Stephen Hawking on alien life

[5810Singer]

Kind of interesting:

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


Maybe he's been having a personal Star Trek retrospective....

 

[nasher168]

Parents: talk to your kids about aliens...
BEFORE SOMEONE ELSE DOES.

 

[Shaedys]

I think the whole effort of trying to communicate, even at light speed, is rather futile.
If we would make contact though that could end nastily though. In that sense he has a point.
I certainly want to watch this though.

 

[Nashy19]

I suppose it was something he wanted to say himself (I would in his position) but it's nothing new really.
Space-aliens probably exist and they may not be friendly - it doesn't take a genius to work that out.

Just like the THEORY of evolution, this is another assumption by Hawkings based on absolutely zero scientific evidence. But hey, it makes a buck of you suckers.

Lol.

 

[Shaedys]

I suppose it was something he wanted to say himself (I would in his position) but it's nothing new really.
Space-aliens probably exist and they may not be friendly - it doesn't take a genius to work that out.

Just like the THEORY of evolution, this is another assumption by Hawkings based on absolutely zero scientific evidence. But hey, it makes a buck of you suckers.

Lol.

Yeah.. I was reading the comments as well this one is better:

Jim Peplinski wrote:
In a Will Smith movie we fought the aliens and their advanced technology with crop dusters. I imagine we could employ similar tactics and easily defeat them again.

Although this one might be even better:

Leslie Baker wrote:
I registered with this site, made a sensible and acurate comment for this column, and it never got added. This is why I generally don't bother with this type of medium - people are here just to argue with each other. 'Aliens' have been on Earth for millennia. There are many false claims but a few genuine contactees. I reported one of the best with 43 years of well documented contacts, and much technical info given to us. Yes, they DO live on other planets in this system. No, light is not the ultimate velocity, 'thought' travels 4 million times faster than light. No, they do not need the same conditions as us to exist. Yes, the galaxy IS teeming with life, etc, etc ... very few people are serious investigators, most are just armchair debaters. Leslie Baker

(bold by me)

jim matvia wrote:
GOD NOT SCIENTISTS knows where life is and when it's started. The first thing scientists do is throw away the Bible because there is no mathematical formula for it's existence. Scientists are so smart their morons!!They stumble by a huge percentage on what their looking for by accident.

Jason Barnes wrote:
First of all I do not agree with Hawking on alot of issues. For the main I was not evolved from a monkey..I can from the image of God...If we evolved from monkeys why are there still monkeys. Another Aliens are not going to be the demize of the world. It says so in the Bible that God will be the one to destroy the earth for a second time.

Truth be told I'm not even sure this one is serious:

Richard Fontaine wrote:
I don't care what Professor Hawkins says about aliens, I still think that Arizona is right with the new law. You can't just let them keep pouring in and taking all the jobs.

jake ihsan wrote:
Michael Steiner,

The only way primitive alien life could come to this planet from billions of light years away is by traveling on a meteorite (their home?)

Richard Sauder wrote:
I am surprised that a great mind such as Stephen Hawking would imagine that Life has naturally evolved on other planets.
Certainly he knows the following is absolutely TRUE :
ALL LIFE IS BASED UPON CODE AND ALL CODES REQUIRE AN INTELLIGENT AUTHOR.
Conversely,
IF THERE IS NO INTELLIGENT AUTHOR, THERE CAN BE NO CODE AND WITHOUT CODE THERE CAN BE NO LIFE.
This whole notion of Life evolving from basic chemicals by natural processes and developing by random chance is as ignorant as the old alchemist's notion that there must be a recipe for gold and that it could somehow be cooked up from other cheaper chemicals.
There was no need to worry about that question then, and there is no need to worry about this question now because neither of these outcomes can possibly happen as imagined.
Why? Because it's just not done that way!

Yu Efo wrote:
If Hawking had done his homework and researched various military and NASA UFO cases, he would realize that the evidence is overwhelming that aliens have already found us and are here. The fact that they are here and haven't destroyed us refutes his pessimistic views--today, not some point in the distant future.

Hawking has made a crucial mistake--he has developed his theories on alien life through the erroneous assumption that UFOs are a figment of the imagination. As a scientist, he should know better than to proceed without considering all the facts.

-damnit he should have done his homework.

jake ihsan wrote:
Other life form will only exist in our Universe when life on Earth becomes extinct.

At page 23 so far, think I should stop.

Victor Hes wrote:
Iceland is nice this time of year.

Well, spitting through these comments for stupidity is fun, but also a little horrifying.

 

[Andiferous]

Well, the Pope is getting into the alien recruiting action early.

The Vatican's official newspaper has endorsed the possibility that the universe could contain intelligent life beyond Earth, while insisting that aliens would be "our brothers" and "children of God" as much as human beings are.

The Pope's astronomer, José Gabriel Funes, a Jesuit priest, told L'Osservatore Romano that there would be nothing surprising about the existence of intelligent extra-terrestrials.

"Just as there is a multiplicity of creatures on Earth, so there could be other beings created by God [beyond it]," he said. The interview suggests that the Church's hierarchy may be paving the way to showing that Pope Benedict XVI is more open to the ideas of modern science than he has previously seemed to be.

Pope Benedict has spoken in favour of "intelligent design" in the past and has damned evolutionary ideas that leave no room for God.

Fr Funes, in the interview, admits that, for him, evolution
is a given. He also said that he believed in the Big Bang theory as the most likely explanation for the origin of the universe, and that the Bible should not be held to account for its lack of scientific accuracy. "Fundamentally," he said, "the Bible is not a book of science... It's a love letter written by God to his people in the language of two or three thousand years ago... So one cannot ask the Bible for scientific responses."

The existence of alien beings would not create a problem for believers, he insisted, "because one cannot put limits on the creative freedom of God... They would be part of creation."

Pope Benedict has reminded believers that "Revelation teaches us that [man] was created in the image and likeness of God", and that "man is the only creature on Earth that God has wanted for his own sake".

 

[Shaedys]

Yes, must take this conclusion and seek evidence in the bible.

 

[Aught3]

Hang on, the Bible doesn't say anything about God creating planet X and populating it with other creatures. Where does the Vatican get this shit?

Actually, if it turned out that the aliens were, say, Hindus with the same god(s) and rituals, etc. That would be fairly strong evidence that Hinduism was on to something. However, there's no way to tell in advance which religion the aliens will agree with. Once again, the Catholic church is just making things up as it goes along.

 

[Case]

the Catholic church is just making things up as it goes along.

Christians rejoice, your favourite bestseller finally gets a sequel.

 

[tangoen]

I know everyone is really impressed on how smart hawkings is but the thing i can't stop coming back to is the fact this guy is a physicists. i'm not sure but wouldn't a biologist be more suited to guess if a certain planet could harbor complex life. The other problem i have is the comparison to columbus and the native americans. that is completely different.It was not two different species meeting it was the same species just one was an agricultural society and one was a hunter gatherer society. Who is to say that perhaps these aliens will be violent just because we are. oh and for people who don't believe the possibility just consider the fact that life has developed on every corner of this earth all it took was light and water and in some case it didn't even require light just any source of energy for example heat or radiation. but what do i know i never guest starred on futurama

 

[tangoen]

why would anyone bring the bible into discusion here it has no relevence or value.the bible it says Pi is exactly 3 so either god failed 3rd grade math or we're all not paying enough attention. oh and that antiquated book told me to burn a goat too to appease this might deity i think i'll stick with my common sense thank you i'm not afraid of the ghost stories

 

[borrofburi]

i'm not sure but wouldn't a biologist be more suited to guess if a certain planet could harbor complex life.

He's not talking about a specific planet and whether or not it has life, he's talking about how there are massive numbers of planets out there and it seems unlikely that life did not evolve on at least some of them. This is not an uncommon idea. Which, ironically, you get into at the end of your post. (err, note, I did not actually watch, this is just the impression I got)

The other problem i have is the comparison to columbus and the native americans. that is completely different.It was not two different species meeting it was the same species just one was an agricultural society and one was a hunter gatherer society.

And in this case it would be two species, one of which is still planet bound, and one of which has managed to technologically solved the extremely difficult problem of interstellar travel. The technology gap will be even greater.

Who is to say that perhaps these aliens will be violent just because we are.

No one, but it's a case of possible payout: if they are violent, and if they can get here, then they are vastly superior to us technologically, and that will easily be the end of us. Evolution being the brutal uncaring process that it is, seems unlikely to create a race of beings that purposefully go around the galaxy and help out all the newbies, thus it seems more likely that the creatures are either violent or neutral, and if they're violent we stand to lose everything. Thus it is rational to avoid letting them know we're here.

 

[Giliell]

Well, is it possible that there's life on other planets?

Yes.

Could that life be intelligent?

Yes.

Could they be more advanced than us?

Yes.

Now, but here are some arguments why I don't believe that it would be a Columbus-Native Americans sort of event.
We will all agree that we, in general, have advanced over time. If we find some formerly unknown indigenous tribe, which still happens once in a while, we don't behave like the Conquistadores anymore. We usually despise slavery.
And those progresses in behaviour have gone hand in hand with the progress in behaviour and human rights. Because slaves don't make good engineers. Feudalism doesn't work well if you have complex machinery to build. If we look at our planet, we can see that those countries that lack behind in human rights generally also lack behind in technology and economy (just leave aside for a moment the muslim nations swimming in oil, because they can simply buy whatever they want and need).

So, if I am to extraplorate from our planet and species to another one, I'd think that the more advanced they become, the more civilized they become, too (or they would have wiped themselves out before. I think our fate is not yet decided). So I'd say that if there are those super-technology aliens and they'd come here, I'd think that they'd rather be a Star Trek First Directive kind of people.

 

[MRaverz]

Before we start thinking about other life forms, we need to start respecting our own. D;

Also, we need a global community so that we can expand as 'Earth' rather than as India or China or UK etc.

 

[e2iPi]

The other problem i have is the comparison to columbus and the native americans. that is completely different.It was not two different species meeting it was the same species just one was an agricultural society and one was a hunter gatherer society.

So a better compairson would be the discovery of the island of Mauritius?

Just saying.

 

[tangoen]

No one, but it's a case of possible payout: if they are violent, and if they can get here, then they are vastly superior to us technologically, and that will easily be the end of us. Evolution being the brutal uncaring process that it is, seems unlikely to create a race of beings that purposefully go around the galaxy and help out all the newbies, thus it seems more likely that the creatures are either violent or neutral, and if they're violent we stand to lose everything. Thus it is rational to avoid letting them know we're here.

I agree with a lot of what you have to say i just would like to debate the other side. if it were up to me i wouldnt risk contact at all it would take a greater mind than my own to determine whats the best solution. I also think if any life form that has overcome the vastness of space and time would be able to become self sufficient.if all thats needed for life is energy and energy is infininte then why would anything need to come to our planet to destroy us. if you can figure out how to travel billions of miles then how come they couldn't harness natural energies to create whatever was needed for their survival.

 

[tangoen]

The other problem i have is the comparison to columbus and the native americans. that is completely different.It was not two different species meeting it was the same species just one was an agricultural society and one was a hunter gatherer society.

So a better compairson would be the discovery of the island of Mauritius?

Just saying.

That is hilarious you are so right. i never tried human but i hope we are not delicious ^_^

 

[nasher168]

We'd probably be poisonous to a non-earth species, never mind delicious... so we're safe there, I think. Hooray! :mrgreen:

 

[borrofburi]

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/04/hawkings_aliens.php

Curiously enough, if you want some good science fiction verging on fantasy that is loosely related to this topic, you should read Eric Nylund's "A Signal to Noise" and its sequel "A Signal Shattered".

 

[MRaverz]

We'd probably be poisonous to a non-earth species, never mind delicious... so we're safe there, I think. Hooray! :mrgreen:

Hunting for sport comes to mind. D;