Hawking Believes We Are Not Alone In the Universe

[Geekyfanboy]

Hawking Believes We Are Not Alone In the Universe

Source: Fox News Sci-Tech

WASHINGTON — Famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has been thinking a lot about the cosmic question, "Are we alone?"

The answer is probably not, he says.

If there is life elsewhere in the universe, Hawking asks why haven't we stumbled onto some alien broadcasts in space, maybe something like "alien quiz shows?"

Hawking's comments were part of a lecture at George Washington University on Monday in honor of NASA's 50th anniversary. He theorized that there are possible answers to whether there is extraterrestrial life.

One option is that there likely isn't life elsewhere. Or maybe there is intelligent life elsewhere, but when it gets smart enough to send signals into space, it also is smart enough to make destructive nuclear weapons.

Hawking said he prefers the third option:

"Primitive life is very common and intelligent life is fairly rare," he then quickly added: "Some would say it has yet to occur on earth."

However, because alien life might not have DNA like us, Hawking warned: "Watch out if you would meet an alien. You could be infected with a disease with which you have no resistance."

The 66-year-old British cosmologist, who suffers from ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, and must speak through a mechanical device, believes "if the human race is to continue for another million years, we will have to boldly go where no one has gone before."

Hawking compared people who don't want to spend money on human space exploration to those who opposed the journey of Christopher Columbus in 1492.

[iceman]

Ultimately everything he says make sense, we don't have to look far to see that within the next 50 years our planet will be taxed to meet the needs of our planets growing population. The current rise in oil and wheat prices will only continue to grow as our need outstrips our capacity to grow and find future sources of natural resources.

If the Human race hopes to survive it will ultimately look have to look outside our solar system and planet in order to survive, otherwise we look to a future with mass starvation and death through disease in order to reduce our population to size in which our planet is capable of supporting.

[wraith1701]

My 2 cents:

I think I'm not alone here in my belief that there most likely IS other life in the universe.  In fact, with the HUGE number of stars out there, I think the odds against us being alone are very remote.  However, whether or not that life is anything like us (a la Star Trek) is another story. 

If there is other intelligent life out there, it would probably be so different from us, we would initially have trouble recognizing it as intelligent (or possibly, even recognizing it as being life).  For all we know, our astronomers could be picking up signals or transmissions of intelligent origin on a regular basis, but filtered through our frame of reference, these signals are interpreted as being naturally occurring phenomena. 

And if we did detect recognisable signals that were undeniably of intelligent alien origin (like a broadcast of some extraterrestrial news show or something), the odds are it would be from a source so remote, the broadcast would be hundreds of thousands of years old.  As sad as it sounds, any signals we come across could very likely be from some alien civilization that has been dead for millions of years. 

What I'm trying to say is, I think there is life out there.  I think there is probably even intelligent life out there.  But I doubt that we will ever be able to make real-time contact with it.  I wish it could happen, but I just don't think it's likely.

[sheldor]

LONDON – Famed mathematician Stephen Hawking was rushed to a hospital Monday and was seriously ill, Cambridge University said.

The university said Hawking has been fighting a chest infection for several weeks, and was being treated at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, the university city northeast of London.

"Professor Hawking is very ill," said Gregory Hayman, the university's head of communications. "He is undergoing tests. He has been unwell for a couple of weeks."

Later in the afternoon, Hayman said Hawking was "now comfortable but will be kept in hospital overnight."

Hawking, 67, gained renown for his work on black holes, and has remained active despite being diagnosed at 21 with ALS, (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), an incurable degenerative disorder also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

Brian Dickie, director of research at the Motor Neurone Disease Association, said only 5 percent of people diagnosed with ALS survive for 10 years or longer.

Hawking "really is at the extreme end of the scale when it comes to survival," Dickie said.

For some years, Hawking has been almost entirely paralyzed, and he communicates through an electronic voice synthesizer activated by his fingers.

Hawking was involved in the search for the great goal of physics — a "unified theory" — which would resolve contradictions between Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, which describes the laws of gravity that govern the motion of large objects like planets, and the Theory of Quantum Mechanics, which deals with the world of subatomic particles.

"A complete, consistent unified theory is only the first step: our goal is a complete understanding of the events around us, and of our own existence," he wrote in his best-selling book, "A Brief History of Time," published in 1988.

In a more accessible sequel "The Universe in a Nutshell," published in 2001, Hawking ventured into concepts like supergravity, naked singularities and the possibility of a universe with 11 dimensions.

He announced last year that he would step down from his post as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, a title once held by the great 18th-century physicist Isaac Newton. However, the university said Hawking intended to continue working as Emeritus Lucasian Professor of Mathematics.

Hawking had canceled an appearance at Arizona State University on April 6 because of his illness.

"Professor Hawking is a remarkable colleague. We all hope he will be amongst us again soon," said Professor Peter Haynes, head of the university's Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics.

___

On the Net: http://www.hawking.org.uk

[cosmonaut]

I hope Hawking will recover soon.

But I'd like to contribute something to the original topic:

"It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination."
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

I think there is life out there, but they will not visit. The odds are quite convincing:

[Feathers]

Isn't that the fotnote to the main article?

The one that goes: Population: None.

Rather, I think what Hawking's trying to say is:

"Space, is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mindbogglingly big it is. I mean you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space."
From the same source

[cosmonaut]

I don't have the book at hand, but I think you're right.
I like Adams for elegantly proofing there is not a single populated planet - including ours. You might object - if you exist. ;)

It's the Drake equation that convinced me that extraterrestrial life must exist. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation

And now an insider joke for the British:
Feathers: Do you know where your towel is?
cosmonaut: Yes. On the sunlounger occupying the best spot on the beach!

(stereotypes...)

[Feathers]

And now an insider joke for the British:
Feathers: Do you know where your towel is?
cosmonaut: Yes. On the sunlounger next to the beach!

Ha! :D

Stereotypes is right!