Hawking Gives Alien Warning

[wkeej]

LONDON (AFP) - – Aliens may exist but mankind should avoid contact with them as the consequences could be devastating, British scientist Stephen Hawking has warned.
"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," said the astrophysicist in a new television series, according to British media reports.
The programmes depict an imagined universe featuring alien life forms in huge spaceships on the hunt for resources after draining their own planet dry.
"Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach," warned Hawking.
The doomsday scenario is suggested in the series "Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking" on the Discovery Channel, which began airing in the United States on Sunday.
On the probability of alien life existing, he says: "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."
Glowing squid-like creatures, herds of herbivores that can hang onto a cliff face and bright yellow predators that kill their prey with stinging tails are among the creatures that stalk the scientist's fantastical cosmos.
Mankind has already made a number of attempts to contact extraterrestrial civilisations.
In 2008, American space agency NASA beamed the Beatles song "Across the Universe" into deep space to send a message of peace to any alien that happens to be in the region of Polaris -- also known as the North Star -- in 2439.
But the history of humanity's efforts to contact aliens stretches back some years.
The US probes Pioneer 10 and 11 were launched in 1972 and 1973 bearing plaques of a naked man and woman and symbols seeking to convey the positions of the Earth and the Sun.
Voyager 1 and 2, launched in 1977, each carry a gold-plated copper phonogram disk with recordings of sounds and images on Earth.

Looks interesting but scary too. On one hand, I do look forward to friendly aliens visiting us. So we can understand the origin of life better? On the other hand, if they ever go, their technology must be of higher level than us and as what Prof Hawkings suggested, they can "conquer and colonise" Earth.

[Guo Xiang]

"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," said the astrophysicist in a new television series, according to British media reports.
The programmes depict an imagined universe featuring alien life forms in huge spaceships on the hunt for resources after draining their own planet dry.

"Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach," warned Hawking.

People think this way because this is exactly what humans would have done. These people are imagining in the human perspective, which hardly mean anything at all when applied to non-human species.

[pemberly]

yeah, how can anybody be sure aliens are advanced? they could be like plankton.

[Trien Chieu]

I don't think Alien exist, but if they do they would not stand a chance against us. We have all kinds of weapons to fight them. We can drive them to extinction easily if we want to just like any other animal in the world.

[remember_Cedric]

I don't think Alien exist, but if they do they would not stand a chance against us. We have all kinds of weapons to fight them. We can drive them to extinction easily if we want to just like any other animal in the world.

Yes, we can. Not to forget, while driving all other animals into extinction, we're driving ourselves into extinction too. Well done!!

[Dirt]

LONDON (AFP) - – Aliens may exist but mankind should avoid contact with them as the consequences could be devastating, British scientist Stephen Hawking has warned.

Well, duh. I watched "V" as a kid.

[ByTmE]

Didn't any of you guys watch the movie "District 9"? It was about a species of prawn-like aliens who found themselves stranded on our planet, so the government gets the brilliant idea to take them in as refugees. Of course, we homo sapiens sapiens are still violent ignorant twits compared to the homely foreigners. The movie was not so much about a potential alien hegemony, rather it was about social segregration and xenophobia. I fell asleep. I'm not terribly fond of overly profound long winded movies with socially relevant themes. The movie was too smart for me.

But I digress.

On the probability of alien life existing, he says: "To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational.

Dude, does he believe in ghost and spirits too? I absolutely positively 100% believe in the existence of ghosts and spirits sharing this Earth with us. Thus, it's not so far-fetched to conceptually realize the existence of other intelligent life forms in our solar system. For the record, I have a mathematically incompetent brain. Numbers make the area behind my eyeballs hurt. I'm a sad Asian person.

If one day we are visited by aliens, I hope they are like E.T. I'm a HUGE fan of the Predator franchise [new movie in 2010 yay!], so I would not mind them so much either. After all, it's not like I'm a member of an elite class of warriors worthy of being hunted down. Although, I am pu-R-ty scrappy! I would not, however, welcome the parasitic alien species that rip through hosts' chest cavities. That's just nasty, son. I'd go stone cold on them a la Ellen Ripley [Sigourney Weaver].

[Guo Xiang]

I would not, however, welcome the parasitic alien species that rip through hosts' chest cavities.

Like "The Thing" and "The Body Snatcher", right? I understand what you mean.

[shortsight]

When the words came out of Hawkings, it sounded so profound ... although my first impression is he had watched too many movies from Transformers, to Avatar and the likes. Is there no more things for Hawkings to discover in the universe that he needs to start talking what's popular?

In fact, his words can be used for just about anything!

For example, "to my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about ghosts perfectly rational. The real challenge is to work out what ghosts might actually be like!"

[wkeej]

If aliens do come, just hope that they come peacefully. If not, there may not be any more spcnet.

[kidd]

yeah, how can anybody be sure aliens are advanced? they could be like plankton.

Well, I reckon the aliens who are able to reach Earth or make contact would be the highly advanced ones and not the planktons.

Since the universe are so vast, there should be many types of lifeforms out there, some more advanced than others.

I don't think Alien exist, but if they do they would not stand a chance against us. We have all kinds of weapons to fight them. We can drive them to extinction easily if we want to just like any other animal in the world.

Are you joking or being serious?

If one day we are visited by aliens, I hope they are like E.T. I'm a HUGE fan of the Predator franchise [new movie in 2010 yay!], so I would not mind them so much either. After all, it's not like I'm a member of an elite class of warriors worthy of being hunted down. Although, I am pu-R-ty scrappy! I would not, however, welcome the parasitic alien species that rip through hosts' chest cavities. That's just nasty, son. I'd go stone cold on them a la Ellen Ripley [Sigourney Weaver].

Aliens from '3rd Rock from the Sun' is also good.

[pemberly]

In fact, his words can be used for just about anything!

For example, "to my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about flying purple polka dot piggies perfectly rational. The real challenge is to work out what flying purple polka dot piggies might actually be like!"

[Bei Rongkun]

naaah... guys should spend some time reading this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox