Earth Is Under Threat and Humans Need to Leave | Stephen Hawking Says

Of course.

We're screwed otherwise.

To get with the program you need to get into Futurism. Check out Isaac Arthur.

I had a friend who was on the President's Science Advisory Council for President Reagan in the 1980's. He said preservation of the human race was an underlying motivation for the space program, at least for them, and one of the underlying reasons they supported it. There are other more proximate reasons, of course, and I don't think I've ever seen this one officially articulated. Still, I think this has been recognized at high levels for a long time.

Defo check out the SIFA link above. Those videos are brilliant. He's a bit fast and turn on sub-titles if you can't make him out. I've spent hours watching them. Truly fascinating if totally wacky and I think unlikely in quite a few cases. But hey you've gotta dream up the future. Those dreams shape it i.e. Star Trek from the 60s.

I think we need to figure out how to travel faster than light first. The Universe is pretty big...

I don't doubt we're on a downward spiral right now and will be for some time... not sure there's any imminent threat of human extinction but it seems things will be challenging as we experience the result of our massive pollution. Not just greenhouse gasses, but the spread of plastics, radioactive material and other potentially toxic substances throughout the entire world, our short-sighted petrol-based agricultural system, etc... It seems we've accomplished enough to allow massive population growth but without any wisdom to go along with it.

DaveC said:

...It seems we've accomplished enough to allow massive population growth but without any wisdom to go along with it.

Click to expand...

This may be the key question of our time. How do we cope with an ever-growing world population?

DaveC said:

I think we need to figure out how to travel faster than light first. The Universe is pretty big...

I don't doubt we're on a downward spiral right now and will be for some time... not sure there's any imminent threat of human extinction but it seems things will be challenging as we experience the result of our massive pollution. Not just greenhouse gasses, but the spread of plastics, radioactive material and other potentially toxic substances throughout the entire world, our short-sighted petrol-based agricultural system, etc... It seems we've accomplished enough to allow massive population growth but without any wisdom to go along with it.

Click to expand...

A big plus one on this.......the clock is ticking........

Cheers...

The Smokester said:

This may be the key question of our time. How do we cope with an ever-growing world population?

Click to expand...

Yet governments totally ignore this obvious massive, obvious problem.

The trouble is telling a country you can only have one child is political suicide in a democratic country.

When resources get tight wars cull quite effectively, though.

User211 said:

Yet governments totally ignore this obvious massive, obvious problem.

The trouble is telling a country you can only have one child is political suicide in a democratic country.

When resources get tight wars cull quite effectively, though.

Click to expand...

Yes, indeed. It becomes a question of conflicting values which cut to the core of human values. A contradiction in terms in many ways. I've been through the exercise in a serious, but hypothetical (academic), way.

User211 said:

Yet governments totally ignore this obvious massive, obvious problem.

The trouble is telling a country you can only have one child is political suicide in a democratic country.

When resources get tight wars cull quite effectively, though.

Click to expand...

Japan is currently the model of what happens in a closed, Westernized society that fails to have replacement levels of children. It is the oldest society in history with an inverted population pyramid and 20 years of stagnant growth and crushing, increasing debt. Europe faces a similar demographic disaster but has chosen to import a population that increases diversity at a huge societal cost.

User211 said:

Yet governments totally ignore this obvious massive, obvious problem.

The trouble is telling a country you can only have one child is political suicide in a democratic country.

When resources get tight wars cull quite effectively, though.

Click to expand...

.

Some groups capitalize on what you consider (and I agree to be) a problem.

The Cynic Speaks:
One of the problems that comes about when the intelligent people have only one or two children is that the more stupid, less intelligent, largely religious, often zealous parts of the population will out-reproduce us. . . . The good thing is, when that happens we won't have to worry about spending money on education and technology to save our species any longer because the planet will then be INFESTED by the dregs of the remaining civilization, rather than being inhabited by worthwhile humans. Finally, the imbeciles will cause the species' demise before colonization of some other planet becomes imperative to save any good that remains of our species.

To quote Kurt Vonnegut,

"Things are going to get unimaginably worse and they are never, ever going to get better."

There is a 1-2% difference in DNA between the Great Apes and us. We need the NEXT 1-2% difference between us and the Uberman to make leaving the planet to colonize elsewhere in the galaxy worthwhile.

When two year old "little Johnny" can do integral calculus, write like Aristotle and compose music like Mozart, THAT will be when it's worthwhile for us to colonize some other planet. Otherwise, our doing that is nothing more than species narcissism.

Before we all pack our hifi systems up for the next rocket off the planet we should ask ourselves is this a good time to maybe take stock of ourselves as a species.

The anthropocentric view that life on earth is all about us is in itself a fascinating discussion. The notion that we sow as we reap may be the end of that discussion.

I really like humanity, no in truth I love humanity for all its brilliance and at times childishly horrendous behaviour... but truth is we do actually threaten life on this planet. Not just our own but all species. The fact that reducing consumption and being sustainable is actually quite possible while being fair to our kind and also the planet and yet we are really doing our best to ignore this. The issue of climate change and us moving to a super low carbon culture are part of the challenges that will require hardship for all going forwards but change needs to/will happen and it is the fair nature of that change that we determine.

The notion that we as a civilisation are just going to be able to hop onto an escape pod and leave earth en mass and also leave our mess behind us isn't a very realistic one nor an at all responsible one. Will the ark fit all? As a plan b it really sucks and that is another example of the stupid gamble we take when we continue to avoid doing what we ALL really need to do. We can't just keep going forward with life as usual and business as usual not dealing with some simple rationalisations of how we need to simply change. Certainly we can't/shouldn't just take leave of the essential critical need to reduce our consumption as a species based on some dodgy predictions about how long we have to resolve any of this and build that darn rocket.

I saw a video of a scientist getting super excited about two 20 year projects currently moving towards mapping a human consciouness so we will then be able to download ourselves so we can become essentially immortal but living in the confines of an Apple Mac. All so we can then journey through space for the kinds of light years it will take to get us to some potentially habitable planet. Hmmm, now that's what I call really living. And smart.

Let's trash a perfectly good planet with an infinitely valuable resource of millions of years of biological development in our rush to evolve to the point where we can hop on a shuttle and forever escape the responsibility of our behaviour.

It's easy to love humanity and go on with platitudes about how important it is to save us all as a species yet what do we really do with our time and our resources. How much time and energy, and undue aggression do we debate and argue about how fatiguing digital is, and don't get us all started on justifying the value of hifi gear that could feed many of the starving for many life times to come... and yes, I am as guilty as all.

This discussion is one of the most important ones we can have, I hope it doesn't get lost in the noise and drama of all the things we worry about when we don't have the greatest sense of meaning in our lives.

What are we consuming and why? What is consuming us? Is any of this truly nourishing and what are we nourishing within ourselves, and for our children, and our community, and our people and our planet?

I have, in part, a much more pessimistic view of this subject, but not life.

I don't believe we need to worry about colonizing space. As we exist today, we won't last that long. There are certainly some amazing individuals on this planet but to suggest that if only "intelligent" people reproduced, and that all would be well, overlooks the obvious. It is very intelligent individuals that are the corporate CEO's who are on the far end of the greed scale - all over the world. Greed creates pollution, stock manipulation, murder ... not lack of intelligence; amazingly smart people are the politicians who care ONLY about power - at whatever cost; educators who care less about providing real education and more about advancing an agenda - all over the world. The list goes on. Even assuming that 95% of the worlds population has great intentions and the intelligence to execute a world saving plan, the other 5% can (and will) over rule them. How many Germans believed in Hitler's view vs the entire German population?

While I see much to applaud about humanity, selfishness, greed and pride (not the good kind) rule the day.

Call it fantasy if you prefer, but even the first two "children" on earth (Adam and Eve) couldn't follow the rules. And one of their children murdered his brother. And absolutely nothing has changed. If you think the Bible is a joke, then read history.

For most, this is not going to end well.

BUT and contrary to my above words, I live life to the fullest and according to most who know me, am a very positive person. I refuse to watch or read the (almost always bad) news. Headlines, maybe. Details, never. I refuse to be around negative people. I focus my time and attention on either those things that give me pleasure or those things that can have longer term benefit for others. It may sound like platitude, but I now follow this: "work as though you will live forever; live as though you will die tomorrow."

I'll be 60 this September. The earth is cooling, the earth is warming, over population will be a big problem by 2000, we'll run out of petroleum by 2010, the sky is falling, the sky is falling. The hysteria idea of the decade has come and gone. Humans are embrionic in development, we have forever to go. We're what, 125 years into the era of the internal combustion engine? This era will fade as the next one comes along.

Jody Foster, in 'Contact' wanted to ask the alien species "how did you overcome the aquisition of technology" i.e. without killing yourselves? To me, as a water treatment professional, pollution presents our greatest threat. A government official accidentally said it recently, "we are managing a degrading resource." Jaques Costeau said if the oceans die life on earth has about 30 years. We're a long way (?) from that, but whenever someone chooses to see if molecule/compound XYZ is in the water, they find it. We are creating a toxic soup... the original idea "the solution to pollution is dilution" can't work—some compounds exist far too long and we have no idea what happens to toxic threat as the compounds combine in the environment or our bodies. The ever increasing rates of cancer and autism should ring the bell, instead we distract attention and focus on nonsense like global warming. (Preceeding ice ages tell us warming and cooling are cyclic, the idea we can somehow have a meaningful impact shows the hubris of the intellectual class.) Fortunately, humans are tremendously adaptable and creative, and as I said, we are still embrionic in development. Will we survive the aquisition of technology?

I think Stephen Hawking is brilliant, but to say our leaving the planet and colonizing elsewhere is to ignore the actual problem, which is that we are human.

Who will decide and how will those in charge decide who will get to populate a new planet that presumably should have some life already unless we plan to terreform an entire planet for ourselves.

Will only the brightest and most illustrious of us get to go? That alone will create problems. The truth is, a viable population needs drones--dummies, less intelligent members to do the dirty work. Any theoretical physicists, chemists, neuroscientists or physicians here interested in being sanitation workers? Somebody has to do that.

We should not get involved in populating other planets until we have our own planet in order with regard to the hierarchy of its members and how a good society should be run. If we do get involved elsewhere in the galaxy, it will only be the next place we made a mess of things. You want to spread life through the galaxy? SEND ARTHROPODS--THE CHOSEN PHYLUM. They inhabit the land, sea and air, have been around for 600 million years, many unchanged for 300 million and are responsible for 80% of all species.

George Carlin had it right...


Key quote:

I’m tired of these self-righteous environmentalists, these white bourgeoise liberals who think the only thing wrong with this country is there aren’t enough bicycle paths. People trying to make the world safe for their Volvos. Besides, environmentalist don’t give a **** about the planet, they don’t care about the planet, not in the abstract they don’t, not in the abstract they don’t. You know what they’re interested in? A clean place to live. Their own habitat.

Click to expand...