Extraterrestrial

Hawking: 'nomadic aliens could wipe us out'

By T.K. Randall
October 1, 2015 ·  213 comments

'The War of the Worlds' explored an alien invasion scenario. Image Credit: Henrique Alvim Correa The world famous physicist has often expressed concerns about the future of our species due to several possible existential threats - one of which being the rise of artificial intelligence and the possibility that machines could one day supersede even our own cognitive capabilities.

There is however one other major threat, one that is perhaps even deadlier and against which we may simply have absolutely no chance whatsoever - hostile extraterrestrials.

"Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach," Hawking said during an interview with Spain's El Pais newspaper."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 concept might sound like the plot of the movie Independence Day, but for all intents and purposes there is no way to rule out the possibility that something like it could actually happen.

That said however, given that we have yet to encounter intelligent visitors from space it is quite possible that we ourselves will have become the aliens long before anyone else turns up here.

"I think the survival of the human race will depend on its ability to find new homes elsewhere in the universe, because there's an increasing risk that a disaster will destroy Earth," said Hawking.

Source: CNET.com | Comments (213)

Tags: Stephen Hawking, Extraterrestrial