His warnings may surprise you as they are far beyond the realms of the mainstream beliefs that human civilization may well be ended by global warming.
Firstly, Hawking is fiercely wary of strong artificial intelligence (AI); Hawking strongly believes AI that exudes intelligence equal to or exceeding that of a human could destroy the human race, and was one of many scientists who wrote an open letter warning of the risks (as well as the benefits) of AI.
Suddenly, all of those futuristic movies showing the destruction of humans by robots don’t seem as far-fetched, do they? The Terminator, Minority Report, Transformers, Wall-E, Austin Powers, The Matrix, Star Wars; were these movie directors sending us a message?
Hawking believes our aggressive nature could result in catastrophic events that could end human civilization, such as a major nuclear war that could end all civilization and extinct the human race.
With increasingly violent movies, video games and, in general, more violent behaviors within our current human civilization, sadly backed up by increasingly violent crime statistics, we would have to agree that human aggression is a major cause for concern.
Could it only be a matter of time before the horrific trend of bullied teenagers opening fire on their schools escalates when these psychopathic adults decide to go one step further and bomb the whole world?
Hawking believes that if intelligent alien life does indeed exist, it likely won’t be friendly towards humans, and could aim at conquering and colonizing whatever planets they visit.
With so many alien movies release, many people believe this is the government’s way of familiarizing us with the fact that aliens are, in fact, real and will try and wipe out our human race. But, will these aliens be green bug-eyed monsters or will they look just like you and I? We can’t help but visualize those scenes from The Men In Black movies…
We’d love to hear your opinion on which of the above you think is the biggest threat to the human race; or perhaps even a fourth threat that has not yet been identified?
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Dear Sophie,
Please allow me to begin by first thanking you for having written the article. Also then allow me to mention that if there is one force that has had it's say over all of life on this planet, then that force surely must be time. Or to be more precise it's time measured and witnessed in the form of global climates or weather patterns. Modern science is but a child picking up clues. Clues that are yet but not all gathered pieces of a zig saw puzzle. And each time a new clue is picked up it becomes impatient. It's allowed us to make great technological advancements. However the cost has come at the price of a late awareness of it's impact on our planet's delicate eco-system.
For maybe the first time a species of this planet has caused a change in its weather patterns.
And so for now maybe mankind's strength, attention and determination must now be focused on accepting the responsibility by making amends and solving the crisis caused by our participation to a change that has disrupted the very delicate eco system of our planet.
Time and its measurement is but an factor that cannot be reversed. However it can be stretched or squeezed. Thus mankind must use this fact to ensure that henceforth every decision they make or step they take has the before mentioned sense of responsibility at its core.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Have a good day. :)
I apologize for the few hasty grammatical errors I made earlier.
P.S. the only reason why these are called smartphones is that they make us look dumb. :)
There are many credible end of the world theorist, with a lot of hypothetical scenarios, but if you ask me I believe the end of mankind is more likely to come about by something as simple as an unstoppable, man made germ warfare, carried into each Country simultaneously throughout the world, by suicide Terrorists. Starting from infecting all the International passengers on flights which will be easy, as since smoking was banned on all aircrafts, the air is now only recirculated, instead of replaced every few seconds to save fuel & money! To Quote the great T.S. Eliot — 'This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper.'
I'm sure Stephen is correct as to the 3 things he sites that can end human civilization, but I believe there are at least two more....
*an event beyond our control such as a meteor or the sun exploding etc.
*mankind's behavior and treatment of our environment, visa vi pollution of the air, water and soil.
I am a simple, middle aged man not in the same stratosphere, intellectually, as Mr. Hawking. My life experience tells me the likely two leading causes that will bring the end of mankind are;
1.) Man's inability to get along and accept one another. Proven throughout time, again and again, and as true as any discovery man has ever made. Regardless of how prosperous or civilized we believe we are, the extraordinarily heinous acts we commit on one another and our selfishness and insatiable desire for material possessions tell the story. We know so many go without but our actions speak to who we really are...far from civil and humane. In our hearts, we all know what we should do and what needs to be done. Particularly those of us, who in comparison, have so much. Our hypocrisy knows no bounds and I am no exception. Our ability to rationalize the things we do and don't do is beyond comprehension. Whether we are driving a $70,000 car or wearing a $30,000 watch or flying planes into buildings; these examples reflect what are most important to us. The root of all evil and ugliness in the world is simple; our unwillingness to get along with one another and help one another. If everyone had enough to eat, a home, an education, healthcare and safe and accepted way of life, these tragedies and atrocities would all but disappear. It is truly astonishing, in fact scary, what the human heart and mind can accept as right. In Steven Spielberg's film, "Schindler's List", there is a scene towards the end of the film, at the end of the war, where Schindler is lamenting about had he only sold his car, how many more lives he could have saved... this is a poignant moment as Schindler reaches the height of humanity. He is realizing before our very eyes, the only right thing to do is to save as many lives as he can but at the same time realizing he didn't grasp this understanding soon enough. Schindler is forever cared for by the Jews for his actions of saving so many, however he is forever haunted and never really escapes his feelings of deep remorse, knowing he could have saved more. A lesson seen by all those who viewed the film but did the lesson resonate... did we take away this gift and implement it into our lives? In this scene, Schindler borders on insanity as he realizes all the things he could have done but did not do. When we finally realizes the truth, it is devastating. Humanity needs to learn the lesson Schindler came to know and Spielberg allowed us to see in his film. Not that it should matter but for perspective, I want the readers to know I am not Jewish.
2) The environment is the other leading cause I believe will end our existence. We all know the right things to do. We all may not believe in the cause of global warming and that is actually fine...perhaps there is some other natural cause for the rise in temperature. The fact that the temperature is climbing, regardless of the cause, should be a call to action for all of us? Do we not know that poor air quality, poor water quality and pouring poison into the soil will ultimately cause all life to suffer from disease and ultimately cause death?
Again, the truly amazing take away from all of this is that human kind finds a way to rationalize and we continue our behavior. We instinctively know we should work together as one and resolve these issues yet we proceed and march head long into a certainty we all agree on.
Signed,
An awakening, yet still hypocritical, fellow world citizen....
I agree that the downfall of civilization will be global warming caused by our own hand, but just the start. It's the meat and dairy industry that is causing the majority of greenhouse gases, not to mention massive water pollution and global hunger. I believe the final act of human kind will be worldwide wars over drinkable water and food. Please learn the true cost of food.
My thoughts on alien life is that they do look just like, humans from other corners of space. As for all the supposed stories of alien encounters, many of which report little creatures, I have a thought to that. What if people from other worlds created a hardy, little lifeform that had little nutritional needs (small bodies), high intelligence (larger heads), eyes able to see more things than just visible light and other details (large dark eyes), just so they could explore the universe safely with these buggers?
Fly out, gather data, return home. Only some of their ships break, as all things we build do. Other than that, I doubt non-human beings exist with our level of intelligence and sentience no matter how much I want to believe.