galaxies and thousands of planets very, very far from here.

It's not impossible that there are other species too, maybe it's just too far for us to discover them as of now.

I do not believe in them, though.

If there's no proof, then no belief.

~ General Magma

[Tohst]

I think his response was pretty tongue - in -cheek.

But lets take it as real. Read Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond and be very sad about our chances if aliens were anything at all like us. Even when we don't mean it to happen, the civilization with the advanced technology basically destroys the other civilization whether they show us as explorers, conquerors, or just to help.

Thats why those wonderful Vulcans don't let you touch a species until they develop warp drive.

Our best bet would be to become Pets (a la pretty daisy for Pyros) or maybe zoo animals while they rehabiitated our planet before releasing us back into the wild.

If some ideas around the origin of life are true and you need a giant moon like we have, life may be pretty scarce out there anyway, giving us a brief window to get out there and conquer before they come for us.

-Tohst

[alienwar9]

honestly, I find that it would be pretty unlikely that an alien race would be hostile. As Hawking mentioned in the Discovery channel series, if they advanced enough, they probably could have discovered nuclear energy and weapons. In this line of thought, if they were such a hostile race, would they not have fought between themselves to the point of extinction before they ever got so advanced in technology and so far into space?

If they did manage not to kill themselves, would they not need at least a minute amount of compassion? And if they have a bit of "conscience" or adversity towards ending life, I'd figure they would rather not want to destroy or extremely harm us. And in sort of the "live together, die alone" thought, logical reasoning would think that they could be better off working with us rather than destroying us for the planet or its resources.

If they would be hostile, I would at least think it would be more like The Day the Earth Stood Still (either one, lol) and that they want to preserve the planet and don't think we can change enough and we are too corrupt or something.

But once again, if they are so advanced as to travel such great distances and intelligent enough to see these things, could they not be intelligent enough to find a way to preserve both our race and our planet?

I'm a bit of an optimist, sure, but I think logically that they wouldn't be hostile. The only way would be if they are highly self preserving in thought, and somehow come to reason that killing each other is bad for them, but killing others is beneficial to them. Eh, I just don't see that happening.

Maybe something else I didn't think of?

Oh btw, if you haven't figured out, I definitely believe there are aliens out there. Like Hawking says, probability is they exist. The only thing I feel is that with space being so huge, the chances of us ever running into another intelligent life form is very slim. Maybe life, but not intelligent. It just takes too long to travel such distances and there are too many places to look.

That is where I think proof ends and personal belief can really start. I believe we will run into many intelligent life forms, just because of the universe's knack for creating rarity more often than rarity should exist. It makes fun of pessimistic statistics a bit

[Corvus]

The funny thing is, physicists like Hawking thinks that aliens must exist, while biologists are very doubtful.

Who's right? Well, phisicists and astronomers believe that, due to the sheer amount of planets out there, the odds are astronomical (pun intended) that there must be life somewhere.

Biologists, on the other hand, believe that the sheer odds of us being here in the first place are so massive, that we were a freak occurance.

Well, that's my view... which is no view at all. I'll wait and see.

[MetroiD]

Tin foils! Take out the tin foils!!!

In all seriousness though - Hawking is a brilliant man and anyone who doubts that should just read his Brief(er) History of Time - but this is one thing he can only make a wild guess about. Unlike physics where there are certain foundations on which to base further exploration, anything beyond this Earth of ours is 100% terra incognita, and that includes chemistry and biology outside the realms of what we live in, not to mention alien life forms, intellect or psychology. One thing I myself am sure about is that the thought of us being the only "intelligent" (whatever that means) life forms among billions and billions of stars is... rather egocentric.

[Palms]

Personally, I'm a Nondenominational-Christian and I believe God created life on only one planet. I respect scientists like hawkings but I Never take scientists theories as gospel. (Please don't make this into a religion vs atheism argument.)

Edited May 7, 2010 by Palms

[Forresto]

Tin foils! Take out the tin foils!!!

I was having a total "Signs" moment when creating this this topic

Personally, I'm a Christian and I believe God created life on only one planet. I respect scientists like hawkings but I Never take scientists theories as gospel. (Please don't make this into a religion vs atheism argument.)

Yes I agree! Let's please not make this into a relgious arguement. If you are going to express your religous views, please do so in a way that won't offend others. If your in doubt about it, leave it out

Anyways to get back on topic:

From a young age I have always believed in aliens. Everytime I looked to the skies when I was younger I have believed that there must be something out there. When I learned more about the galaxy as I grew up and learnt that there was several billion stars in it, then I said to myself "It's impossible for it not to". Well since I was eight I said something more along the lines of "daaang!" but my mind was more in the direction of the first one. I personally hope aliens exist and if they don't and all that incredibly gigantic space we call the universe is empty, then i'll be sorely depressed.

[Front]

There is absolutely every reason to believe that there are living life forms on other planets. I think science are a few years away from realizing that birth of life forms on a planet and consequent evolution is a very natural process. And there are several, if not to say and incredible amount of planets in our finite universe.

Distance and time is the thing that makes it highly unlikely if not impossible to have any form of two-directional communication between us and another far away planet.

.....

The aliens in SP III does make one doubt about the reasoning in the statements above, and be slightly filled with fear if not panic for a moment

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[Dunjohn]

"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 colonize whatever planets they can reach.” - Stephen Hawking

I wouldn't worry. As long as Bill Pullman is around to give rousing speeches, those aliens don't stand a chance.

[FinalFeature]

It would be strange to be the only planet with life on it. If there are aliens and are super advance they might not bother with a planet like this. The aliens might not even need the resources we require. If we do run into aliens hopefully they wont be klingons.

LegoGalactus

[legotrainfan]

I believe there must be life on other planets. I mean our universe is endless. Endless! There are so many planets out there that - and that's been said before - it'd really be very egocentric to assume that we are the only "intelligent" life forms in the whole universe. I put "intelligent" in quotation marks. Sometimes I doubt that humans are intelligent. Einstein said, "There are two things that are endless: the universe and human stupidity... but I'm not really sure about the former."

[simonjedi]

I, for one, welcome our new alien overlords

[VBBN]

Alright, I would like to share my opinions on this subject, as it is one i always find interesting. To begin, I am part catholic. I was confirmed to the catholic church a while ago, however im honestly not all that religious. Isimply think that its better to have done thay so if i meet a girl that wants to be married in a church, then no issue. However, I have very faint belief in God and the bible, so I would like to say that whatever views i express below are not conflicting with my religious beliefs.

Now, firstly of all, do I believe in aliens? Yes. I mean, there could be billions or trillions of planets out there, more than we have estimated. We know that our solar system is far from alone, as with our galaxy. Before, earth did not belong to humans, it belonged to many childrens favorite thing, Dinosaurs. Thats where you have to think. Dinosaurs werent human. So were they alien? Defibe alien. Life from another planet, yes? Well, 4.6 billion years ago, earth was very different. Before the meteor strike and such. Bacteria, for example, are organisms, the forst ones on earth. As far as we know, bacteria could have traveled down here in little spaceships before the meteor strike. And what about the meteor strike? A couple months ago scientists confirmed that a meteor 300 times the power of an atomic bomb struck earth. So if Dinosaurs came before that strike, they lived on the "first earth." we can consider them aliens, no? Now, humans, animals, and bacteria live here. What about in a couple thousand, million, billion, etc years? Will we still be here? Maybe. But then you look to evolution. Now, i am going tovkeep science versea religion to a minimum. But we have evidence that supports evolution. In religion, we have stories. Even if these stories are true, how do we know they are accurate? You dont have an answer. No one does. In that respect, we dont know how life oroginated. We know what it cMe from, but we dont know how those materials came together. But with proof of evolution, it is very possible that we could be swimming or flying mammals in thw future. Whales used to walk, they have leg bones. Snakes? They have feet bones. We could be "just another animal" in time"

Now, the question at hand here is alien hostility. Well, lets think, if we were some alien on another planet, wouldnt we be thinking the same thing? What if the alien race called humans were hostile? We are. Did you know that during the cold war, we had enough nukes to destroy the worl 300 times over? Wars happen even today. The fact that after hundreds of years, that we are still fighting, makes us just as hostile as other possible races. And how do we know alien lifeforce could even be capable of hostility? What if life on another planet is a bunch of talking soap bubbles? There is the chance of hostility, but in our solar system, our hostility is giant space meteors. And with all the wars, ourselves.

I have saod many thoughts so i hope you guys read over them and comment them. I said that last line in my last paragraph with a lot of emphasis in my mind. So whenever you here of alien hostility, know that it might be referring to us.

[Forresto]

I, for one, welcome our new alien overlords

I nearly fell off of my chair when I first read this.

*snip*

What you were saying about the dinosaurs and "old" earth is very interesting. I had never thought that after the meteor stuck the earth we live on is very new. Too be honest it makes a lot of sense since with both the extinction of the dinosaurs and the huge wastelands created by the meteor which would have caused a huge change in earth's evolution. If not for the meteor hitting when it did then we (mammals) may never have evolved any further then a small mouse like creature. If anything the original inhabitants of earth were the dinosaurs and we kind've took over.

Thank you very much for gettinng my mind rolling.

[MacK]

This is exactly why I have a flak gun stationed in my back yard.

You have to admit that if Earth was the only planet that had life on it that would be pretty depressing.

With that being said I've always believed in aliens and the super natural in general (UFOs especially). Right now aren't some scientists contemplating the possibility of life on Jupiter's moon Europa? Not little green men of course, but more deep sea type creatures that could be living under Europa's ice cover. Being that there are millions and billions of planets in the solar system there have to be more than just Earth that have life on them. Weather or not that these aliens would be hostile to us would be impossible to predict, but I think that they would probably view us in the way that we view ants.

Just to be on the safe side every country should be required to have a full nuclear arsenal.