Hawking Predicts Unintelligent Life on Other Planets
When someone like Stephen Hawking predicts that there is unintelligent life on other planets, I’m left with a bit of a quandary. Is he referring relatively – ie, compared to him? – or is he speaking generally – ie, a planet full of dogs (I’m a cat person).
At an event marking the 50th anniversary of NASA on Monday, the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, answered the question, “Are we alone?”
His answer is short and simple; probably not!
The man who is literally my hero asked however why we hadn’t stumbled across any or all sorts of alien broadcasts in space, maybe something like “alien quiz shows?”
Hawking presented three options. One, being that there is no life out there, and two – somewhat pessimistically, but subsequently, a little too realistic – being that when intelligent life gets smart enough to send signals in to space, it is also busying itself with making nuclear bombs.
The man known not only for his sharp mind, but his sharp sense of humor, prefers option number three. “Primitive life is very common and intelligent life is fairly rare,” he then quickly added: “Some would say it has yet to occur on earth.”
Alien abductions, in Hawking’s view, are nothing more than claims made by “weirdos,” but we should be careful if we ever happen upon an alien. Because alien life may not have DNA like ours, Hawking warns “Watch out if you would meet an alien. You could be infected with a disease with which you have no resistance.”
That he is a genius has never been in question, but that he has overcome tremendous odds is often overlooked. Jibes at his mechanical voice are the predominant comment made throughout the general public (reason number 38 why I don’t like the general public).
Stephen Hawking suffers from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, sometimes called Lou Gehrig’s Disease, or Maladie de Charcot). It is a progressive, and usually fatal, ‘neurodegenerative disease caused by the degeneration of motor neurons, the nerve cells in the central nervous system that control voluntary muscle movement.’
Thus, when the 66-year-old British cosmologist notes that “if the human race is to continue for another million years, we will have to boldly go where no one has gone before,” you have to remember, this is not just another random; this guy has pushed through boundaries you’ve no idea. He rightfully compares those who don’t want to spend money on human exploration to those who opposed Christopher Columbus’ journey in 1942.
“The discovery of the New World made a profound difference to the old. Just think we wouldn’t have had a Big Mac or KFC.”
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
In a related story, both the Obama and the Clinton campaigns announced that their candidate was the only one who could relate to truly alien cultures, thus reaching out to intergalactic primary voters, and, of course, listeners of Air America, the “progressive” radio network.