Slashdot has a post entitled Stephen Hawking Warns Against Confining Ourselves To Earth.
Stephen Hawking, one of the world’s greatest physicists and cosmologists, is once again warning his fellow humans that our extinction is on the horizon unless we figure out a way to live in space. Not known for conspiracy theories, Hawking’s rationale is that the Earth is far too delicate a planet to continue to withstand the barrage of human battering. ‘We must continue to go into space for humanity,’ Hawking said today, according to the Los Angeles Times. ‘We won’t survive another 1,000 years without escaping our fragile planet.'”
It’s not just the battering from humans. Space is, fortunately, very, very aptly named. But, still, there is a lot of stuff hurtling around out there. One bad collision and we, as a species, could pretty well be done. If we can figure out how to travel to and live on new planets, we can hedge our bets.
There’s a lot of work to be done to get to that level of technology; but at the moment it seems like we’re mostly killing time anyway. Might as well get started.
Hawkings is correct, extinction will happen for humans if humans remain on this planet. But extinction will likely happen in space. The likelihood of extinction, as you note, could happen in space.
I do not think that space travel effective enough to allow humans to reach another planet will be developed within the next few hundred years. Will that be enough time to eject humans on deep space travel to another habitable planet.
Humans have had a good run. They became the most dominant and invasive species on earth. Nothing lasts forever. And since extinction is the fate of most all species ever extant, what are the chances of humans beating these astronomical odds?
Who knows. The rate of technological advancement has been pretty stunning over the last century or two. Might as well give it a go. Try to colonize the moon, then Mars. That buys us some time until we figure out interstellar travel (if it’s possible).
Winter is coming. Are we going to be grashoppers or ants?
None, if everyone holds that belief, if an effort is not made. And it seems that most humans DO hold that belief. “Why worry about it until it happens?” Or even worse: “If something happens, we’ll be able to call on science (what’s that?) to get us out of it.”
Most of us with the wherewithal to do something appear to be too occupied with the here and now of profiteering to do so, but you’d think there’d be plenty of money to be bade in space. I doubt if we can count on our infighting government to get it together.
It’s a better use of our resources than a lot of things we do to each other – I like the idea of a new frontier.
Shades of the 1951 movie “When Worlds Collide”. Google that and take a look at the teaser (or is it “trailer”?) on YouTube. Wonder how Hawkins would design the lottery dealing with selecting who would go and who wouldn’t get to?
Good film. It did not go well for the financier.
And if you believe in infinity. And I do.
We’ll all do it someday regardless of what we do.
And if you believe in infinity. And I do.
We’ll all do it “again” someday regardless of what we do.
We do really need to do a cost-to-benefit analysis on this, though, whether we’d be doing it the first time or the umpteenth. As usual, going to Disneyland is still relatively cheap, fast, and Mickey Mouse remains a uinversally constant feature of the Universal Studio since the Big Bang. (The seventh one, unless you count the one that fizzled because of a Cosmic filibuster.)
Haven’t any of you been following the efforts by some Dutch group to “colonize” Mars in the next decade? The general concept isn’t too outrageous, but it’s a one way trip.
So Doug, does “winter is coming” make you a Game of Thrones fan? jharp might be a Wheel of Time fan…
I am a Game of Thrones fan. I tried Wheel of Time but bogged down around book 8 or so when it dawned on me that despite all the pages, nothing was happening.
So, which characters are your favorites? Mine are (in no particular order) Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen, Arya Stark, Tyrion Lannister, plus I’m feeling fairly sympathetic to Jaime Lannister at the moment. I think one can sum up GRRM’s work by saying that no deed goes unpunished.
Wheel of Time has now finished (by another author, as Robert Jordan died a few years back) at thirteen books. Yes, pretty wordy, but then I like that…lol. You could just get the e-reader versions which has a lot better cover art works. The author who finished is rather wordy too, but I like his unique work now too (Mistborn, The Stormlight Archive).
Arya, Tyrion and Jaime are probably my favorites. The fat kid whose name escapes me at the moment is also growing on me.
I might have to give Wheel of Time another chance. The length certainly doesn’t bother me — I initially picked it up because I was tired of figuring out what to read next; figuring Wheel of Time would keep me occupied for awhile. It did, but, like I said, I felt like the narrative arc just got bogged down.
Samwell Tarly. In the HBO series, he’s getting a little too emo for me.
As for WoT, the final book might well have been split again, had not the editor decided that enough was enough. rofl.