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Stephen Hawking warned that humanity might face extinction within 100 years.
Stephen Hawking, the renowned physicist, has warned that humans must develop the means to travel to other planets or face extinction within 100 years. According to him, human extinction could be caused by climate change, epidemics, overpopulation and/or asteroid strikes.
Stephen Hawking Warns That Humans Need to Colonize Other Planets or Go Extinct in 100 Years
Hawking has issued his warning in “Expedition to New Earth”. This is an upcoming documentary that will be shown this summer as part of “Tomorrow’s World” the BBC’s returning science series. Other episodes will cover topics such as robotics, aging, and 3-D printing.
During “Expedition,” Hawking, along with his former student Christophe Galfard and an engineering expert, Professor Danielle George, will discuss the possibility of traveling to other planets. They will explore the advances in rocket science, biology, and astronomy that could make colonizing other planets feasible.
Stephen Hawking has often called for humans to colonize other planets as an insurance policy against a planetary disaster. In 2008, during a commemoration of NASA’s 50th anniversary, he said that the moon might be a potential base for space travel. From here, humans could seemingly travel to other parts of the outer space. During that same lecture, he added that Mars would be “the obvious next target.”
Last year, Hawking stated that a disaster capable of wiping out the human race was a “near certainty.” He told attendees at the Oxford University Union that,
“Although the chance of disaster to planet Earth in a given year may be quite low, it adds up over time, and becomes a near certainty in the next 1,000 or 10,000 years.”
Hawking added that he expected humans to have developed space travel by that time, so there would be some survivors on other planets.
Stephen Hawking’s gloomy prediction of planetary destruction may seem incredible on the face of it, but it might not be as far-fetched or unbelievable as it sounds. Consider: if you were to flip a coin ten times, you would probably not get “heads” five times in a row.
Flip it a thousand times, and a sequence of “heads” becomes a lot more likely. Similarly, the odds of a planetary catastrophe happening during a particular year are remote. It could very well happen within the century, however.
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Deborah Nielsen
Deborah Nielsen never thought she could be a journalist and a good one, we might add. Having a strong passion for music, she started singing at an early age, but it was only in college that she formed her first band. Her music education won her a job as a news reporter at the local radio station as well as the chance of meeting her favorite artists. In 2013, Deborah took things forward by starting her own blog and contributing to various news related websites. Currently, she covers a broad area of subjects and topics from various fields.
