Stephen Hawking says we should colonise space.?

Question

He thinks that we should move to another Planet in order for our species to survive. If so, should we take him with us ?

Answer 1

Of course we should, flying somewhere only requires sitting down anyway n he's like the smartest guy ever. You can't discriminate because he is disabled.

Answer 2

Ha ha, yes lets all insult the greatest living scientist. That shows how much we love ignorance. I cant imagine people would be saying that if we were talking about Michael Jordan. LOOK we need to colonise space because the earth is going to be consumed by the sun in about 600,000,000 years (OK i admit its not that urgent) in the long, long term of our species we're going to have to come up with a way to travel faster than light and enter hyperspace (if it exists) so that we can survive not just the end of the solar system but the end of the universe. Colonisation of space is not a realistic endeavour in our lifetimes. While Earth is save surely the scientists need to sit tight and keep coming up with theories. When its time to abandon earth great scientists will be the first people to put in the ship. Well... thats how it should be. I suspect people would vote to save their favourite football player instead.

Answer 3

being one of the most intelectual men on the planet, i would have thought that Stephen Hawkings would have been in one of the first seats reserved.
As for speaking like an American as your ealier questioners stated, i think that it is the voice of the computer that Dr Hawkings uses to comunicate, this is a reflection upon our British inventivness and lack of marketing ability.
Diversification of our species will be a must if we are to survive, using the land to live upon will be a outdated and useless tatic, better we adapt to life in the oceans and in space, trying to locate a planet that as all the attributes of this earth is proving a task that is beyond this generation of science,never mind getting there.
regards LF

Answer 4

First of all, Dr Hawking and other scientists who echo his sentiments don't actually think we can successfully do this now. He is suggesting we should be making efforts now to make this possible in the future by looking into what is necessary and making it happen. "Building colonies on the moon and mars will require more than 10 times of all of the Earth's money." Oh really? I'm fairly sure you're wrong there. While the cost of such ventures is high, it is within our means. It's a matter of what governments are willing to invest. They have the money, but not the will, currently. The technology is there for manned colonies on the Moon and there were plans to make this happen in the next decade or so, though those have dwindled lately. Mars missions are a little farther out but we have an understanding of what we need to make such a thing work. "Seeing as Earth-like planets are much further into space, and travel to them is impossible and will always be impossible" Always will be impossible? And just how do you know that? Sure, the prospect of sending people to planets in other solar systems seems dim right now, but assuming you can predict what we will be able to do, or more precisely, what we won't be able to do is more arrogant than what you seem to think Dr Hawking is being now. Also, we can start by colonizing local worlds. While none of our neighbor planets or moons are ever likely to be as hospitable as Earth (except possibly Mars), there are many candidates for sustainable (with the right technologies) colonies. "shouldn't we concentrate our time in making our lives better and worthwhile here on earth, and forget about space once and for all?" Yes to the first, no to the second. We can improve our lives here while seeking out ways to expand our horizons into space, and in fact we have an imperative to do so. The population of humans is going to continue to rise. Our growth rate is unsustainable on this planet. Unless we start killing off large volumes of people on the planet, overpopulation will begin to do that for us. So, if you find neither of those prospects acceptable, we're going to have to find some new places for some of these people to live. "It is a useless endeavor, and should only be studied by astronomers and astrophysicists who are being funded by private institutions (university tenured-track professors, most likely), and not my tax-dollars." Well you're entitled to your opinion and your vote, but I prefer to rely on smarter people than you, like Dr Hawking and those astrophysicists and astronomers, to determine what is and is not a useless endeavor in this regard. If you really think we ought to turn inward and work on overpopulating this planet until we die from it, that's your call.

Answer 5

He's right us needing to get some of humanity off this planets which has been and is good to us. Stay though and we'll definitely end up like every other species, extinct. If he wants to risk going there and is allowed to go it's his choice.

Answer 6

I think we should learn to live respectably on our own planet before having the audacity to go and infest some other unsuspecting orb.

But yes, let's take him with us so he can see first hand what a daft idea it was.

Answer 7

He is very ill, and probably won't survive another few years, so I would say that it wouldn't be practical for him to come along. That neing said, I would suggest that we download his mind onto a floppy disk and take that along with us!

Interestingly, since he said that NASA announced plans to build a perminant moon base! They are obviously taking him seriously!

Answer 8

I'm sure this question has been on here before, and as I said last time, I ain't going, I am staying, well I might go and live on the Greek Islands somewhere, YASOOOOOOOOUUU.

Answer 9

I totally agree with him - not like that validates his proposition as he is infinitely more intelligent than me.

And to answer your question - yes we should take him, or his genetic material with us when we go and those should be divided and dispersed to each colonized planet.

Definitely.

Answer 10

Sounds like a defeatist or escapist idea......... if we can't save planet earth, we would equally destroy other planets wherever we run to. We need to change our habits.... not habitat!!