Stephen Hawking warns over making contact with aliens

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."

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

Stephen Hawking

In the past, probes have been sent into space with engravings of human beings 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.

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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."

Friday, January 3, 2014

Attention Time Travelers, Stephen Hawking Is Still Having A Party In 2009 And You Are Still Invited

BY ANDREW ROBERTS / 12.03.13

|LIKE113

Stephen Hawking Is Still Having A Time Travel Party In 2009

You might’ve heard that sex club enthusiast Professor Stephen Hawking had himself a time travelers party back in 2009. The problem was that no one showed up, spoiling the party and proving that time travelers are dicks.

Hawking hasn’t given up hope though. With the help of poster designer Peter Dean, Hawking is still promoting the party in the hopes that someone from the future will find his announcement and return to celebrate with him back in 2009. We’ll never know of course, but it was still better than Kirk Cameron’s birthday party.

“Maybe one day someone living in the future will find the information and use a wormhole time machine to come back to my party, proving that time travel will, one day, be possible.”

Londoner Peter, who met the A Brief History of Time author last week, said: “The whole experiment depends on future time travellers seeing this poster…”

“I saw an article a number of years ago where he explained how to build a time machine and since then I have always been interested in his work. It’s amazing that I actually got to meet him.”

Peter has made 100 copies of the limited edition posters, with each coming with a signed certificate of authenticity by Prof Hawking and details about the experiment. (via)

And of course you can buy your own print for the cool price of £140.00 GBP, which is about $230 American or R4,000,000 in future money.

Of course this all depends on what theory of time travel you adhere to, the reality version, the Star Trek version or the Back to The Future Version. There’s also Terminator rules, which would throw a wrench into the plans of Hawking. Murderous robots hate partying.

(Lead image via YouTube, other via Kite Print)