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Old 08-10-2010, 08:16 PM
 
Location: Michigan
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If mankind is to survive we must leave earth for colonies on other planets within the next 100 years, warns renowned physicist Stephen Hawking. "I see big dangers for mankind. Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain inward looking on planet Earth but to spread out into space," he said in a Big Think interview.

Read more: Stephen Hawking: Ditch Earth for Other Planets to Survive
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Old 08-10-2010, 10:28 PM
 
Location: Covington County, Alabama
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Maybe he will volunteer to be an advanced scout and report back his findings.
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Old 08-10-2010, 10:41 PM
 
Location: Lemon Grove, CA USA
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This has been a common topic amongst scientists for a long time now. I think 'within the next 100 years' is being generous though I guess he could mean a couple decades which I would agree with.
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Old 08-10-2010, 11:32 PM
 
5,519 posts, read 15,298,309 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nomadicus View Post
Maybe he will volunteer to be an advanced scout and report back his findings.
Precisely what I thought after reading the original post.
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Old 08-11-2010, 12:31 AM
 
Location: Sarasota, Florida
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OLD news.....any educated person realizes that for our species long term survival we must disperse to other planets/moons. And for other posters....."Don't keep all your eggs in one basket". :-)
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Old 08-12-2010, 10:59 AM
 
Location: Bel Air, California
23,769 posts, read 28,875,608 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John1960 View Post
If mankind is to survive we must leave earth for colonies on other planets within the next 100 years, warns renowned physicist Stephen Hawking. "I see big dangers for mankind. Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain inward looking on planet Earth but to spread out into space," he said in a Big Think interview.

Read more: Stephen Hawking: Ditch Earth for Other Planets to Survive
Who is this moron anyway? We do not have the technology to fly to another planet even if we knew which one to fly to. I recommend that we literally bury our heads (and everything else) in the sand and tunnel our way to safety to avoid any of the multitude of cataclysmic events that are hurtling toward our planet right this moment. I recall as a child of the 60's, that this strategy saved us from nuclear annihilation then and it will save us again.
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Old 08-12-2010, 10:14 PM
 
Location: Victoria TX
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How ridiculous. Our species has been here for how many thousands of years? And it's going to die out in 100 or less? Even if our headlong plunge into suicidal technology produces a cataclysm, there will be enough survivors to keep the species alive (unfortunately) and mankind will learn to live to destroy the habitat again. If there are any living species on the planet, we have a better chance of rationalizing a quick-fix survival strategy than any other species.
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Old 08-14-2010, 11:33 AM
 
Location: Virginia
33 posts, read 66,406 times
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Originally Posted by Ghengis View Post
Who is this moron anyway? We do not have the technology to fly to another planet even if we knew which one to fly to. I recommend that we literally bury our heads (and everything else) in the sand and tunnel our way to safety to avoid any of the multitude of cataclysmic events that are hurtling toward our planet right this moment. I recall as a child of the 60's, that this strategy saved us from nuclear annihilation then and it will save us again.
I'm not sure what strategy you are refering to, but if you mean fallout shelters, I would not give them much credit for saving us from nuclear annihilation. In fact, we're still not saved from such a concern, but that's another topic. I would say what has saved us thus far has more to do with Mutually Assured Destruction and the human need for preservation. But that requires the application of logic, and I'm afraid that is a diminishing quantity, especially with some of the new nuclear powers.

But I do agree with your initial statement. We lack the technology to leave earth for good and, besides, there is no place to go.
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Old 08-14-2010, 01:28 PM
 
5,463 posts, read 9,598,031 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ghengis View Post
Who is this moron anyway? We do not have the technology to fly to another planet even if we knew which one to fly to. I recommend that we literally bury our heads (and everything else) in the sand and tunnel our way to safety to avoid any of the multitude of cataclysmic events that are hurtling toward our planet right this moment. I recall as a child of the 60's, that this strategy saved us from nuclear annihilation then and it will save us again.
I'm not so sure Hawking's views are referring to the immediate future, but rather as a long-range goal. His idea, which makes sense, is to spread out rather than having all our eggs in one basket in order to preserve the human race. Sounds good, but accomplishing such a goal is another matter.

I'd agree that we don't have the technology to move massive numbers of people off the planet, nor do we know of any habitable planets that could be suitably colonized. In the distant future though, who knows? Even if we detect a few habitable planets in other solar systems, getting there would be a major problem, perhaps taking thousands of years to reach. And even if we did have to technology to travel much faster, the cost to move large numbers of people would be next to impossible, not to mention the resources involved.

I would think to begin any kind of routine migration off the planet, we'd have progressed enough to resolve many of the problems currently faced on Earth.

In the local neighborhood of our solar system, the most likely candidate for possible habitation would probably be Mars. But even then, I would think the population there would be very small and limited to outposts similar to those at Antarctica. It's possible Mars could be terraformed for habitation by first modifying the atmosphere. But that too would be a very loooong process. Nothing helpful for the immediate future. Even then, we have no idea if we could terraform an entire planet or not.

If migration could take place, I'd guess it would be gradual process involving very small numbers of people over time who are specially selected for their skills.

Colonizing Mars or other place in our solar system or others, is no guarantee that those places would be any safer than the Earth. Colonization of Mars or even the Moon would still require a certain amount of dependence on resources from the Earth, even though the idea is to try to be self-sufficient. The whole thing is an extremely complex process. We've been to the Moon for short jaunts, but we've yet to set foot on Mars or any other bodies in the solar system.

As I understand, the Russians are planning on a human mission to Mars, perhaps by 2025. To accomplish that successfully is going to require first solving problems such as radiation, gravitation, and just being about to manage for a long period of time cooped up with other people without going stir crazy. Getting to Mars will take a long time. Any crew going there will have to remain there for about 18 months before being close enough to the Earth for the trip back home.
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Old 08-15-2010, 10:02 AM
 
Location: Victoria TX
42,579 posts, read 86,624,998 times
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Here is the full text of the Hawking original statement:

Abandon Earth

Personally, I found myself running to Snopes to see if a person as intelligent as Hawking really said that something as silly as the Cuban Missile Crisis actually posed a significant threat to intelligent life on earth. Can this audo be verified to actually be Hawking's voice simulator, under the control of Hawking himself? Or is this a hoax?

If he sees no rational means of averting a nuclear annihilation on Earth, why does he think the humans who colonize space will not kill each other when they get to their new home? Can he really be such a shallow moron?

Last edited by jtur88; 08-15-2010 at 10:10 AM..
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