It’s time to leave earth
p2pnet.net OT News:- The human race has already despoiled the earth, with unflagging help from the corporate energy sectors in most industrialized nations, so now it’s probably time to move to outer space, the inner reaches of our sector being already littered with thousands of pieces earth-made space garbage.
In fact, future generations will have to leave our planet to ensure the survival of the species, says famed physicist Stephen Hawking.
Hawking was being awarded Britain’s Royal Society Copley Medal for his contributions to theoretical cosmology, other recipients being Charles Darwin, Michael Faraday and Captain James Cook.
“The long-term survival of the human race is at risk as long as it is confined to a single planet,” The Independent has him saying, adding, “once we spread out into space and establish independent colonies, our future should be safe. There isn’t anywhere like the Earth in the solar system, so we would have to go to another star.”
Hawking suggests matter/antimatter annihilation, “could allow us to reach speeds just under the speed of light,” says Guardian Online, “this would enable us to reach the nearest star within just six years, a journey that would otherwise take over 50,000 years.
“If the start of a new civilisation could very well happen within our lifetime, It is time to start preparing ourselves for the big move. But that leaves a tricky question: who would you send into space to keep the human race going and why?”
Also See:
The Independent – We must travel to the stars to save the human race, says Hawking, December 1, 2006
Guardian Online – Life on Mars, December 1, 2006
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December 2nd, 2006 at 2:55 pm
I’d send Bush and Hemming on a one-way trip to a new planet in another solar system.
Think of the “off”-spring they would have….
December 3rd, 2006 at 3:07 am
now I know who was responsible for creating the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius_Cybernetics_Corporation
December 3rd, 2006 at 9:27 pm
Hawking must be watching “Firefly” reruns.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_in_fiction#Firefly
But seriously, before we all pick up and leave for the stars I think we need to do our best to heal whatever damage we’ve done to this planet first. It’d be a shame if we went and “despoiled” other worlds just because Humanity did not require itself to clean up its mess at home.
If Hawking is right, and I believe that when it comes to space exploration, travel and eventual colonization, he is. If only because it’s still a grand idea even if it also becomes an economic necessity. If so, then we as a species would need to become something more than locusts, a blight on the face of the universe. We can only do that if we first learn to be responsible home owners. Otherwise, the lesson we’d take to the stars is that exploitation is not only profitable but socially acceptable.
Because, like, you know, there’s always gonna be another planet we can trash, right dude?
December 3rd, 2006 at 11:39 pm
Well, I for one, would send georgie w. The sooner he’s gone – and the farther he goes, the safer the future of Earth’s population will be.
December 5th, 2006 at 10:37 pm
Feel free to be the first to leave, then, Mr. Hawking. Nobody much wants you here, anyway.
December 6th, 2006 at 10:38 pm
There are a lot of other people I’d rather not share this planet with, like crack addicts, meth-heads, drunk drivers, wife beaters, pedophiles, rapists and people who listen to Rush “Hillbilly Heroin” Cheese-for-Brains Limbaugh.
Stephen Hawking, regardless of what you might think of him or his ideas, is a respected member of society. He’s fought long and hard to survive and contribute to humanity despite great obstacles. The world is a better place with him in it, nutty ideas and all.
January 10th, 2007 at 12:23 am
G.W.Bush wants to return to the moon.
Just let him programm the flight plan and get some bretzels on board and the job should be done !