[The
possibility of extraterrestrial life is a subject that has fascinated Hawking
very much and on and off he speculates its possibility in a vigorous way. In
fact he holds such a possibility quite firmly, perhaps more as a matter of a
scientist’s faith than anything based on observed or observable facts. In one
of his lectures he says: “Meeting
a more advanced civilisation, at our present stage, might be a bit like the
original inhabitants of
Stephen Hawking
If there is life elsewhere in the
universe, Professor Hawking asks why humanity has not stumbled onto some alien
broadcasts in space, maybe something like “alien quiz shows?”
His comments were part of a lecture
at
One option is that there likely is
no life elsewhere. Or maybe there is intelligent life elsewhere, but when it
gets smart enough to send signals into space, it also is smart enough to make
destructive nuclear weapons.
Professor Hawking said he prefers
the third option: “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.”
So should people worry about
aliens? Alien abduction claims come from “weirdos” and are unlikely. However,
because alien life might not have DNA like earthlings, he warned: “Watch out if
you would meet an alien. You could be infected with a disease with which you
have no resistance.”
The 66-year-old British
cosmologist, who suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, and must
speak through a mechanical device, believes “if the human race is to continue
for another million years, we will have to boldly go where no one has gone
before.”
Professor Hawking compared people
who do not want to spend money on human space exploration to those who opposed
the journey of Christopher Columbus in 1492. “The discovery of the
On the Net, Professor Hawking is at
http://www.hawking.org.uk/home/hindex.html
— AP