Maybe Vista was created to throw the aliens off? Maybe it was an intentional ploy by Microsoft to protect our computers from aliens?

Sounds like Stevie has been watching too many science fiction shows or he's written a new book and needs some headlines.
He's in a wheel chair and is a quad and uses a machine to speak. Chances are that if ET actually showed up, he's be able to fix old Stevie.

BTW Chuck Norris actually came up with the theory of relativity.
Then when Einstein tried to steal it, chuck gave him a rounhouse kick and turned him into Steven Hawking.

Or, maybe, just maybe, ET would see our race for what it really is. A violent, flawed, evil race that has obtained knowledge without wisdom.
Maybe ET would decide that we are not worthy of existance and pose a threat to all those around us because we can't be trusted with our own technology so we should be eliminated.
Just like we eliminate anthrax, polio, typhoid, etc.

We are capable of doing great things but we are also capable of donig incredibly bad and desctructive things. How long has our race ever gone without some type of war?

I don't consider ants any threat, but that does not stop me from exterminating them if they're populating someplace i want for my self.

I'm going to side with Mr. Hawking on this one.

We'd be dead meat if ET found us.

Globally?

Probably not a single day, ever.

We Earthlings clearly have only 2 options:

1) Build a Death Star and go on the offensive before they get us; or

2) Learn from the Columbus/Native Americans part of Hawking's statements by making Earth an alien casino destination and we'll simply bilk them out of all their alien wealth with superior "house odds"

Time is running short, which will it be?

Will there be prime rib buffets at the casinos?

That and all the saurian brandy a Scottish warp drive engineer can drink.

(Exposing way too much nerdy Star Trek knowledge with that post)

An alien arrival could be a horrible thing considering what they could do. If they made it all the way here, they more than likely have far more advanced technology and thus far more efficient methods for either making us do what they want, or killing us.

But imagine what that could do to world governments and humanity as a whole, to have a common enemy? A world government would quickly be established and a world military collaboration formed to fight. If the aliens showed up, started being hostile, but ended up not being too hard to beat right away it could very well be like WWII- only the entire world comes out ahead like the United States. Economy booming, morale booming, and world peace.

We just need another race of beings to kill in order to unite all of us.

...and this is what they would know and see of us, first impressions are lasting ones.

First TV broadcast worldwide - Berlin - 1930s
First TV broadcast worldwide - Berlin - 1930s | podblanc

There I go again, singing out of tune.

There are untold billions of other planets that have more of everything. Why even bother with Earth? If you could just go somewhere else that does not have an annoying race of things in your way why bother.

well...we have a panty thread and 911s! reason enough I say

Interesting idea but I'm not sure I would welcome such a gargantuan task.
We're having enough issues with the war on terror.

We could be close, or they could just be in the neighborhood, and pick up Hitlers rants beamed into space 60+ years ago.

Bad luck is all that is required to get wiped out. Just ask the ant that i happened to see crawling across my computer desk this morning.

Obama would probably want to give them amnesty as well.

They'd take our gameplan with the native Americans and give us their equivalent of Small Pox infected blankets, and their version of Firewater.

Yeah I'd pretty much punch the throttle and warp on by if I picked that up on subspace... "we ain't stoppin' here Gork- next planet"

lolo, maybe we have a few alien lurkers here in PPOT ;)

I guess I could accept them if they drive a P-car :D

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His computer sounds like the default Text to Speech feature that started showing up Macs around System 7.5 (~1995).

You never know, they may already be here:

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I doubt that would bother him. I sure he wouldn't see it as insulting. I'm sure he has many American friends and colleagues. Now if he had a French accented computer......