The same advice my momma gave me every morning before she sent me out in the world.
~rave! --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, "brent wodehouse" <brent_wodeho...@...> wrote: > > http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/space/article7107207.ece > > From The Sunday Times > > April 25, 2010 > > Don't talk to aliens, warns Stephen Hawking > > Jonathan Leake > > > 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." > > Stephen Hawking's Universe begins on the Discovery Channel on Sunday May 9 > at 9pm >
