Hawking proposes galaxy quest
By John Pospisil
In the movie Galaxy Quest aliens come to Earth looking for help from actors from a cancelled sci-fi TV show, thinking that the TV show was real. Preeminent physicist and Cambridge University professor Stephen Hawking seems to be suffering from a similar misapprehension.
Hawking recently told BBC radio that: “The long-term survival of the human race is at risk as long as it is confined to a single planet.” He argues that for humanity to survive it must abandon the Earth or risk oblivion through an asteroid collision or nuclear holocaust.
Using chemical-fueled rocket technology it would take 50,000 years to reach other solar systems. Hawking’s solution is that: “Science fiction has developed the idea of warp drive, which takes you instantly to your destination.” Hawking admitted that “this would violate the scientific law, which says that nothing can travel faster than light”.
Hawking may have a point about humanity destroying itself, or being a victim of some asteroid catastrophe – but is running away from the problem a good solution (even if it were practical)? With the problem of an asteroid hit (65 million years ago an asteroid killed off the dinosaurs), other scientists suggest that it is more likely that we can develop technology that can detect and divert asteroids. And as to the threat of nuclear war, won’t simply moving the human race to another planet ensure that we also take our self-destructive tendencies to another solar system, which in time we would blow up as well? Isn’t it more important, and more practical, to simply avoid a nuclear holocaust here on Earth in the first place?
The race to the moon was the product of the Cold War and the rivalry between the US and the Soviet Union, and with passing of Cold War, I’m quite happy that the race to Mars is a more of a walk rather than a sprint. There are a lot better ways to spend the billions of dollars required to fund space travel research.
While, like every other Star Trek fan, I’d like space travel to be an every day occurrence, I think we have a got of work to do on Mother Earth before we can even start thinking of trying to reach new solar systems.
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December 4th, 2006
The believe the Idea of this was originally proposed by Frank Tipler, who in his book “The Physics of Immortality”, said “If the human species, or indeed any part of the biosphere, is to continue to survive, it must eventually leave the Earth and colonize space.”
Aside from proposing the Idea, he actually details exactly how it will be achieved, and why it must be achieved. It’s definitely an interesting read.
December 8th, 2006
Stephen Hawkings is entirely correct. Even if we solve the asteroid problem and the nucelar holocaust problem eventually our sun is going to become a red giant and swallow us. There are countless of threats that may kill off the entire human race. Colonising other planets minimizes the risk of our species going extinct. So while you may ridicule his notion of the future it is entirely necessary if we want to survive in the long run.
December 22nd, 2006
Hawking has the right vision. We may not get 5 billion years due to any number of unforseen events. We must take care of Mother Earth to preserve the resources we will need for as long as humankind will be here, and we need to figure out a way to spread to other planets. It seems farfetched now, but look at all the other unbeleivable changes in the last couple hundred years. Hawking is right - we have to see what we can do to ensure the survival of our species in the distant future.