Posted on 04/25/2010 9:53:47 AM PDT by Pontiac
THE aliens are out there and Earth had better watch out, at least according to Stephen Hawking. He has suggested that extraterrestrials are almost certain to exist — but that instead of seeking them out, humanity should be doing all it that can to avoid any contact.
Hawking’s logic on aliens is, for him, unusually simple. The universe, he points out, has 100 billion galaxies, each containing hundreds of millions of stars. In such a big place, Earth is unlikely to be the only planet where life has evolved.
He suggests that aliens might simply raid Earth for its resources and then move on: “We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet. I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach.”
He concludes that trying to make contact with alien races is “a little too risky”. He said: “If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.”
Hawking has suggested the possibility of alien life before but his views have been clarified by a series of scientific breakthroughs, such as the discovery, since 1995, of more than 450 planets orbiting distant stars, showing that planets are a common phenomenon.
Hawking’s belief in aliens places him in good scientific company. In his recent Wonders of the Solar System BBC series, Professor Brian Cox backed the idea, too, suggesting Mars, Europa and Titan, a moon of Saturn, as likely places to look.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
I just don’t see the economic benefit in raiding Earth for mineral wealth.
Any aliens with the technology to raid Earth would have no need to.
But then again, they could have the motives of Democrats or muslims.
That is possible.
Totalitarian mentality probably would not be xenophobic.
The desire to control others totally is an all-consuming desire.
Since we don’t know what they need and what their morality is we are safer not contacting them.
I’d be more concerned that they would find us delicious, tasting a little bit like their version of chicken!
Futher proof Hawking is an idiot.
Why would any species capable of interstellar travel want Earth as an energy resource? Some estimate that one would need AT LEAST 4.5 × 10^17 J of energy to accelerate to 1/10th the speed of light. There are far more efficient energy resources in the universe. If the aliens had some kind of super advanced wormhole tunneling or quantum transmission technology, what need would they have for a medium sized planet?
The only thing exceptional about this planet is DNA-based life. I find it far more likely that we would be a curiosity or simply ignored by an advanced alien race.
What if they’re looking to colonize?
Let’s not be cruel now. If a disease weakens the body, it almost certainly weakens blood flow to the brain. He did fine work in the past.
Ha! Just try to get a word in edgewise.
Yeah, I seen it. There came that alien outta that there spaceship with nothing on but antennae. I said, “don’t look Ethel,” but it was too late, she’d already been turned into a turnip.
Life HAD to start some where FIRST... WHy not HERE?...
If they did it would be cheaper to grow human tissue in a vat than to capture us and transport us off world to their markets.
“I just don’t see the economic benefit in raiding Earth for mineral wealth.”
Maybe they don’t need minerals but they need slaves. Or maybe they just need a place to crash during their intergalactic journeys... It’s a little hard to predict what would be in the mind of someone born and raised at the center of a star. Hawking is probably correct though that humans shouldn’t assume that we’d want them over for dinner.
After all, it could be chocolate.
True, but the same logic, it could have started out somewhere else and generated a more advanced culture.
Its that noisy mouse that catches the attention of the cat....
I don’t disagree.
My point is addressing that invading for mineral or biological looting does not make economic sense.
Invasion to simply take over the planet for colonization is the only reason that would make sense.
The biggest danger is that of cultural colonization in my opinion. (Look up the cargo cult)
Aliens might want a planet with no life at all and incapable of supporting life - for the resources. They might want one with intelligent life for any of a number of reasons. Unless they are looking for a planet that has life but at a low level of mental development, listening to the liberal media will convince them to stay away.
... they want our women!
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