Hawking warns not to talk to aliens

[Silba]

THE aliens are out there and Earth had better watch out, at least according to Stephen Hawking. He has suggested that extraterrestrials are almost certain to exist — but that instead of seeking them out, humanity should be doing all it that can to avoid any contact.

 

The suggestions come in a new documentary series in which Hawking, one of the world’s leading scientists, will set out his latest thinking on some of the universe’s greatest mysteries.

 

Alien life, he will suggest, is almost certain to exist in many other parts of the universe: not just in planets, but perhaps in the centre of stars or even floating in interplanetary space.

 

Hawking’s logic on aliens is, for him, unusually simple. The universe, he points out, has 100 billion galaxies, each containing hundreds of millions of stars. In such a big place, Earth is unlikely to be the only planet where life has evolved.

“To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational,” he said. “The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like.”

 

The answer, he suggests, is that most of it will be the equivalent of microbes or simple animals — the sort of life that has dominated Earth for most of its history.

 

One scene in his documentary for the Discovery Channel shows herds of two-legged herbivores browsing on an alien cliff-face where they are picked off by flying, yellow lizard-like predators. Another shows glowing fluorescent aquatic animals forming vast shoals in the oceans thought to underlie the thick ice coating Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter.

 

Such scenes are speculative, but Hawking uses them to lead on to a serious point: that a few life forms could be intelligent and pose a threat. Hawking believes that contact with such a species could be devastating for humanity.

He suggests that aliens might simply raid Earth for its resources and then move on: “We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet. 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 colonise whatever planets they can reach.”

 

He concludes that trying to make contact with alien races is “a little too risky”. He said: “If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.”

 

The completion of the documentary marks a triumph for Hawking, now 68, who is paralysed by motor neurone disease and has very limited powers of communication. The project took him and his producers three years, during which he insisted on rewriting large chunks of the script and checking the filming.

 

John Smithson, executive producer for Discovery, said: “He wanted to make a programme that was entertaining for a general audience as well as scientific and that’s a tough job, given the complexity of the ideas involved.”

Hawking has suggested the possibility of alien life before but his views have been clarified by a series of scientific breakthroughs, such as the discovery, since 1995, of more than 450 planets orbiting distant stars, showing that planets are a common phenomenon.

 

So far, all the new planets found have been far larger than Earth, but only because the telescopes used to detect them are not sensitive enough to detect Earth-sized bodies at such distances.

 

Another breakthrough is the discovery that life on Earth has proven able to colonise its most extreme environments. If life can survive and evolve there, scientists reason, then perhaps nowhere is out of bounds.

 

Hawking’s belief in aliens places him in good scientific company. In his recent Wonders of the Solar System BBC series, Professor Brian Cox backed the idea, too, suggesting Mars, Europa and Titan, a moon of Saturn, as likely places to look.

 

Similarly, Lord Rees, the astronomer royal, warned in a lecture earlier this year that aliens might prove to be beyond human understanding.

 

“I suspect there could be life and intelligence out there in forms we can’t conceive,” he said. “Just as a chimpanzee can’t understand quantum theory, it could be there are aspects of reality that are beyond the capacity of our brains.”

 

Heres where i got this

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/space/article7107207.ece

 

What yall think of this shit?

Makes sense to me

[Decyferon]

I think it would be very narrowminded if we believed that in the entire universe, we were the only intelligent life.

 

As for the comments about what if we make contact with Aliens, then yea I agree, if they are intelligent enough to cross glaxies etc then we wouldnt stand a chance if they were looking to colonise planets.

[Important]

i think we've got the whole concept of aliens wrong

[MAR]

Hawkins smokes mad bruntz.

[Mercer]

You ever seen that show star trek, them aliens are hot as fuck sometimes.

This fool is just jealous because he won't be able to smash like captain Kirk did that green bitch.

 

 

 

Seriously though,

No question life is present out there, no question somewhere there are intelligent beings amongst the billions or trillions of planets that could support life.

As far as avoiding contact, it's a little too late, we've been advertising our presence for over a century with radio/TV signals.

We've even sent signals on purpose just to initiate contact with other planets, resistance is futile.

[Cracked Ass]

Or have they already been here?

I liked that History Channel "Ancient Aliens" series.

Some of the speculation was a little over the top. But the Giza pyramid and Tiahuanaco site blew my mind when they looked at the quality (and difficulty level) of the stonework. Hundred-ton custom Lego blocks honed to 2/1000ths of an inch. That shit is fishy no matter how much credit you give to ancient civilizations.

[Lesbian Fisting]

Check out the supposed alien involvement in Sumeria. Ancient calculations that still hold true today as well as depictions of rocket ships and "visitors" in their written history.

[Spring Break '92]

Perhaps some beings that people have encountered via abduction are not extraterrestrials, but ultraterrestrials. Meaning, they exist in this planet maybe in a parallel dimension, or in our own. We do not operate on the level of consciousness required to be aware of said beings. Its almost certain that human consciousness only operates on certain planes and we are not aware of everything in our dimension. We can not even see the entire spectrum of light from a visual standpoint! That is not to mention that we can only hear within a spectrum of sound without the aid of technology. A monkey sees an airplane, and knows that he sees the airplane, but has not even a beginning of an idea as to the true nature of the airplane. This can be related to us whenever someone speaks of some type of alien encounter, or seeing a UFO. I think Hawking is right, it probably is not a good idea to make contact with a race of beings from beyond our world who are more advanced than us. To them our weapons are akin to a monkey smashing a rock over a crab or small animal, primitive.

[Mercer]

...

[TRANNYHANDJOBSONER]

Perhaps some beings that people have encountered via abduction are not extraterrestrials, but ultraterrestrials. Meaning, they exist in this planet maybe in a parallel dimension, or in our own. We do not operate on the level of consciousness required to be aware of said beings. Its almost certain that human consciousness only operates on certain planes and we are not aware of everything in our dimension. We can not even see the entire spectrum of light from a visual standpoint! That is not to mention that we can only hear within a spectrum of sound without the aid of technology. A monkey sees an airplane, and knows that he sees the airplane, but has not even a beginning of an idea as to the true nature of the airplane. This can be related to us whenever someone speaks of some type of alien encounter, or seeing a UFO. I think Hawking is right, it probably is not a good idea to make contact with a race of beings from beyond our world who are more advanced than us. To them our weapons are akin to a monkey smashing a rock over a crab or small animal, primitive.

 

 

 

id like to see an alien dodge a 50cal or a ac130

 

i dont care how advanced your civilization is that shit is brutal

[christo-f]

Ahh, what does he know, they guy's a dumb ass...

[nsmbfan]

CAN WE STILL WAVE AT THEM WHEN THEY LAND?

[R@ndomH3ro]

Fuck alien lizards

[Stotter]

Hawking must be trippin' when he talks about this stuff.

 

I do believe there are other life forms. I just don't think we'll ever find them because scientists are too narrow-minded. Whenever I watch something on TV about other life forms and such. I always hear scientist talking about earth like planets. Thats what makes me mad. It's like not everything has to be like earth. Not everything needs oxygen and water to survive. Like even on our planet, there are things that can survive off things humans can't. Example. Cockroaches can survive large amounts of nuclear radiation. Although a normal human would fry instantly. What makes us think that other beings can't survive of that principle? For all we know there could be life forms on another planets where water to them is equivalent to lead to us. I feel that if scientists expand their horizons more we may become closer to discovering extraterrestrial life.

 

It would be cool to talk to an alien though.

[Mercer]

You seem much more qualified to develop theories in this field than a real scientist, you should look into it.

[Spitfire15]

Water is needed to form life.

[lord_casek]

Water is needed to form life.

 

 

Not necessarily. Who knows what the universe holds? Only time and crossed fingers that we aren't wiped out by a large space rock, our own weapons, or alien lizards will tell.

[Decyferon]

Water is needed to form life.

 

Water isn't the only thing needed for life, I watched the documentary the thread is about and it discusses the alternative ways that life could form, by replacing the water with say nitrogen that turns into a liquid in very cold temperatures you could, in theory, have nitrogen based life forms that exist in remarkably cold planets. The same could be said of different kinds of life such as gas based life forms that use electricity from the huge gas/electrical storms that surround many gas planets.

[christo-f]

Yes, scientists are narow minded, I mean what have they ever discovered, invented and answered before?

 

 

If you want real answers, consult the internet, it knows EVERYTHING.

[lord_casek]

Water isn't the only thing needed for life, I watched the documentary the thread is about and it discusses the alternative ways that life could form, by replacing the water with say nitrogen that turns into a liquid in very cold temperatures you could, in theory, have nitrogen based life forms that exist in remarkably cold planets. The same could be said of different kinds of life such as gas based life forms that use electricity from the huge gas/electrical storms that surround many gas planets.

 

 

Indeed. Or methane based sea creatures, seeing as how there are many planets and moons with large methane oceans.

 

There are literally tons of ways that life could form. Just because water is a necessary (and not always) on this planet doesn't mean it works that way throughout the universe.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothetical_types_of_biochemistry

 

 

http://www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center/cosmic_evolution/docs/text/text_future_5.html

 

Stephen Hawking on the Possibility of Non-Carbon-Based Extraterrestrial Life

 

[Stotter]

Thats what I was pretty much trying to say.

[iloveboxcars]

Even if our weapons technology is comparatively primitive to the alien technology, it is entirely - i would go as far as to say extremely- possible that they have never seen anything like it. Which gives us a slight advantage for a bit as they learn how to circumvent our weapons and protection.

Not only that, but who says the weapons they have are even harmful to us? Just like if they were jello creatures that re-generated no matter how many holes we put in them, we might be completely immune to the weapons they have developed.

 

I think avoiding aliens is a silly idea, even if they are hostile. I am pretty unhappy with The Hawk for suggesting it is in our best interest not to explore life on other planets.

[russell jones]

Check out the supposed alien involvement in Sumeria. Ancient calculations that still hold true today as well as depictions of rocket ships and "visitors" in their written history.

 

Any sources for this?

[El Mamerro]

Even if our weapons technology is comparatively primitive to the alien technology, it is entirely - i would go as far as to say extremely- possible that they have never seen anything like it. Which gives us a slight advantage for a bit as they learn how to circumvent our weapons and protection.

Not only that, but who says the weapons they have are even harmful to us? Just like if they were jello creatures that re-generated no matter how many holes we put in them, we might be completely immune to the weapons they have developed.

 

I think avoiding aliens is a silly idea, even if they are hostile. I am pretty unhappy with The Hawk for suggesting it is in our best interest not to explore life on other planets.

 

 

Any alien species that has mastered interstellar travel will have a far superior understanding of physics (which are universal) than we currently have... projectile and energy-based weapons will be extremely easy to understand for them, since they are based on very fundamental principles of physics.

[n8galicia]

Hawking also warns that electronically wheelchairs can go fast

[iloveboxcars]

understanding and defending against something are completely different though. The resources they have available and what they have encountered may be very different from what we have/have harnessed. I am not only speaking of what we have right now, but what we will have when contact is made, which probably wont be within our lifetimes or soon after we expire.

[Cracked Ass]

Intellectual superiority will obviously prevail. If they have mastered interstellar travel they will be way ahead of our weapon systems, and the tactics for overcoming them. You may be picturing a ship landing, little green men stepping out with ray guns, and like the well-trained assassin you are you pick them off with your .90-caliber gun before they see you. In real life, opponents with intellectual superiority, even if they would be hurt by bullets, will control how the interaction even takes place. You'll be manning your machine gun, wearing a gas mask, and you won't see or hear a thing but suddenly the air will turn gray and you'll be like "WTF?" and then you lose consciousness. Game over.

[iloveboxcars]

Heh. I'm not picturing anything other than endless possibilities. Maybe I'm not being articulate enough to get my point across.

 

All I'm saying is we don't know. Well, I'm saying a little more than that, but the general idea is, we don't know. And unless this alien race has been doing some sleeper cell program on this planet, they probably wont know too much about us beforehand as well. Which could mean they have no idea what we live off of so turning the air gray might not even be something that is considered. Or they try it and it does absolutely nothing to us. Or it makes us live for an extra 600 years. Or it has some weird reaction with hydrogen and every life form on this planet dies within minutes.

 

I see what you guys are saying, and them being able to obliterate us with a reasonable amount of ease is the most probable outcome, but seriously, there are endless possibilities of what these things will even be made out of.

 

 

 

I haven't watched the documentary so all of my info on this is going to be based off of what is described in the article.

 

He doesn't seem to offer up a reason to not be space explorers, just a reason to not meet with others who have learned to traverse space, but he also says us no longer going to the moon is a good thing, which I think is hogwash. In order to build our technologies we have to take baby steps. I think we should keep going to the moon until it is an every week or every day thing. Then we should jump to another planet and start working on technology to get to that planet. We should get to a point where we can use the same ship several times over to make the trip at least.

[MAR]

"They're made out of meat."

 

"Meat?"

 

"Meat. They're made out of meat."

 

"Meat?"

 

"There's no doubt about it. We picked several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, probed them all the through. They're completely meat."

 

"That's impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars."

 

"They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don't come from them. The signals come from machines."

 

"So who made the machines? That's who we want to contact."

 

"They made the machines. That's what I'm trying to tell you. Meat made the machines."

 

"That's ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You're asking me to believe in sentient meat."

 

"I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. These creatures are the only sentient race in the sector and they're made out of meat."

 

"Maybe they're like the orfolei. You know, a carbon-based intelligence that goes through a meat stage."

 

"Nope. They're born meat and they die meat. We studied them for several of their life spams, which didn't take too long. Do you have any idea the life spam of meat?"

 

"Spare me. Okay, maybe they're only part meat. You know, like the weddilei. A meat head with an electron plamsa brain inside."

 

"Nope. We thought of that, since they do have meat heads like the weddilei. But I told you, we probed them. They're meat all the way through."

 

"No brain?"

 

"Oh, there is a brain all right. It's just that the brain is made out of meat!"

 

"So... what does the thinking?"

 

"You're not understanding, are you? The brain does the thinking. The meat."

 

"Thinking meat! You're asking me to believe in thinking meat!"

 

"Yes, thinking meat! Conscious meat! Loving meat. Dreaming meat. The meat is the whole deal! Are you getting the picture?"

 

"Omigod. You're serious then. They're made out of meat."

 

"Finally. Yes, they are indeed made out meat. And they've been trying to get in touch with us for almost a hundred of their years."

 

"So what does the meat have in mind."

 

"First it wants to talk to us. Then I imagine it wants to explore the universe, contact other sentients, swap ideas and information. The usual."

 

"We're supposed to talk to meat?"

 

"That's the idea. That's the message they're sending out by radio. 'Hello. Anyone out there? Anyone home?' That sort of thing."

 

"They actually do talk, then. They use words, ideas, concepts?"

 

"Oh, yes. Except they do it with meat."

 

"I thought you just told me they used radio."

 

"They do, but what do you think is on the radio? Meat sounds. You know how when you slap or flap meat it makes a noise? They talk by flapping their meat at each other. They can even sing by squirting air through their meat."

 

"Omigod. Singing meat. This is altogether too much. So what do you advise?"

 

"Officially or unofficially?"

 

"Both."

 

"Officially, we are required to contact, welcome, and log in any and all sentient races or multibeings in the quadrant, without prejudice, fear, or favor. Unofficially, I advise that we erase the reconds and forget the whole thing."

 

"I was hoping you would say that."

 

"It seems harsh, but there is a limit. Do we really want to make contact with meat?"

 

"I agree one hundred percent. What's there to say?" `Hello, meat. How's it going?' But will this work? How many planets are we dealing with here?"

 

"Just one. They can travel to other planets in special meat containers, but they can't live on them. And being meat, they only travel through C-space. which limits them to the speed of light and makes the possibility of their ever making contact pretty slim. Infinitesimal, in fact."

 

"So we just pretend there's no one home in the universe."

 

"That's it."

 

"Cruel. But you said it yourself, who wants to meet meat? And the ones who have been aboard our vessels, the ones you have probed? You're sure they won't remember?"

 

"They'll be considered crackpots if they do. We went into their heads and smoothed out their meat so that we're just a dream to them."

 

"A dream to meat! How strangely appropiate, that we should be meat's dream."

 

"And we can mark this sector unoccupied."

 

"Good. Agreed, officially and unofficially. Case closed. Any others? Anyone interesting on that side of the galaxy?"

 

"Yes, a rather shy but sweet hydrogen core cluster intelligence in a class nine star in G445 zone. Was in contact two galactic rotation ago, wants to be friendly again."

 

"They always come around."

 

"And why not? Imagine how unbearably, how unutterably cold the universe would be if one were all alone."

[!@#$%]

it does seem hilariously naive to me, that we just beam messages out into space.

"haaaayyyy oooooovveeerrr heeeeerrrrreeeee!!!!!"

people are fucking stupid and stupidity will do us in.

hawking's announcement thing made me laugh

(and sheer mathmatical probability tells me there is obviously life out there. on other planets, other galaxies, other universes)