Stephen Hawking warns over making contact with aliens

[Blackleaf]

Professor Stephen Hawking has warned of the dangers of making contact with extraterrestrials.

The Cambridge University theoretical physicist, who has neuro-muscular dystrophy but is still the greatest mind in the world today, has said that intelligent life almost certainly exists elsewhere in the universe.

But he warned that any aliens we may come into contact with may not be friendly. He warned that aliens may simply raid Earth for resources and then move on, and likened it to when Europeans first discovered North America.

Stephen Hawking warns over making contact with aliens

Sunday, 25 April 2010
The BBC

Mr Hawking says it is 'perfectly rational' to believe in aliens

Aliens almost certainly exist but humans should avoid making contact, Professor Stephen Hawking has warned.

In a series for the Discovery Channel the renowned astrophysicist said it was "perfectly rational" to assume intelligent life exists elsewhere.

But he warned that aliens might simply raid Earth for resources, then move on.

"If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans," he said.

Prof Hawking thinks that, rather than actively trying to communicate with extra-terrestrials, humans should do everything possible to avoid contact.

He explained: "We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet."

In the past probes have been sent into space with engravings of human on board and diagrams showing the location of our planet.

Radio beams have been fired into space in the hope of reaching alien civilisations.

Prof Hawking said: "To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational.

"The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like."

The programme envisages numerous alien species including two-legged herbivores and yellow, lizard-like predators.

But Prof Hawking conceded most life elsewhere in the universe is likely to consist of simple microbes.

In the recent BBC series Wonders of the Solar System, Professor Brian Cox, a physicist from the University of Manchester, also suggested life may exist elsewhere within our solar system.

He said organisms could be present under the ice sheet that envelops Europa, one of Jupiter's moons.

Professor Cox added: "Closer to home, the evidence that life could exist on Mars is growing.

"We will only know for sure when the next generation of spacecraft, fine-tuned to search for life, are launched to the moons of Jupiter and the arid plains of Mars in the coming decades."

news.bbc.co.uk

 

[Machjo]

Seeing that we have no idea whether aliens capable of pillaging our resources would be good or evil in their intentions, it really would make no sense either way, to either try to make contact or to avoid contact. So let's let what happens happen.

Personally, I'd say that if an alien species is so advanced as to be capable of inter-stellar travel, then it likely has a long history and has likely advance not only technologically but socially and spiritually too. It has likely become much more resource efficient too and has likewise likely found ways of exploiting resources on planets with less developed forms of like like Mars which likely has nothing more than unicellular organisms floating around. So I don't see why they'd go through all the hardship of trying to steal our resources (not to mention the potential political repercussions on their own planet for annihilating us) when they can exploit resources from less advanced planets much more efficiently.

Though of course there is also the risk of perceiving us as savages in need of education, leading to a form of cultural imperialism, especially in trying to spread their religion to us depending on the kind of religion they might have. But again, if they're that advanced, they'll likely have learnt from the lessons of their own past and so are more likely to be quite sensitive in their contacts with us, possibly willing to learn our languages or teach theirs, and exchange religious and other cultural knowledges, etc. but it would seem unlikely that such an advanced civilization would want to destroy us just for fun.

 

[Colpy]

Seeing that we have no idea whether aliens capable of pillaging our resources would be good or evil in their intentions, it really would make no sense either way, to either try to make contact or to avoid contact. So let's let what happens happen.

Personally, I'd say that if an alien species is so advanced as to be capable of inter-stellar travel, then it likely has a long history and has likely advance not only technologically but socially and spiritually too. It has likely become much more resource efficient too and has likewise likely found ways of exploiting resources on planets with less developed forms of like like Mars which likely has nothing more than unicellular organisms floating around. So I don't see why they'd go through all the hardship of trying to steal our resources (not to mention the potential political repercussions on their own planet for annihilating us) when they can exploit resources from less advanced planets much more efficiently.

Though of course there is also the risk of perceiving us as savages in need of education, leading to a form of cultural imperialism, especially in trying to spread their religion to us depending on the kind of religion they might have. But again, if they're that advanced, they'll likely have learnt from the lessons of their own past and so are more likely to be quite sensitive in their contacts with us, possibly willing to learn our languages or teach theirs, and exchange religious and other cultural knowledges, etc. but it would seem unlikely that such an advanced civilization would want to destroy us just for fun.

Unfortunately, this is (IMHO) completely incorrect........evolution on this planet favoured a species (us) that is not only intelligent, but extremely adaptable, and inherently violent.......with a tendency to overwhelm, subjugate, exploit, and often destroy cultures less powerful than the dominant one........

Why would we possibly assume evolution would favour different characteristics on a different planet???

I always thought the sending out of the Pioneer and Voyager space probes with maps showing their place of origin was insanity........

Something akin to the Arowak Indians sending out canoes to find Columbus and his Spaniards and tell them where their villages were...

BTW, the Arowak Indians are extinct.

 

[Machjo]

Unfortunately, this is (IMHO) completely incorrect........evolution on this planet favoured a species (us) that is not only intelligent, but extremely adaptable, and inherently violent.......with a tendency to overwhelm, subjugate, exploit, and often destroy cultures less powerful than the dominant one........

Why would we possibly assume evolution would favour different characteristics on a different planet???

I always thought the sending out of the Pioneer and Voyager space probes with maps showing their place of origin was insanity........

Something akin to the Arowak Indians sending out canoes to find Columbus and his Spaniards and tell them where their villages were...

BTW, the Arowak Indians are extinct.

You do have some points here. Yes, if we look at Canada itself, for instance, the French and English languages predominate, as does the Christian Faith, as do other aspects of the dominant culture, thanks to imperialism without a doubt. We see the same at the UN, where again former imperial powers dominate culturally.

However, we can also witness a backlash not only from the subjugated peoples (such as the First Nations who'd fought back from the beginning), but also members of the majority group itself who look back at what their ancestors have done and desire to at least try to fix some of the damage.

Now I do see another point here too, which is that we've become more sensitive towards the First Nations only after having subjugated them, and even then having given them really nothing more than token recognition. I suppose if the same were to apply to an alien nation finding us, though some among them would oppose an attack against us just like some British news paper opposed the Opium Wars, still the majority is likely to have power and be determined to subjugate us. Again, just as we needed some kind of pretext to colonize (the White Man's burden, Christianization, a civilizing mission, etc.), I suppose they'd come up with their own equivalent, arguing that they're subjugating us for our own good, etc.

Sure once we're subjugated more of them might become more sensitive to our plight, and as the political pressure mounts, the elites would decide to give us some dregs as token compensation. By that time though, once we'd be the minority, we'd just be quaint to them, and of course after a generation, they'd use the same arguments we use. For example, though their forefathers were wrong in subjugating us, they're nto ther forefathers and so shouldn't be vlamed, what's done is done and now it's up to us to integrate into the new majority. Of course the rhetoric would be along the lines of 'yes, what was done was wrong, but we can't undo the past and now the majority rules. That's democracy after all'.

So yes I do see your point, the risk is there, and just like we've been able to rationalize and moralize imperialism, I'm sure they'd find a way to do the same.

 

[Liberalman]

Mr Hawking it's too late for that advice contact has been made over two thousand years ago

 

[Machjo]

Mr Hawking it's too late for that advice contact has been made over two thousand years ago

Hugh?

 

[Machjo]

Honestly though, if we ever came into contact with an imperialist alien power that would clearly be technologically far superior to us, what would our options be, really?

I guess if we try to learn from our own experiences, we could only stipulate. Let's suppose that at first contact, the Frist Nations immediately recognized our superior military capabilities, and so tried to learn our language, religion, etc. and then tried to turn it against us (for example, showing us in our own language how our own literature and religion opposes our actions), how would that have affected us? Certainly it would then have been difficult for us to look upon them as savages once they'd proven themselves capable of mastering our own culture and then turning it against us. This would likely have also have allowed them to develop allies among our own people much earlier, thus potentially thwarting if not all the damage, at least much of it, before it even happened.

I guess if facing an imperialist alien species that would be far superior to us, this could potentially be the only option we'd have: to develop allies among them and then try to turn them to our side.

 

[Machjo]

And if that fails, then we're really screwed, unless we're lucky enough to find that though they're more advanced in many technologies, that they aren't so in military technology.

 

[AnnaG]

Who says Hawking is the greatest mind these days? I think there are a number of great minds.
But anyway, it doesn't take anyone past high-school age much to figure out "The War Of The Worlds". The only way I'd go near an alien is if I was wearing a Hazmat suit. We aboriginals were invaded by Europeans who carried nasty bugs. Who knows what's crawling around out in space? I bet the aliens don't even need phasers, energy lances, and disrupters.

 

[AnnaG]

Mr Hawking it's too late for that advice contact has been made over two thousand years ago

Is that when you landed here? Cool.

 

[eh1eh]

Mr Hawking it's too late for that advice contact has been made over two thousand years ago

Fortunately only the religious will be taken when the aliens return and all the normal people that have embraced science, like Ol' Stevie there, will get to stay on Earth.

 

[AnnaG]

Fortunately only the religious will be taken when the aliens return and all the normal people that have embraced science, like Ol' Stevie there, will get to stay on Earth.

Maybe I could hitch a ride and they can drop me off someplace without religion or politics. Whattayathink?

 

[Tonington]

Why would we possibly assume evolution would favour different characteristics on a different planet???

It's as supportable as claiming that there are aliens out there right now capable of inter-stellar travel.

I always thought the sending out of the Pioneer and Voyager space probes with maps showing their place of origin was insanity........

Any species that can travel this far, or at least far enough to detect our probes, I'm sure would have the capabilities of detecting our radio-communications that are not intended to search out intelligent life in the universe.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

Stephen Hawking isn’t saying anything new, that has been a longstanding debate in science. Should we make contact with other civilizations (and intelligent civilization most certainly exist) or should we hide?

Hiding may not be an option. The examples on earth, contact with Native Indians for instance, was not initiated by the Indians, it was initiated by the white settlers. Indian’s had no choice in the matter.

Same way, if we, with our crude technology can detect another civilization, chances are that they, with their sophisticated gadgets (and chances are that any intelligent civilization we discover will be vastly superior to us in terms of technology) will detect us before we detect them.

Almost certainly they will make contact. So I hardly think it is up to us to avoid the contact. If another civilization is discovered, I don’t see how we can avoid contact. We put out so much radiation every day, which can be detected easily. If somebody is looking in our directing, they can easily detect us (which wasn’t true, say 200 years ago).

 

[SirJosephPorter]

Would the aliens be friendly or hostile? That is difficult to say. However, chances are that they will be friendly, they won’t try to exterminate us, end the life on earth.

And we only have to look at ourselves in this matter. What white settlers did in North America or South America was despicable. However, if we had to do it today, would we do the same thing again? I seriously doubt it. These days we try to preserve the integrity of a country, nobody invades another country, another culture willy nilly these days.

Thus white settlers made a conscious decision to destroy the native culture, the native people and proceeded to do so. They destroyed the wildlife wholesale, forced species such as buffalo, wolf, passenger pigeon, grizzly bear to extinction or near extinction.

That would be unthinkable these days. We have progressed so much in a couple hundred years. Aliens will be at least a few thousand years more advanced than us. I personally don’t’ see them as being hostile. As to resources, I would think it would be much cheaper for them to mine their own asteroid belt for metals and minerals rather than exploit earth. Even if they want to exploit the earth, how are they going to transport the materials to their own star system? It probably would be hideously expensive not worth it.

So there is always the possibility that the alien race may be unfriendly, may want to wipe us out. But I think the odds are against it.

 

[s_lone]

Would the aliens be friendly or hostile? That is difficult to say. However, chances are that they will be friendly, they won’t try to exterminate us, end the life on earth.

And we only have to look at ourselves in this matter. What white settlers did in North America or South America was despicable. However, if we had to do it today, would we do the same thing again? I seriously doubt it. These days we try to preserve the integrity of a country, nobody invades another country, another culture willy nilly these days.

Thus white settlers made a conscious decision to destroy the native culture, the native people and proceeded to do so. They destroyed the wildlife wholesale, forced species such as buffalo, wolf, passenger pigeon, grizzly bear to extinction or near extinction.

That would be unthinkable these days. We have progressed so much in a couple hundred years. Aliens will be at least a few thousand years more advanced than us. I personally don’t’ see them as being hostile. As to resources, I would think it would be much cheaper for them to mine their own asteroid belt for metals and minerals rather than exploit earth. Even if they want to exploit the earth, how are they going to transport the materials to their own star system? It probably would be hideously expensive not worth it.

So there is always the possibility that the alien race may be unfriendly, may want to wipe us out. But I think the odds are against it.

But what if the aliens would be so ahead of us that we wouldn't even be worthy of their moral consideration? What moral consideration do we have for the cows and pigs that we eat? What moral consideration do we have for lab animals?

 

[SirJosephPorter]

But what if the aliens would be so ahead of us that we wouldn't even be worthy of their moral consideration? What moral consideration do we have for the cows and pigs that we eat? What moral consideration do we have for lab animals?

That would apply if aliens consider us to be food animals, an extremely unlikely possibility. As to other animals (in the wild), we try to be as charitable towards them as we can. Here again, we have progressed considerably in just a couple of hundred years. In the old days, wolves, crocodiles were considered a nuisance and effort was made (almost successful) to make the wolf extinct. These days they are reintroducing wolves in their old habitats, like Yellowstone. Australia is proud of its crocodile population.

If we learned this much in just a short time, how much more would they have learned in the much longer time? Even if they regard us as animals, I don’t see them wiping us out just for the fun of it.

We try to be kind to the animals, they will probably try to be kind to us. The only problem could come if for some reason they want our planet. But for the life of me I cannot think why they would want our planet so much.

 

[Machjo]

Now if we should greet them with the Bush doctrine, that might be another matter. And even then thy'd likely just fly away; why waste valuable resources against a puny planet that doesn't want them around anyway.

 

[Icarus27k]

I watched Hawking's Discovery Channel show on aliens, and I have to compliment him on being the first person I've heard seriously suggest that whatever aliens there may be may be a kind of life that is completely beyond our concept of life.

Even the image of a little green man is based upon our own earthly evolution.

Like Hawking said, since there are so many gas planets, why can't there be lifeforms made out of gas? Is life really dependent on oxygen or water? What is life anyway?

All good questions. Some pretty deep philosophical questions.

 

[Johnnny]

The idea is interesting and scary at the same time.

Yes they would work us in whatever way they found cynical .....

Even if they are an advanced socially (merciful), they are going to work us... An example would be the people living ferally in the forests and frontiers we exploit for resources.