"It's a genius' conundrum."
Recent article on the Arizona Republic:
But Hawking also said survival of the human species depends on finding somewhere else in the universe to colonize.
This is where the message became contradictory.
The need to leave the planet was based on his rather dispirited view that "life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of."
Meteors from outer space could smack us out of existence.
Yeah. So?
Lightning could strike you dead on the street. You still go out, don't you?
It's nice to see what Stephen Hawking said going straight over this journalist's head. Let's try and step out of the narrow minded individualist attitude for a second, there's more to life than me me me.
Lightning isn't going to wipe out the entire species. The only thing to remotely guarentee our long term survival is to spread across the entire galaxy. Something perfectly achievable in a million years or so.