Click here to support the Daily Grail for as little as $US1 per month on Patreon

Into Stephen Hawking’s Universe

The news item causing a stir in the scientific blogosphere this week is Stephen Hawking’s warning about the possibility of hostile alien civilisations. The highly-respected cosmologist’s comments were made in a new documentary series which he is hosting, Into the Universe, airing on Discovery:

We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet. I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach.”

…If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.

(Just to be clear, Hawking doesn’t count UFO sightings as evidence of alien contact – because, he says, they are only ever seen by “cranks and weirdos“.)

Here’s the opening 10 minutes from the episode in question:

Hawking’s comments were discussed on Bad Astronomy, Centauri Dreams and Pharyngula, and both Paul Davies and Jill Tarter explained why they disagreed with Hawking’s take on contact with aliens. The latter wrote:

Such an advanced technology might well send explorers whose size and shape we cannot yet imagine to study and examine the diversity of life that evolved elsewhere — and rather than exploiting us, they might value and support the natural biodiversity of the galaxy.

…At SETI, our current mission isn’t to broadcast, but rather to listen to the universe and see what else might be out there. If signals are detected, everyone on the planet should have a voice in deciding how to respond.

What do you think? Are aliens out there, and are they dangerous? You can also add your opinion via our latest poll (which is currently suggesting that many readers obviously disagree with Hawking about aliens having not visited Earth yet).

Editor
  1. Pass the olive branch and the ammo?
    I think Hawking applied some very basic, very sound logic to the question of ET. To wit, we are likely not the only show in the universe, and so our brand of… um, call it ‘benign exploration’ may be a shared trait in other species as well.

    An alien race would not even have to be hostile to be the kind of danger he mentions in reference to Columbus and the indigenous peoples he encountered. But the fact remains that at least some of the ETs flitting about the celestial neighborhood could be more into conquista than the simple joys of discovery.

    But all this now being said, I doubt there is much we could do to hide our presence even if we wanted to. We have been broadcasting ourselves to the universe since radio and TV came along. And if some of our own future science pans out, we may be able to detect life around other stars without ever having to go further than various detection platforms in Earth orbit or afloat at LaGrange.

    All in all, I think it’s a little late to be concerning ourselves with anything but the inevitable moment of official first contact.

    Pass the olive branch and the ammo.

  2. If aliens understand our languages …
    …and assess our intelligence level from the content of our TV and radio broadcasts, then we might as well give in now.

    Regards, Kathrinn

  3. I wouldn’t worry too much….
    …if the BORG come they come, we can’t stop them. Any other ET race out there wanting to do us harm could any time they wish. So, no problem. We have another 200 odd years before we have the ships and the weapons to defend ourselves.
    Best thing to do would be the “cute puppy on it’s back” and hope they find us cute……………………… ;-{D

    Stephen Hawking is a scientist. I would rather listen to Arthur C Clarke in regards to aliens and contact.

    1. Alone in the universe
      [quote=thefloppy1]I would rather listen to Arthur C Clarke in regards to aliens and contact.[/quote]

      Considering he’s dead, I’d like to hear him speak too! 😛 Not sure Sri Lankans would be happy though…

      What was it Clarke said? “Sometimes I think we’re alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we’re not. In either case the idea is quite staggering.”

  4. We’ve all seen Independance Day….
    Totally agree with Hawking and his warning. Seems everyone missed the key word “might”. The whole show was about DIFFERENT possibilities. And its a very good possibility that if ET shows, he’ll exploit the hell out of this rock. Makes more sense than just showing us the meaning of life or some crap.

    But rest assured, as long as Randy Quaid is still around, we should be fine.

    “I’m a pilot… I can fly…”

    1. Agreed…….
      I concur with your comments. Alien life should never be met with open arms. Holstered arms, perhaps, but still… 😉

      There is absolutely no reason to believe that other sentient races are any more peaceful than Humans.

      Heck, Nature, as it developed here on Earth, is all about food chains. We humans got to the top of all of them because we had more guile, cunning, and reasoning than any other species.

      To not consider similar traits in any species that can VISIT us across interstellar distances is criminally naive.

      1. Hostile thoughts
        Ah, you Republican cowboys – shoot first, say hello later. 😛

        Are humans so used to war and conflict, that we can’t imagine meeting aliens any other way? That’s sad, very very sad. I have to admit though, those N’avi can keep their kinky tentacles to themselves. I lean towards the concept that negative/positive thoughts attracts the same — think happy thoughts about our galactic neighbours, everyone!

        To me, it’s not inconceivable (“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means” – Inigo Montoya heheh) that an alien species has figured out how to co-exist peacefully. I grew up on Star Trek though, and I vote Greens, so you can take my opinion with a grain of salt, Gwedd. 😉

        If aliens were hostile, we’d be extinct by now, or we’d be great pets (considering the life my cat lives, that wouldn’t be too bad). The fact we’re still here either says some or all that are visiting us are benevolent, or they haven’t visited us at all and the Bad Astronomer is right.

  5. The price of rarity
    Sometimes I think that the benevolence ETs might be inclined to show toward other species might depend on the abundance of intelligent life throughout the Cosmos.

    The reason humans are so used to mistreat their neighbors lies in the fact that we perceive them as one of many. You kill a man and it’s just one in 6 billions.

    However, imagine you were stranded on a small island in the middle of the ocean, desperate for company. If a scout found your island and greeted you, how do you think you would respond?

    So, if intelligent life is abundant in the Universe, chances are advanced ETs would feel no remorse in disposing of us. However, if intelligent life is exceptionally rare, they might view us as precious and worth preserving.

    I remember something from the movie Contact: “In all our searching, the only thing we’ve found that makes the emptiness bearable… is each other”.

    1. very good point
      I never really thought it out that way. Very good point. But like I said earlier, if they come there is little we could do to stop them if they wished us harm.

  6. I never cease to be amazed at
    I never cease to be amazed at the gall of some of these mega-egos holding forth on topics they know little about. I suppose this is an occupational hazard of being at the forefront of one field – it can seem to grant you discernment about all things. Hawking knows almost zilch about the actual sightings database, yet he cavalierly dismisses reports as having been the province of cranks. Just amazing how stupid smart people can be sometimes. His position has slightly evolved over the years though. He used drag out the old “if they’re here why aren’t they on the White House lawn” argument which of course ignores our own experience when investigating lesser intelligences in the animal world. We usually try to interfere as little as possible with their world and remain as discrete as possible. It is therefore entirely understandable why some relatively super advanced race would want to remain hidden msotly. i belive Hawking has shut up about this in recent years.
    The real trauma of disclosure if it ever happens will be suffered by the science community since it is so peopled with egos that would probably be utterly shattered by any interaction with scientists a million years ahead of us. I’ve always thought that this is why so many scientists ululate the loudest about aliens being a hoax – they are terrified that they may not be.

  7. I disagree with his analysis
    If they needed resources, there would be other resources nearer to them.

    If they were a warring specie, they would have killed themselves with the technologies required for interstellar travel.

    The real world isn’t Star Trek, which reflected the political scene of the 1960’s.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Mobile menu - fractal