Stephen Hawking, that blindingly smart bloke who also had a cameo on The Simpsons that one time, has gone on the record to say that he reckons the human race should be looking at getting the hell outta dodge within the next 100 years.
Why? Ah, because we’re gonna go extinct if we don’t.
Hawking is urging the rest of humanity to put their efforts into interstellar colonisation, because we’re so thoroughly cocking it up on good old Spaceship Earth as to make it uninhabitable – and that’s only if we don’t create monstrous super-robots through our thirst for artificial intelligence first.
Addressing an audience at Oxford University, he said:
“We must continue to go into space for the future of humanity.“I don’t think we will survive another 1,000 [years] without escaping beyond our fragile planet.”
He also had some words of encouragement, which might ring a little hollow when you realise that the future population who’ll be colonising exoplanets definitely won’t include you:
“Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious.“However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. It matters that you don’t just give up.”
Meanwhile, Swinburne University astrophysicist Alan Duffy told The Project tonight that he reckons we’ll all be living in colonies on the moon any day now.
sure, Alan
Hawking will be travelling into space soon thanks to Richard Branson shouting him a spot on Virgin Galactic. After all this doomsday talk, we’re not so sure that he’s booked a return flight.
Source: News.com.au / The Project.
Image: Getty / Boston Globe.
