Hawking: Aliens may pose risks to Earth Astrophysicist says extraterrestrials likely exist, but could be dangerous msnbc.com staff and news service reports updated 8:09 p.m. PT, Sun., April 25, 2010 LONDON - British physicist Stephen Hawking says aliens are out there, but it could be too dangerous for humans to interact with extraterrestrial life.
Hawking claims in a new documentary titled "Into the Universe With Stephen Hawking" that intelligent alien life forms almost certainly exist — but warns that communicating with them could be "too risky."
"We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet," Hawking said. "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 colonize whatever planets they can reach.”
The 68-year-old scientist said a visit by extraterrestrials to Earth might well be like Christopher Columbus arriving in the Americas, "which didn't turn out very well for the Native Americans."
He speculated that most extraterrestrial life would be similar to microbes, or small animals. Microbial life might exist far beneath the Martian surface, where liquid water is thought to trickle through the rock. Marine creatures might also conceivably live in huge oceans of water beneath a miles-thick layer of ice on Europa, a moon of Jupiter.
But if a scientific census could be extended beyond our solar system to the rest of the Milky Way and beyond, the odds in favor of life's existence rise dramatically, Hawking said.
"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."
Hawking said an attack by interstellar predators is just one of the dismaying possibilities in the search for intelligent life beyond Earth. Another possibility is that intelligence itself might be inimical to life. Hawking pointed out that humanity has put itself on the edge of its own destruction by creating nuclear bombs and other weapons of mass destruction.
"If the same holds for intelligent aliens, then they might not last long," he said. "Perhaps they all blow themselves up soon after they discover that E=mc2. If civilizations take billions of years to evolve, only to vanish virtually overnight, then sadly we've next to no chance of hearing from them."
Hawking has become one of the world's best-known scientists — not just because of his theoretical work on cosmology and black holes, but also because he has achieved so much while coping with a paralyzing neural disease for most of his life. In recent years he has become a prominent advocate for space travel, contending that humans must journey into the heavens and going through zero-gravity training himself.
"Into the Universe With Stephen Hawking" had its television premiere in the United States on the Discovery Channel on Sunday, and is due for broadcast in Britain next month.
This report includes information from The Associated Press and msnbc.com
Posted by NaturalResources on :
Did you watch the Hawkings Special on Discovery last night Raybond?
Posted by glassman on :
heehhheee- he saw Star Trek tooo...
those Klingons are pretty tough..
Posted by raybond on :
Member Rated: posted 26-04-2010 16:28 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Did you watch the Hawkings Special on Discovery last night Raybond? ---------------------------------------------- No natural I wanted to but work got in the way . Can't wait till I retire so I can do some of the things I want to.
Posted by jordanreed on :
isnt retirement soon?
Posted by NaturalResources on :
quote:Originally posted by raybond: Member Rated: posted 26-04-2010 16:28 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Did you watch the Hawkings Special on Discovery last night Raybond? ---------------------------------------------- No natural I wanted to but work got in the way . Can't wait till I retire so I can do some of the things I want to.
It was part one and two in a four part miniseries, and the next two are on this Sunday at 9PM ET/PT. I plan on catching the last two, but I'm fortunate and don't have to work on Sundays. I'm sure with the headlines Hawking has made with his ideas on "space invaders", they will replay the series at some point, you can always watch it then.
I enjoyed hearing Hawking's ideas on subjects he doesn't normaly discuss, because it seems like a man as brilliant as him should have some great ideas about all sorts of things. ("Phenomenon" with John Travolta anyone?) It was also nice that they used a "voice over" for most of the narration, (no offense Steven Hawking).
Anyhow, that's my 2c NR.
Posted by CashCowMoo on :
Well if there is anything out there that powerful who knows......
IF there were such aliens all it would take is one virus to spread and wipe everyone out on earth. Some sort of alien bacteria.
Posted by NaturalResources on :
Perhaps CCM, assuming the alien race and humans were similar enough biologically to transmit diseases across species. (For example, intelligent life out there could be Nitrogen based instead of Carbon based.)
If they are similar to us, then maybe that would be evidence that aliens have not made it to Earth yet, otherwise we might likely all be dead already.
I watched a good special on the History Channel a few nights back on the influence of European immigration to the "New World" and how the spread of European diseases decimated huge portions of the Native Americans. Often times, large native populations suffered from the diseases long before they had ever seen, or even heard of the early Europeans who brought the diseases with them.
Honestly though, it's all just speculation until there is some kind of concrete evidence that aliens do exist. Sure, as Hawking said in his special, "mathmatically, aliens likely exist", but a lot of things can be proven "in theory".
Personally? I agree with Hawkings. Mathmatically they exist, but I'm a hold out on saying they exist for sure until I see the ship land and some aliens come walking out with my own two eyes. Call me a skeptic.
NR.
Posted by glassman on :
6000 BC cave painting/drawing
here's another from later in Italy:
they are all over the world, all you have to do is look...
if they were out to get us? we'd be got..
i think they are waiting for us to behave with some real discipline...
that ain't gonna be me Posted by glassman on :
look carefully at the Hopi Kachinas.... they look like they are in suits too...
then there's the Dogon tribe in Africa who knew about astronomical facts they "should not" know....
Certain researchers investigating the Dogon have reported that they seem to possess advanced astronomical knowledge, the nature and source of which has subsequently become embroiled in controversy. From 1931 to 1956 the French anthropologist Marcel Griaule studied the Dogon. This included field missions ranging from several days to two months in 1931, 1935, 1937 and 1938[16] and then annually from 1946 until 1956.[17] In late 1946 Griaule spent a consecutive thirty-three days in conversations with the Dogon wiseman Ogotemmęli, the source of much of Griaule and Dieterlen's future publications.[18] They reported that the Dogon believe that the brightest star in the sky, Sirius (sigi tolo or 'star of the Sigui'[19]), has two companion stars, pō tolo (the Digitaria star), and ęmmę ya tolo, (the female Sorghum star), respectively the first and second companions of Sirius A.[20] Sirius, in the Dogon system, formed one of the foci for the orbit of a tiny star, the companionate Digitaria star. When Digitaria is closest to Sirius, that star brightens: when it is farthest from Sirius, it gives off a twinkling effect that suggests to the observer several stars. The orbit cycle takes 60 years. [21]They also claimed that the Dogon appeared to know of the rings of Saturn, and the moons of Jupiter.[22]
there's a lot more to study about them if if you are interested start a teh wiki site
to me? it's no big deal, they'll deal with us when they and we are ready and they could have taken us any time and didn't...
Posted by glassman on :
this is a preColumbian artifact was found in central america and is dated 500-800 BC
this was found in an egyptian tomb in 1898 befoer we invented flight
Posted by glassman on :
the one hting that drives anybody interested in htis absolutley nuts is the maps by Piri Reis who drew maps of Antarctica withno ice... we couldn't do that until 30 years after the maps were rediscovered, and they were drawn in the 1400's...
the Navy was finally able to use "ground penetrating radar" to map the land under the ice of Antarctica in the late 50's
Posted by NaturalResources on :
I've seen similar pictographs before and read a bit about the Dogon tribe and I'm not convinced there is anything there that really proves space aliens are among us. Stars can vary in brightness and the rings of Saturn can occult stars, revealing it's existance to someone viewing it with the naked eye.
The Piri Reis map drive me nuts, (you should know I'm a historic map fanatic), I have no idea how the land under Antarctica could have been mapped in the 16th century, but as I said, I'm a skeptic so I still think both it and the egyptian airplane could probably be explained without involving aliens.
That said, I don't dismiss the idea that there are aliens among us Glass, I just haven't seen anything that seriously convinces me they are, although I have met a few people I thought would make good canidates. Also, I agree that if they were here, they wouldn't be so quick to say hello. After all, we can't even get over the fact that some humans have a different skin color than others.
NR.
Posted by T e x on :
Be Impeccable with your Word: Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the Word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your Word in the direction of truth and love.
[Toltec stuff...]
Posted by glassman on :
well NR, being skeptical is healthy IMO, we can't overlook how imaginative people are, and we didn't suddenly acquire an imagination when we began farming.
replace alien with god or a god's name as you read greek mythology- Hercules was was half and half...
the most interesting thing about the greek gods who actually lived on a mountaintop, instead of in the sky, was their lack of real wisdom, they played games and acted like brats.
i suppose maybe it's the one god theme that brings Wisdom into focus since He has no competition?
Posted by NaturalResources on :
we didn't suddenly acquire an imagination when we began farming
True, but the change from hunting and gathering to farming and organized society would most certianly led to more free time to think about things you wouldn't have had time to think about before.
replace alien with god or a god's name as you read greek mythology- Hercules was was half and half...
the most interesting thing about the greek gods who actually lived on a mountaintop, instead of in the sky, was their lack of real wisdom, they played games and acted like brats.
Yeah, I see what you mean. Even the Bible can be read in that context and seems to make sense. IMO, anyone who saw an alien before flight or space travel was invented might consider them a "God". Have you ever read the book of Ezekiel? The description of the Cherubim he witnesses is very similar to a UFO or airplane.
i suppose maybe it's the one god theme that brings Wisdom into focus since He has no competition?
I dunno if I agree with that. Personally, I always considered "free will" competition to God.
BTW, I ran across this last night, and wanted to post it today. I don't know how legitimate the "American Chronicle" is as far as a news source but here is something to chew on.
Jeff Bridges in "Starman" anyone?
Posted by glassman on :
from your article? they mention Eridanus (constellation) Mythology
It is connected to the myth of Phaëton, who took over the reins of his father Helios' sky chariot (i.e., the Sun), but didn't have the strength to control it and so veered wildly in different directions, scorching both earth and heaven. Zeus intervened by striking Phaëton dead with a thunderbolt and casting him to earth. The constellation was supposed to be the path Phaëton drove along; in later times, it was considered a path of souls. Since Eridanos was also a Greek name for the Po (Latin Padus), in which the burning body of Phaëton is said by Ovid to have extinguished, the mythic geography of the celestial and earthly Eridanus is complex.[5]
Supervoid
The Eridanus Supervoid is the largest supervoid (an area of the universe devoid of galaxies) discovered as of 2007[update]. At a diameter of about one billion light years it is much larger than any other known void and represents a challenge for current theories of the origins of the universe to explain. It was discovered by linking a "cold spot" in the cosmic microwave background to an absence of radio galaxies in data of the US National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Very Large Array Sky Survey.[1] There are also suggestions that the void may be due to quantum entanglement between our universe and a parallel universe.[2] [3] [4]
from wiki--Eridanus-- the link is blocked to parentheses
Posted by glassman on :
i have had people swear to me that they have seen UFO's the caouldn't be anythng we made, one person became very angry when i "tested" him with humour accusing him of messing with me...
the only time i ever saw anything odd? i had just driven 16 hrs, and it was 4am and i was trying to go to sleep at 12,000 feet or so.. whatever the heights are Telluride, they are way up there and the air is thinner than normal, so i just can't say i was really seeing anything for sure... lights where they should not be and not moving, then just disappearing.
Posted by CashCowMoo on :
Then it must have been abduction that got jimmy hoffa
Posted by T e x on :
I saw a UFO.
Another journalist was with me, and she saw it, too.
She was the "slot" editor at The Dallas Morning News. Look that up, "slot".
At any rate, we saw what we saw: too fast, too quick to change direction, to be explained by then-current "rules".
But, we were right near a naval air station...
Have no doubt it was an aircraft
Posted by Relentless. on :
Brother and I saw one walking home from the movies in Niagara Falls one night. Went from horizon to horizon in ten seconds with a few right angle non-velocity reducing turns... Wasn't made by us...
Posted by raybond on :
I would love to see a ufo never have seen one. Maybe some day.
Posted by buckstalker on :
quote:Originally posted by CashCowMoo: Then it must have been abduction that got jimmy hoffa
No...Hoffa is more than likely, part of the foundation of the Silverdome...
Posted by T e x on :
quote:Originally posted by Relentless.: Brother and I saw one walking home from the movies in Niagara Falls one night. Went from horizon to horizon in ten seconds with a few right angle non-velocity reducing turns... Wasn't made by us...
few right angle non-velocity reducing turns.
yup, that's what really got me/us.
The thing that attracted our attention was simple velocity. It *did* have flashing lights (which suggests Earth technology, lol), and that's how we reacted: the time between the flashes, going across the windshield. MUCH much quicker/faster than any conventional aircraft.
Then--pow/zoom--the lights were going 90 degrees away, toward the western night horizon, and quickly disappeared.
Do I think it was "alien spaceships"? No.
But it was definitely no aircraft that's known to this day.
lol, c'mon...we're in Ft. Worth. Google FW and aviation history. We're used to weird chit...
Posted by CashCowMoo on :
So some of you are sure you have seen a UFO? John McCain says he has seen one too!
Posted by T e x on :
We've sunrises and sunsets, too.
Posted by CashCowMoo on :
Has anyone seen a sasquatch?
Posted by logandtimber on :
I think the aliens live under water. Think about it. 2/3rds of the world covered in water. And people think they know whats under there??? we dont know CHIZ! Its the truth. We act like we know. But a 20 year navy vet. Deep sea diver specialist. Worked on oil rigs fixing and repairing after he retired fromnavy. He said at 500 feet down. Its a whole new world. They would live in a pod,he said. And they brought twice as many eople asthey needed... Why? He said every once in a while, there would be a tug on the cable. And pull back a frayed end,where adiverused to be... He said they would lose a guy to that every once in a while. But they would lose alot moe guys to FREAKING OUT! He said they would strap them down til they got to the surface... 1 month trip... He said they breathed mixed gas. fixed as they went down. Checked as they came back up. One day he was working. All you can see is what your head lamp shines on. He looked accross at his partner. and his eyes were as big as silver dollars. He said he turned around to see what was going to eat him.VERY SLOWLY LOL And all he seen was lips and teeth. No whale,or shark. FISH. So big. All it would have to do is open its mouth,and inhale him. HUGE!... He said thats 500 feet. The surface... The ocean is 25,000+ feet in places. THAT WE KNOW!
All the alien sightings. They are here and around us. And they use large bodies of water. Lake Superior... Bayfield wisconsin has applefest. like 200,000 people gather to a town of under 1000 population. Which is weird. My friend videotaped "glowing orbs" A big one.And later little ones,that seem to be reporting back to the big one. I seen the video. With my buddy in the back ground. WOW< THATS AMAZING< LOOK < ITS MOVING< WOW> THERES ANOTHER ONE!!! was real time. a person I know personally... Oh,and you couldnt see themwith the naked eye. Only through a lense. Its called pure light. Rainbows are pure light. And you can see a spectrum of pure color when rain (lenses) passes through it the right way... Same glowing orbs that were video taped by sandiego. The border patrol's night vision video. On Dan Akroids video about UFO's. If I was an alien.I would be scoping out the human gathering too......
Posted by glassman on :
aliens in the deep? reasonable.
Posted by logandtimber on :
i dont think they are dangerous. the universe is ruled by truth. And if they wanted us dead, we'd already be dead. IMHO.
Posted by The Bigfoot on :
quote:Originally posted by CashCowMoo: Has anyone seen a sasquatch?
Heh. You askin me?? Posted by SeekingFreedom on :
I find it hilarious that religious folk and the ufo believers are always at each others throats...both calling the other deluded.
They have so much in common in so many ways.
(shrug)
Posted by T e x on :
quote:Originally posted by SeekingFreedom: I find it hilarious that religious folk and the ufo believers are always at each others throats...both calling the other deluded.
They have so much in common in so many ways.
(shrug)
lol, I know peeps who are both!
figger that chit
Posted by CashCowMoo on :
Nanu...NANU! Mork from Ork!
Not long after Mork we were visited by ALF!
Posted by T e x on :
earth humor...
Posted by NaturalResources on :
Truth is, they are just here because Earth girls are easy... If this saucer is rockin...
Seriously though, I wanna see a UFO, but I better see aliens inside it because a light that moves across the sky in a way that doesn't seem to be the way people normaly think aircraft move isn't good enough evidence for my skeptical mind.
Stealth Fighters were first built in the early 80's but the public wasn't aware of them until the Gulf War in the early 90's. I agree with Tex. The Gov has aircraft they are not telling us about.
Posted by glassman on :
i agree about aircraft we don't know about, however, i have a problem with them having aircraft that are able to defy what we perceive as unbreakable laws of physics.
to point? changing direction immediately seems to defy the law of conservation of energy. the energy involved in straight line flight cannot be simply redirected, we have to use some other energy to to change direction.
"breaking" this kind of fundamental law would be hard to keep under wraps. IMO
Posted by NaturalResources on :
I see your point Glass, but I would have to witness this "instant change in direction" for myself. I don't know what you experienced, but I do know that most people have very poor vertical perception, especially at night. What may seem like an instant change in direction could simply be the result of thrust vectoring viewed from far enough away that it only seems instantaneous.
This is nothing more than the light of Venus reflecting off of Swamp Gas; look over here please.
::FLASH::
Posted by glassman on :
i never saw anything that changed direction like i described, just listening to the stories...
what i have seen were lights not moving and then disappearing... coulda been fatigue and altitude...
i would like to see one too.
Posted by T e x on :
to point? changing direction immediately seems to defy the law of conservation of energy.
That's what i saw...right angles, basically. Night sky, so you can't say what curve the "first-base runner" made outside the baseline. But from home plate to first base was too fast to be explained by any known "jet," and then the "phase-shift" to second base was damn near a right angle.
I don't care if there's aliens or not; there's way more than enough wonders for me. I don't need "aliens-breeded-with-Egyptians" to keep me interested: No dog in that hunt, but I know what I saw--and whatever it was, it was definitely an "unknown object."
And, it was flying... thus, I feel confident in the term, UFO.
Posted by T e x on :
Look, put it this way.
Sometimes I sit at intersections in heavily developed urban communities, where most drivers are zoned out, zombied up...and mostly pissed off.
Where do you think their eyes are focused?
I look up and look around and see ducks, geese, hawks, even hummingbirds and woodpeckers. Sometimes I see stuff so amazing (to me), I nearly jump outta the truck. For instance, I've seen hawks take rabbits (or moles or shrews, whatever) mere yards from the roadway--yet no other driver around me seems even the slightest bit interested.
I got a paisano (roadrunner) that comes up on my porch, lol. I'm willing to guess that my neighbors at the end of the block have never seen him.
Posted by CashCowMoo on :
You have jack rabbits down there tex?
Posted by T e x on :
Wow there are all sorts of cool animals in Texas! Ocelots, Red Wolves, Bears, Mountain Lions, Jaquarundi, Coati, and the list goes on.
Posted by T e x on :
yup, basically...ten different eco-regions
Posted by CashCowMoo on :
Tex, what is it like living so close to the border of basically a corrupt third world country? The illegals have got to be all over Texas just as much as Arizona. Do you notice any impacts on your personal life because of it?
Posted by T e x on :
Sure, but only adversely so since about the past five years. Used to be, the "A-team" was here, with many excellent craftsmen and really hard workers. Most of the kids in my youth program had at least some family members undocumented, but they were a great bunch of kids: facile with both languages, able to take direction, quick learners, etc., etc. They were extremely disciplined, too--is a major reason we won so much. The sterotyped "lazy, ignorant" is simply a big, ol' hairy myth.
On the other hand, in the past years, the B- and even C-team has showed up. Makes a construction site unpleasant via rude, boorish behavior. Almost all the dents & dings on my truck are from this crowd. Plus, an already highly competitive market gets even more so. What's really bad is, it not only hurts wages but also consumers who don't know better: nobody really "wins."
All that being said, in many ways we Tejanos have more in common with each other than we do with peeps from other parts of the U.S. Our food, music, culture, work ethic are almost inextricably intertwined and have been for many generations now. There are some wonderful, hopeful aspects at play, too. For instance, no one can deny the lingering, pernicious racism in this country. Yet, in my neighborhood, I frequently see Mexicanos, blacks and anglos trading at stores that may be owned by Asians or Mid-Easterners. I open the door for them, they for me, and we speak to each other at least civilly, if not warmly. That's a vast improvement from the old days. For instance, I'm old enough to remember a neighborhood kid's flinging a small painted board into the back of a black man's horse-drawn wagon, pulled daily near our house for whatever work he was doing. What was painted was "KKK."
The kid (I knew him, and still do) didn't really understand what he was doing; he just figured it was a mean-funny prank. If I reminded him of that today, he would be mortified. Regardless, his subsequent repentance didn't do anything to lessen that working man's fear and concern for his children. How soon he realized that it was merely a child's prank, I have no way to assess.
That's a long way to get to my short answer. Yes, I don't like the current immigration policy, for a number of reasons. Foremost, it strains long-term, very pleasant bonds and causes hardships we shouldn't have to put up with.
PS: I only now re-read your original question. Must say, when I first saw the word "corrupt," I thought you were referring to the U.S.
[ May 05, 2010, 22:43: Message edited by: T e x ]
Posted by CashCowMoo on :
quote:Originally posted by T e x: Sure, but only adversely so since about the past five years. Used to be, the "A-team" was here, with many excellent craftsmen and really hard workers. Most of the kids in my youth program had at least some family members undocumented, but they were a great bunch of kids: facile with both languages, able to take direction, quick learners, etc., etc. They were extremely disciplined, too--is a major reason we won so much. The sterotyped "lazy, ignorant" is simply a big, ol' hairy myth.
On the other hand, in the past years, the B- and even C-team has showed up. Makes a construction site unpleasant via rude, boorish behavior. Almost all the dents & dings on my truck are from this crowd. Plus, an already highly competitive market gets even more so. What's really bad is, it not only hurts wages but also consumers who don't know better: nobody really "wins."
All that being said, in many ways we Tejanos have more in common with each other than we do with peeps from other parts of the U.S. Our food, music, culture, work ethic are almost inextricably intertwined and have been for many generations now. There are some wonderful, hopeful aspects at play, too. For instance, no one can deny the lingering, pernicious racism in this country. Yet, in my neighborhood, I frequently see Mexicanos, blacks and anglos trading at stores that may be owned by Asians or Mid-Easterners. I open the door for them, they for me, and we speak to each other at least civilly, if not warmly. That's a vast improvement from the old days. For instance, I'm old enough to remember a neighborhood kid's flinging a small painted board into the back of a black man's horse-drawn wagon, pulled daily near our house for whatever work he was doing. What was painted was "KKK."
The kid (I knew him, and still do) didn't really understand what he was doing; he just figured it was a mean-funny prank. If I reminded him of that today, he would be mortified. Regardless, his subsequent repentance didn't do anything to lessen that working man's fear and concern for his children. How soon he realized that it was merely a child's prank, I have no way to assess.
That's a long way to get to my short answer. Yes, I don't like the current immigration policy, for a number of reasons. Foremost, it strains long-term, very pleasant bonds and causes hardships we shouldn't have to put up with.
Interesting perspective
Posted by glassman on :
speaking animals taking others? i got to watch a bobcat take rabbits in the full winter moon over snowy plains. it was vivid bright black and white...
the other that i actually got some video of was a praying mantis that had (already) just caught a hummingbird in the cypress vine in my back yard. that one was disturbing and i wish i had my nikon for that cuz it would have made a good "art shot".
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