Abandon Earth or Face Extinction, Stephen Hawking Warns -- Again

"It's time to abandon Earth, warned the world's most
famous theoretical physicist.

In an interview with website Big Think, Stephen
Hawking warned that the long-term future of the
planet is in outer space.

"It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster on
planet Earth in the next hundred years, let alone
the next thousand, or million. The human race
shouldn't have all its eggs in one basket, or on
one planet," he said."

See:

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/...ephen-hawking/

On 11/08/2010 2:26 AM, wrote:
"It's time to abandon Earth, warned the world's most
famous theoretical physicist.

In an interview with website Big Think, Stephen
Hawking warned that the long-term future of the
planet is in outer space.

"It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster on
planet Earth in the next hundred years, let alone
the next thousand, or million. The human race
shouldn't have all its eggs in one basket, or on
one planet," he said."

See:

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/...ephen-hawking/

It doesn't really matter if the human race becomes extinct - after all,
who would be there to care?

The real problem is that in the process there likely be considerable
suffering. But it's not clear that migrating into space would avoid that
- it's not as if we can contemplate sending a significant proportion of
the world's population into space to save them from whatever disaster
might otherwise befall them.

Sylvia.

On Aug 10, 6:24*pm, Sylvia Else wrote:

It doesn't really matter if the human race becomes extinct - after all,
who would be there to care?

We are here *now*, and we would be dismayed if our heroic
accomplishments were not remembered by descendants of ours on into the
indefinite future.

John Savard

On 11/08/2010 1:50 PM, Quadibloc wrote:
On Aug 10, 6:24 pm, Sylvia wrote:

It doesn't really matter if the human race becomes extinct - after all,
who would be there to care?

We are here *now*, and we would be dismayed if our heroic
accomplishments were not remembered by descendants of ours on into the
indefinite future.


We might be dismayed by the *idea*, but we're stuck with that,
regardless of what actually happens. We could not be dismayed by the *fact*.

Sylvia.

On 8/10/2010 8:26 PM, Sylvia Else wrote:


We might be dismayed by the *idea*, but we're stuck with that,
regardless of what actually happens. We could not be dismayed by the
*fact*.

My favorite is still this one:
http://www.astronautix.com/articles/iftndies.htm
Does anyone actually think anyone is going to remember the people
mentioned in that a billion or so years down the road when the Sun
actually goes ker-plunk?
Oriana was one strange person from the get-go:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriana_Fallaci
That's what happens when you get named after a constellation, and start
fighting evil as a kid, just like "Hit Girl" in "Kick-Ass".
(poor Hit Girl; now she's too tall to fit into her costume for
Halloween:
http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf...ostume_1138798
....which is a pity, as she owned that character the way Peter Sellers
owned Inspector Clouseau.)

Pat

On 11/08/2010 8:32 PM, Pat Flannery wrote:
On 8/10/2010 8:26 PM, Sylvia Else wrote:


We might be dismayed by the *idea*, but we're stuck with that,
regardless of what actually happens. We could not be dismayed by the
*fact*.

My favorite is still this one:
http://www.astronautix.com/articles/iftndies.htm
Does anyone actually think anyone is going to remember the people
mentioned in that a billion or so years down the road when the Sun
actually goes ker-plunk?
Oriana was one strange person from the get-go:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriana_Fallaci
That's what happens when you get named after a constellation, and start
fighting evil as a kid, just like "Hit Girl" in "Kick-Ass".
(poor Hit Girl; now she's too tall to fit into her costume for
Halloween:
http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf...ostume_1138798
...which is a pity, as she owned that character the way Peter Sellers
owned Inspector Clouseau.)

Pat

Well, the actual problem with the sun is not that it will go out, or
die, though it will eventually, but that it's gradually getting hotter,
and by about a billion years from now, Earth's orbit will no longer be
in the life zone. Come that time we'll either have died out, have
figured out how to move the Earth, or moved somewhere else.

But I'm not fretting.

For now.

Sylvia.

Pat Flannery wrote:
(poor Hit Girl; now she's too tall to fit into her costume for
Halloween:
http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf...ostume_1138798
...which is a pity, as she owned that character the way Peter Sellers
owned Inspector Clouseau.)

Pat,

You need to lay off the foreign substances...

But the best part of the above is the quote from the article that she's saving
the costume for her kid (when she has one).

And if that kid is a boy? Oh well, it is Hollywood after all....

:-)

Dave

On Aug 11, 4:32*am, Pat Flannery wrote:

(poor Hit Girl; now she's too tall to fit into her costume for
Halloween:http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf...etz-is-too-big...
...which is a pity, as she owned that character the way Peter Sellers
owned Inspector Clouseau.)

Well, it's better than _not_ growing up.

Being too *fat* would have been a disaster. Being too tall... well,
like growing old, it's better than the alternative.

This, of course, reminds me of the regrettable situation in Burma.

Thanks to the mediation of "Sandra & Woo", a webcomic.

John Savard

Quadibloc wrote:
On Aug 10, 6:24 pm, Sylvia Else wrote:

It doesn't really matter if the human race becomes extinct - after all,
who would be there to care?

We are here *now*, and we would be dismayed if our heroic
accomplishments were not remembered by descendants of ours on into the
indefinite future.


I celebrate the cave-prototype guy/gal who discovered upright walking everyday!

Let's face it, in a million years we'll have as much in common with our
descendants (if any) that we have with our million year old ancestors....

The best they'll be able to say about us is that we didn't kill ourselves off.
Which long term, is the best anyone can do...

Dave

On 8/11/2010 1:22 PM, David Spain wrote:


Let's face it, in a million years we'll have as much in common with our
descendants (if any) that we have with our million year old ancestors....

Let's have a look at our evolutionary future a million years down the
line, courtesy of H.G. Wells:
http://davidszondy.com/future/man/man_million.htm
These balloon-headed critters later evolved into the Martians from his
"War Of The Worlds".
Although humanity would not change anywhere near that much via natural
genetic mutation in only one million years, the disturbing thing is that
given the extremely fast rate of advance in genetic research nowadays,
you could probably create something like that in the not too distant
future...say what? One hundred years?

Pat