How Do You Feel About Hawking's Opinion

[rxpwas]

I think I understand what Hawking is getting at. In 1492, the American Indians had never seen a White man, a Black man, or an Asian man, or anyone else, for that matter, from across "the pond" (I am not gonna get into the possibility of Vikings or Norsemen visiting or living here with the "Skraelings" or possiblity of Africans in Mexico from Olmec heads, etc.). Then Columbus comes along, and in his wake are explorers and colonists, slavers, smallpox, and assorted things, good and bad (mostly bad), that go along with an "alien civilization". The people (white Spanish, then later other whites, blacks from Africa, and later Orientals and Middle Easterners and others) who look little or nothing like the "Red Indians", customs totally foreign to them, end up dominating them and owning their land, raping their women, and using up their resources and destroying nature and polluting and littering the landscape (I would love to have seen America the way the Indians of old, or even Daniel Boone or Lewis and Clark, would have seen it). Two whole continents of people killed off or subjugated, diretcly and indirectly, even larger holocaust than Jews of Nazi Germany, resulted from chance contact in 1492. If aliens were to land, EVEN IF THEY ARE FRIENDLY, we would be like natives in Carribean in 1492, looking at them in awe, like they are, if not gods, at least something totally "not of this world", the world would be globally freaked out, at least temporarily, until used to them, if that ever happens. They might ACCIDENTALLY (if not deliberately) bring in disease or diseases that would wipe out a large part of mankind where we have no immunity to. The world religions and faith systems would be rocked and reeled, with many questions that may never be answered, and we would feel very vulnerable to things or beings or situations we have absolutely no control over. And what I just mentioned is if they mean no harm and are not like the Klingon or Romulun empire or the "Dark Side" on Star Wars or some type of evil or demonic beings. If they are anything like them, we have major problems!

[alphamale]

Originally Posted by achickenchaser

I'm sure there's plenty of other areas in space these aliens can go for resources. There's really no need for them to pay us a visit for such things, especially when we're doing a good job of using the planet's resources up for ourselves. There may not be much left by the time they get here.

Still, I suppose it's not a bad idea to keep an eye out for Klingon Warbirds.

Do you have any idea how big the Earth is? There's plenty of natural resources to go for another millenia.

Speaking of size, do you have any idea how large the Universe is? Or our Galaxy? Our Milky Way Galaxy is 100,000 light years across. Billions of stars. More stars than there are grains of sand on earth.

[rxpwas]

Plenty of time to ponder that while being whipped on the hiney for being too slow building monlithic monuments to the "gods of the sky", and might just have to find ones own staw and materials to cement the bricks in place instead of taskmaster providing it.