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Aliens coming to earth and destroy humans seems to be a popular theme in movies, books, etc. The main reason they would want to destroy us is to acquire the resources they want. Given the vast distances between star systems, any alien advanced enough to travel to earth would not have a need to take anything from earth. For one thing, they wouldn't be biological beings that need to drink, eat, and breath. They probably run on batteries with a lifespan of hundred of years. They would be able to create raw materials by transforming energy into matters. Again, if they are advanced enough travel our way, we might look like ants to them.
Aliens coming to earth and destroy humans seems to be a popular theme in movies, books, etc. The main reason they would want to destroy us is to acquire the resources they want. Given the vast distances between star systems, any alien advanced enough to travel to earth would not have a need to take anything from earth. For one thing, they wouldn't be biological beings that need to drink, eat, and breath. They probably run on batteries with a lifespan of hundred of years. They would be able to create raw materials by transforming energy into matters. Again, if they are advanced enough travel our way, we might look like ants to them.
Good point, what do we have that can't be gotten elsewhere, and probably a hell of a lot closer to them.
Aliens coming to earth and destroy humans seems to be a popular theme in movies, books, etc. The main reason they would want to destroy us is to acquire the resources they want. Given the vast distances between star systems, any alien advanced enough to travel to earth would not have a need to take anything from earth. For one thing, they wouldn't be biological beings that need to drink, eat, and breath. They probably run on batteries with a lifespan of hundred of years. They would be able to create raw materials by transforming energy into matters. Again, if they are advanced enough travel our way, we might look like ants to them.
What makes you think they wouldn't be biological? What if they're alien biological microorganisms that have been marooned on Earth, like the Thing, waiting to infect and replicate any and all kinds of Earthly biological hosts just to survive?
I don't know that an invasion of aliens is what Hawking has in mind. I'd guess he could be thinking of other possible catastrophic events: collision by a large asteroid or comet, a pandemic disease from a rapidly spreading super virus, a global nuclear war, eruptions of super volcanoes, powerful large-scale weather related problems, etc. I also don't think he necessarily means all humans will be dead within 100 years, but that perhaps by then conditions might be irreversible that people may start dying off in larger numbers toward an eventual total extinction of humanity.
We won't know what he has to say until the BBC broadcast is aired.
The Thing was a movie -- a Hollywood make believe. Please tell me you are not seriously using a movie in a scientific discussion. Anyway, just as I alluded to, Hollywood culture seems to have an enormous influence of how some segments of the population think.
As someone posted earlier, Mr. Hawking might be a great physicist, but he can't see the future. I respect and admire great scientists, but I don't worship them like cult leaders. Hawking has some opinions about what might happen. It's just that -- an opinion.
Here is a great video with Neil deGrasse Tyson about aliens.
The Thing was a movie -- a Hollywood make believe. Please tell me you are not seriously using a movie in a scientific discussion. Anyway, just as I alluded to, Hollywood culture seems to have an enormous influence of how some segments of the population think.
I couldn't resist making a funny. Of course, the Thing was just a sci-fi/horror movie with some pretty impressive special effects. It's based on a 1938 story called "Who Goes There?" by John Campbell, Jr. One Thing about the jest though is that it's very possible for dangerous viruses and bacteria (super bugs) to quickly spread around the planet. Houston Had This Superbug Problem for Years and Never Knew - NBC News
These things are Earthly microbes. Is it possible there could be microbes that may occasionally arrive on Earth from space? There's still considerable debate about the Allan Hills 84001 Martian meteorite found in Antarctica as to whether it contains biogenic features, evidence of fossilized nanobacteria? Or are they formations geological? If they're fossilized microbes, could they still exist on Mars? The answer to that is we don't know, but it's possible. Mars Life? 20 Years Later, Debate Over Meteorite Continues
NASA seems to think it's possible there might be microbes still living below the surface of Mars. We have evidence from the orbiters That water exists below the surface, and that in some locations, seasonally burst out forming dark gullies on the walls of some craters. That water could potentially be home for microbes. Once of the concerns about landing equipment on the surface, and eventually humans, is to take huge precautions to make things as sterile as possible so as not to risk contaminating anything on Mars. But it also looks at the reverse side, in that it's possible humans could pick up some microbes without knowing and transporting them back to Earth. As it is, none of the equipment is 100% sterile. There are some microbes, albeit a pretty small percentage, that hitch a ride from Earth. Chances are that if microbes exist on Mars, they're probably harmless. But to be on the safe side, we don't want any Martian microbes hitching a ride back to Earth, apart from some contained samples.
Further, there are plans for future probes to Jupiter and Saturn's moons to fly through the water vapor of geysers that erupts through the ice layer. One of the objectives is to sample the water to see if there might be any microbes present. If there are, that would be a remarkable discovery, and confirm that life exists elsewhere in the solar system. Life-Hunting Mission Would Bring Samples Back from Saturn Moon Enceladus
As someone posted earlier, Mr. Hawking might be a great physicist, but he can't see the future. I respect and admire great scientists, but I don't worship them like cult leaders. Hawking has some opinions about what might happen. It's just that -- an opinion.
Agreed, just an opinion, but sometimes very interesting opinions. I do think that some of his views are a bit extreme or far-fetched. I suspect he enjoys being in the spotlight every now and then.
Only a growing sun can destroy earth from excess heat. The moon will go too.
But that won't happens for another 2-3 billion years. Wherever we choose to go, robots will be the key to helping us get there. Robots are far superior than humans to deal with the extreme and unforgiving environments in space.
I was just about to say that if this were indeed the case, our better option would be to develop some sort of AI and the hardware to house it with the sole purpose of developing methods and plans of action to save the species. There's just no feasible way with today's current tech to colonize other worlds. Visit, yes. Colonizing is another beast entirely.
Get a 25 year timetable for development and once live, if the AI was programmed in such a way, it could learn from mistakes and make corrections on a number of things much faster than humans could (I think the proper term is AI Superintellience) so it could have the problem solved potentially in no time at all.
We already have robots on other planets. I didn't go in my research too far, just found
2 Voyager probes, rovers Spirit and Opportunity, Pioneer 10 and 11, Kepler... Can't we call them ther robots? And they are already doing smth their, in space, while we are doing our usual housework etc. Isn't it the beginning of colonization?
The only way we can even begin to colonize other worlds is if we embrace machines and artificial intelligence. Machines can survive in harsher environments, work much more efficient and longer then us, not to mention smarter computers can help us develop newer technologies such as self sustaining energy of course it would take a global catastrophe for this to happen.
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I couldn't resist making a funny. Of course, the Thing was just a sci-fi/horror movie with some pretty impressive special effects. It's based on a 1938 story called "Who Goes There?" by John Campbell, Jr. One Thing about the jest though is that it's very possible for dangerous viruses and bacteria (super bugs) to quickly spread around the planet.
