Human survival depends on space exploration, says Stephen Hawking (Winnipeg Press)

[Drew Wilson]

TORONTO - Stephen Hawking says the colonization of outer space is key to the survival of humankind, predicting it will be difficult for the world's inhabitants "to avoid disaster in the next hundred years."

The renowned astrophysicist explores some of the most remarkable advancements in technology and health with the new U.K.-Canadian series "Brave New World With Stephen Hawking," debuting Saturday on Discovery World HD.

Before its premiere, he discussed the earth's most pressing concerns in an email interview with The Canadian Press from Cambridge, England, declaring space exploration to be humankind's most urgent mission.

"We are entering an increasingly dangerous period of our history," said Hawking, who has Lou Gehrig's disease, leaving him almost completely paralyzed and unable to speak.

"Our population and our use of the finite resources of planet Earth are growing exponentially, along with our technical ability to change the environment for good or ill. But our genetic code still carries the selfish and aggressive instincts that were of survival advantage in the past. It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand or million.

"Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain lurking on planet Earth, but to spread out into space."

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There are some things I don't agree with with this guy, but this is something I can definitely agree with. The faster we can get the hell off this rock, the better. If we manage to screw up the planet beyond repair, at least someone wil survive it. The only limitation for us, for the time being, is technology.

[mountain_rage]

Misspelling my city's name in a title, how dare you Drew, I fixed it, sorry for the abuse of mod abilities.

Its also common sense, if we further expand our reach and spread to other rocks, we ensure we survive even if the plannet does not.

[Drew Wilson]

Mispelling my city's name in a title, how dare you Drew

I hear Harper is trying to destroy Saskatchewan's economy with the whole 'selling off the potash corporation'

I may end up moving to either that province or Alberta someday. The economy here is completely dead.

[Krell]

Bullshit.

What Stephen fails to cite is that in the entire history of humanoid developement, never before now have we needed to spread our virus to other worlds to avoid causing our own extinction.

The cold harsh reality is that we need to address the sheer numbers of human existance and manage our resources in a responsible, sustainable manner.

Anyone know of an expedient way to make 6.5 BILLION people magically not exist?

12 Monkeys?

Anyone?


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[YWD67]

Global mass suicide could do it. Televise and stream nothing but reruns of Extreme Makeover for 24 hrs globally. I will bet at least three quarters of the worlds population will kill it's self within the first three hours of the showing.

[RACKnRAIL]

I thought that H1N1 was simply a trial experiment. I'm sure they're on it.

[YWD67]

Then there is always this Steven King option. Good movie by the way. The extended more indepth addition of the book is even better.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108941/

[mountain_rage]

Bullshit.

What Stephen fails to cite is that in the entire history of humanoid developement, never before now have we needed to spread our virus to other worlds to avoid causing our own extinction.

The cold harsh reality is that we need to address the sheer numbers of human existance and manage our resources in a responsible, sustainable manner.

Anyone know of an expedient way to make 6.5 BILLION people magically not exist?

12 Monkeys?

Anyone?


.

Totally agree with you, but sadly that problem will take care of itself eventually. My guess is we will see a famine before you know it. This will either come about because of genetically modified crops, lack of bio diversity in our food supply, a combination of both, a shortage of potash, or just all of the above. When that happens you can bet your ass countries are gonna start looking at who they can take over to feed their people. When that happens you can expect world war 3.

[RACKnRAIL]

There are several ways besides famine to decrease the populace. Like I mentioned, a super virus, much like the plague and/or influenza, which could easily be secretly manufactured and distributed in hundreds of different delivery methods. Your drinking water or flu shots just to name a couple. Since the threat of over population is definitely a real one, would you put it past governments to do such a thing?

[mountain_rage]

I would not expect government to poison their own population. They are more likely to use population control as a type of warfare against another country. Mainly with countries that are already pissed at each other. North and South Korean, China and just about all its bordering countries, Russia and Georgia, Middle eastern countries against each other, etc. But I still think the most likely scenario right now is a food supply issue, and it possibly triggering a war. I really do not think people are aware of just how fragile our food supply is right now. Just about all fish populations are over populated and being threatened to extinction. Most crops are now GM crops and are made up of about a dozen different genomes at best per crop type. We are relying heavily on potash to sustain high yields and if these scientists are right about global warming, which I think they are, our climate may soon not support our farming practices. As soon as a country with power goes hungry, you can bet your ass they will be looking at who they can take over to get food for thei people. The threat of nuclear winter is only a deterrent if there isn't a bigger threat to their population. We are a species of survival, if we can survive at the expense of others, we will make stupid decisions.

BTW hi krell

[RACKnRAIL]

Another thing that's not been mentioned here is nanotechnology. If misused or even accidently misused could potentially wipe out the human race.

We also have scientists playing around with large physics experiments that could potentially lead to disastrous results on mankind. There have been speculations that future high-energy particle accelerator experiments may cause a breakdown of a metastable vacuum state that our part of the cosmos might be in, converting it into a “true” vacuum of lower energy density. This would result in an expanding bubble of total destruction that would sweep through the galaxy and beyond at the speed of light, tearing all matter apart as it proceeds. Just sayin'

Also, despite the growing numbers in population, human fertility is on the decline. I would bet all the invisible wireless technology we're all using, which is becoming more powerful every day, is playing some kind of role in it, but that is a guess. Mother Nature could possible take care of herself in time, but possibly much too long a wait. However, fertility isn't the only arrow in her quiver. There's Global warming, super volcanos, solar flares, and earthquakes, etc...

Personally, I'm going with an antibiotic resistant pandemic wiping out the masses.

What a cheery conversation this is. LOL

[mountain_rage]

The crazy part is that our population increases at all. Damn you modern medical science.

http://www.momlogic.com/2008/06/when...rns_deadly.php
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/2526...ions-oneal.htm
http://www.darwinawards.com/

[RACKnRAIL]

lmao at the darwin awards link. There seems no shortage of Jerry Springer contestants either.

[Drew Wilson]

A huge source of population increase actually resides in the African continent. Since STD's are on the decline, survival rates have increased. Birth rate has barely changed which means a massive increase in global population. In Canada, despite our constant need to bring in doctors, engineers and scientists from other countries to fill the drivers seats in taxi cabs, Canada's population has remained stagnant.

[Krell]

I'm so tired of all those "save the children" campaigns. The last $#@! thing I want to do is help something that can possibly procreate in such resource deficit environments.

If I had it my way, Sally Struthers would be out of a job tomorrow.

Maybe the LHC will spin up a roving black hole that will move around the face of the earth like a cheap Sy-Fy channel movie, sucking up trash and spitting it in to the sun.


BLACK HOLE TORNADO
8:00pm Sy-FY
"A tragic experiment gone wrong spawns a black hole moving across the surface of earth devouring most of humanity and technology, save for a few that must find each other and work together to rebuild a new world"

Cast: Casper Van Dien, Jeff Fahey, Musetta Vander, Lance Henriksen, Tim Thomerson, Eric Roberts, Lorenzo Lamas, Deborah Gibson, Jaleel White, Bruce Boxleitner, Patrick Muldoon, Vanessa Williams, Victoria Pratt, Kristi Angus, Charlie O'Connell, Costas Mandylor, Charles Napier, Bruce Weitz
Uncredited: 7 billion



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