Stephen Hawking warns over making contact with 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."


BBC

This post has been edited by Sara Apples: Apr 26 2010, 01:16 PM

you don't meet them now doesn't mean they not exist.

http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1402674

slowpoke or what??

I wonder what makes people think there is other intelligent life forms elsewhere.

I honestly do believe we are not alone

Alien neednot be intelligent. Even a microbe not originated from Earth also can be classified as aliens.

Anyway... if there are intelligent aliens out there that are capable of reaching earth, it would be logical to assume some of them have human instincts (purpose is to exploit/enslave if possible. just look at wars amongs ourselves... and also against other organisms/their habitat). In reverse, if humans are able to reach other planets and found out its useful, we too, wont simply shake hands with aliens there. There has to be a scheme to exploit their planet.

It only take a "high ranking" alien's rogue gang/army to initiate a war with us, even though 99% of them might "come in peace".

if you been to US airport, all non-american are "aliens". Printed on the sign board above the passport checking counter.

because of the sheer amout of planet out there, there must be some that are suitable to develop life.

You can't even believe in the absurdities in life. How do you then, believe in aliens?

if they have the technology to do such a long space travel, it would be safe to assume they are much more advance than human. like a human meet an ant colony, will the human try to teach the ant technology or just destroy it because he want to plant a garden there?

they are aliens to us

we are aliens to them

there must be live beyond this universe

maybe got other human live in far far beyond our galaxy leh,who know

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Added on April 26, 2010, 2:08 pmoh shit,i really dun wan to be ants,NOOooo!!!!

This post has been edited by V3nz: Apr 26 2010, 02:08 PM

Amazing! No intelligent life forms could be found in such vastness. Yet we still think there will be some much farther travelling faster than speed of light to get here.

So size matters. for us to be treated like a colony of ants, those aliens must be each be as tall as KLCC, for them to readily accept us as being tiny harmless creatures to them.

Even in the most kind/noble of human exploration team looking for uncharted land, there has to be one or few rogue ones who eventually anger the natives or worse, brainwash others to follow suit and wage wars on them. This is exactly what we as humans should fear, if the aliens finally landed on earth and propose a friendship. It only take one determined power hungry being (from our side or them) to start a misunderstanding... and there goes the neighbourhood!

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Added on April 26, 2010, 2:21 pm... yet.


Humans barely only scratched the tip of the icecube found on the tip of the huge iceberg in space exploration. Our history in space "travel" merely at its infancy.

Anyway... by assuming only via faster than speed of light travel can make them reach here easily (or finally)... kinda closed minded and one track thought, dont you think so ? Maybe they have other methods/technology that doesnt require physical travel from their planet to ours.


This post has been edited by alanyuppie: Apr 26 2010, 02:23 PM

Yes, very creative. They could just beam over like James T Kirk.

the human/ant situation is more likely to happen if alien arrive. the alien will be very unlikely to look anything like human, they may not be carbon base life form, and they can be massively larger that us and most likely much more advance than us if they have master such technology of deep space travel. it is not like pandora in avatar where everything seen to be just a different version of animal on earth. sci fi movie often made alien life form similar to human or animal so that movie goer and identify with those character. more likely the alien will be like the Xenomorph.

the natives and the explorer are both human and even that does not stop the slaughter, imagine what you will do when you are much more technological advance race being stop in you trip to extract resources on earth by some pest called human? you will surely exterminate all those pest.

This post has been edited by robertngo: Apr 26 2010, 10:25 PM

One thing that seems odd to me, is how come our technological advancements grew by leaps and bounds in the 20th century alone? But for hundreds, and maybe thousands of years, our rate of "evolution" was very slow.

Nobody still knows for sure how that came about, unless the governments got it from somewhere. Like say, an alien spacecraft that crashed? Roswell, anyone?

i believe there is no aliens like what has been pictured to us from the west. what i believe is there is another creation in the parallel dimension which is unseen.

they also created from god and have a similar purpose of life like as.

Since it is also create by God, what is the purpose of your parallel dimension?

to reconcile the conflicts between beliefs and facts,that's what religious persons always do...

why do you think there is a connection between evolution of human species and the rate of scientific development?