Is famed cosmologist Stephen Hawking lost in space? He’s once again calling for human colonization of the universe as the only way to prevent extinction of our species.
He says it will take the development of “Star Trek”-like warp drives to get us there.
Right. And friendly Vulcans would help, too.
I’m all for space exploration. But his obsession with escaping Earth seems a bit out there and misdirected. Instead, why not use some of his brainpower to solve the more immediate problem of how to keep humans from destroying our home, the Earth, and ourselves through nuclear war or global warming?
True, space happens. A team of scientists claimed recently that the dinosaurs became extinct from the impact of a single huge asteroid 65 million years ago. (Ben Affleck apparently wasn’t there to divert it.)
But deep space travel and inhabitation are far into the future. The technology doesn’t exist, except on “Star Trek.” And I, for one, like my chances right here on Earth. It’s a beautiful place.
Beam me down, Stephen.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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27 Comments
The planet Earth will end some day. All planets do have a “Life expectance”. So if the species is to survive, it would make sense to expand to other planets. We already know that several hundred year in the future the Earth will be stuck by a asteroid that is large enough to wipe out the life on the planet. That is not science fiction but science fact.
If you factor in the threat of Global warming, un-abated pollution, over population, etc. It is not so far fetched that the species could end.
Dawg,Problem is, if we send ourselves across the galaxy, we’re going to have to send all the other species of plants and animals on which we knowingly or unknowingly depend. Our species isn’t an island! Besides, we may have to prove to the other residents of the universe that we can actually take care of our own planet before they’ll let us open a branch office.
Actually, it’s pretty much inevitable. Hawking’s not out there, Randy; he knows just how difficult the prospect is.
But point taken, Randy. Our continued existence is not guaranteed on ANY planet, let alone one which has be to forced to conform to our own conditions for life. Better also to consider a way of deflecting or neutraling NEOs.
Randy…
You are mischaracterizing what Hawking is saying. He certainly would admit that colonizing large numbers of people and other lifeforms off of the Earth is in the “far future”. However, extinction is inevitable, and extinction sooner is inevitable if human beings and the other creatures who live here with us all stay on the planet. And right now, we have the technology to at least work on this idea.
“Instead, why not use some of his brainpower to solve the more immediate problem of how to keep humans from destroying our home, the Earth, and ourselves through nuclear war or global warming?”
That’s bad logic. There is nothing to prevent us from working on both, and in fact we should do both. One effort would compliment the other, because the solutions for global warming, nuclear proliferation and the kind of disordered thinkings that make such proliferation such a terrifying threat, are all in part techological and scientific. We are extremely fortunate that Stephen Hawking has the intellectual strength to focus on anything other than staying alive.
“Problem is, if we send ourselves across the galaxy, we’re going to have to send all the other species of plants and animals on which we knowingly or unknowingly depend. Our species isn’t an island!”
Yes, that would be a part of it.
“Besides, we may have to prove to the other residents of the universe that we can actually take care of our own planet before they’ll let us open a branch office.”
More than likely we, and some of the other species who live with us, are the only game in town when it comes to intelligent life likely to be the parts of the universe that actually are aware of itself, at least in the “immediate” interstellar and galactic neighborhood (I reluctantly think that the “Rare Earth” hypothesis is likely to be true). In which case, if we really think to the future, moving our eggs (literally and figuratively) into more than one basket is a good, indeed imperative, idea.
“But his obsession with escaping Earth seems a bit out there and misdirected.”
Hey Randy,Do you think that maybe living in Stephen Hawking’s body has something to do with his obsession of escaping Earth? Think about it.
We will run out of energy sooner or later. We only have a finite amount of coal, oil, and gas. Which we will continue to use until it runs completely dry. ethonal from corn, Hydrogen, or even Nuclear isn’t going to replace it. Solar and wind can only do so much. But the carbon based fuels is what helps us create much of what we have in metals and materials.
We will have to radically change our life style or move to another planet for resources, if we want to continue our present standard of living.
Mind isn’t now, but probably 100 to 200 years away.
I know a few space cadets we could send on the first trip! : )
Randy you deeply disappoint me. You are USUALLY so forward thinking. But on this subject you jump at every chance to bash Hawking. This is not the first time. You clearly have a narrow minded bias against the space program. Sad.
Problems on Earth.Sure. But have you considered that as humans of all nations move into space that thinking will be deprovincialized? Have you considered that money spent on a rocket to space is money NOT spent on a missile or a bomb or a bunker?
Grow up Randy. Open your mind.
Agree with ksag.. JR and others. I think Hawkins would be the first to say we need to be cleaning up our own nest while exploring. In fact, much of what we know about earth’s environmental problems is directly due to the space program. Remote sensing has given us a wealth of information to work with. Add to that the fact that we now may have the capability to do something about a possible impact to prevent it. But, to do so, we must be out there.
Saving the human species just for the sake of saving the species is not a reason unto itself as far as I’m concerned. Like any other animal species, I expect humans to become extinct once our habitat has changed enough that we can no longer adapt to it. This isn’t something to be feared. Extinction is a natural process. That being said…
As (sometimes) thinking and reasoning creatures, we have the ability to manipulate our surroundings so as to make our species more successful. This ability sets us apart from other animal species, but so far as I can see we mostly use this ability to over-populate our environment and pre-maturely exhaust it’s resources. We in turn use the pressure created on us by resource depletion and our ever present quest for convenience to drive innovation. This inevitably leads to more resource depletion and the cycle continues.
Perhaps Hawking is right that humans will spread ourselves amongst the stars. We won’t do it for the grand goal of preserving the species, but for the more free-market reason of expanding our access to dwindling resources to power the all important economy. The preservation of the human species will most likely just be a by-product of that process. So I guess in a nutshell, the sooner we run out of something we need that we can find in space or on another planet, the sooner the colonization of space and the distribution of our “eggs” into other baskets will begin. Our progeny will just move from star system to star system using up resources until it is profitable to move on.
For all of this to get started, it must be profitable to conduct business off the planet. Right now, it is very expensive to lift payloads into orbit. The sooner we come up with a cheap way to lift payloads out of the Earth’s gravity well, the sooner resources can be mined from the solar system aleviating the pressure to get all of our materials from Mother Earth. An idea that has the potential to do just this is the space elevator concept. Check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator
Well Randy, you’re entitled to your opinion, but I’m glad to have someone thinking into the future.
Remember, if it weren’t for star trek, we wouldn’t have much of the technology of today.
It’s those far out forward thinkers that propel us. How crazy was it at the time- was it Davinci- who first thought of air travel for humans?
>>Remember, if it weren’t for star trek, we wouldn’t have much of the technology of today.<<
Oh Holy Jesus, that brought a chuckle to my morning.
Mom, did you really mean Star Trek, or the space program. While DaVinci drew plans for a helicopter, I submit humans have been interested in flight much longer than that, e.g., Icarus and Daedalus.
Ok maybe the word MUCH should have been replaced with SOME. But there have been ideals that came to life from star trek.
http://www.rotten.com/library/culture/star-trek/
And the most recent- teleportation!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3811785.stm
pol mom
However your post was meant it is spot on. Never you mind the braying from the peanut gallery.
There are LEGIONS of young folks who saw Star Trek and were inspired to careers in science and technology. Too, the devices in Star Trek were inspiration for many devices that have since been invented. What is a cell phone but the dream of a “communicator” and “tricorder”.
Since some of us have ventured into the world of science fiction, has anyone else noticed topics in the sci-fi writings read by me as a (much) younger person which, in various forms, have become realized? And, what about Robert Heinlein’s parallel universe books; it is my understanding that there is beginning to be a respectable hypothesis created in cosmology concerning the real probability of such.
A comment on Asimov, one of my favorites; years ago, when the elder was engaged in the KATM competitions (no longer around, as I understand), we learned of a book written by Dr. Asimov on Algebra. We were able to obtain a copy thereof from the Wichita Public Library (learned later that someone failed to return it when looking for it for our younger who did a year or two of KATM competition, too); was a small volume that brilliantly and simply “explained” algebraic concepts. Recommended it to a client whose daughter was struggling in Algebra, and was later informed the daughter found it invaluable. Long out of print, if one can find it, the book is well worth acquiring.
Well, Randy, that’s it. I just dropped my wrench and quit working on my spaceship.
Happy Orbits, Ed.We wondered where you have been!
Nanu nanu!
While we’re on the topic of “Star Trek Contributions to Modern Technology”…
How about those doors that open automatically? I see those in Dillons every day. Hot damn thank GOD for Star Trek!
“Remember, if it weren’t for star trek, we wouldn’t have much of the technology of today.”
pmom is correct. We wouldn’t have the Shatner game show that’s on now or we wouldn’t have Boston Legal. My apologies to pmom, I always thought you were a dope. I was wrong. You are a genius.
There was a young lady of Wight,Who traveled much faster than light,She departed one day,In a relative way,And arrived on the previous night.
Nut,Hate to tell you this, but automatic doors were around long before Star Trek.
I knew it! I knew I was conversing with a bunch of Trekkies! JR, “Deprovincialized thinking?” Yeah, and they won’t find some other excuse to kill and maim each other? Wasn’t there conflict on Star Trek? I only hope we run into Vulcans and ewoks, that would be uber cool. I hope we don’t run into Predators or Aliens though.
Has anyone been abducted by aliens here? Any Area 51 personnel on this Blog? Quick! If you’ll excuse me, Tom Cruise and I are going to blast off in our reconstructed alien spaceship (that looks exactly like a 747) and head for the next galaxy!
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
GAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAA!!!BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHAHAAAAA HEE HEE HAA HAA HAAAWWWW!!!
oKAY, Okay!Serious question here!:
WHO BELIEVES IN ALIENS?
Don’t be afraid… I just want to know which one of you believes in aliens. That’s all.
CX, I BELIEVE!Hell, I see them all the time.Drive by the Home Depot and you can see them too.
CruX,Doesn’t it seem absurd to assume that in all the vastness of the universe, life exists on only one tiny planet? Of course the rest of the universe is populated.