Steven Hawking: No more talking to ET's

[m21sniper]

Hawking says aliens would F us up:

LONDON (AFP) – Aliens may exist but mankind should avoid contact with them as the consequences could be devastating, British scientist Stephen Hawking warned Sunday.

"If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans," said the astrophysicist in a new television series, according to British media reports.

The programmes depict an imagined universe featuring alien life forms in huge spaceships on the hunt for resources after draining their own planet dry.

"Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach," warned Hawking.

The doomsday scenario is suggested in the series "Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking" on the Discovery Channel, which began airing in the United States on Sunday.

On the probability of alien life existing, he says: "To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational.

"The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like."

Glowing squid-like creatures, herds of herbivores that can hang onto a cliff face and bright yellow predators that kill their prey with stinging tails are among the creatures that stalk the scientist's fantastical cosmos.

Mankind has already made a number of attempts to contact extraterrestrial civilisations.

In 2008, American space agency NASA beamed the Beatles song "Across the Universe" into deep space to send a message of peace to any alien that happens to be in the region of Polaris -- also known as the North Star -- in 2439.

But the history of humanity's efforts to contact aliens stretches back some years.

The US probes Pioneer 10 and 11 were launched in 1972 and 1973 bearing plaques of a naked man and woman and symbols seeking to convey the positions of the Earth and the Sun.

Voyager 1 and 2, launched in 1977, each carry a gold-plated copper phonogram disk with recordings of sounds and images on Earth.

[BGCarrera32]

Dude I'd hold out for it, you might get to repo a spaceship. That'd be a trip.

[RWebb]

goddam aliens

we need a sky fence on our border

[legion]

Maybe it's not zombies we are waiting for...

[nostatic]

it's a cookbook!!!

[legion]

No, this is a cookie recipe:

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by BGCarrera32

Dude I'd hold out for it, you might get to repo a spaceship. That'd be a trip.

Yeah...that would be a definite career highlight.

Currently my most exciting moment is hood surfing on a Nissan Maxima through a construction zone in rush hour traffic at speeds up to 50mph, with my partner in pursuit the entire time in his 1999 Trans Am.

Ah, the memories...

[legion]

Just remember, despite what Hollywood says, Alien OSes are not compatible with Mac or Windows.

[BGCarrera32]

But then Windows usually isn't compatible with Windows either. I think Windows is, in fact, written by aliens.

[M.D. Holloway]

I have no interest in finding out - I have hard enough time trying to figure out my own species let alone something that may not even have DNA!

AFWIW I wouldn't trust them if or when they do come. Gimme a good dog, a loaded 12 guage, my own piece of land and just leave my family alone and everything will be fine - go 'save' or 'enlighten' someone else (preferably as many politicians as your ships can hold!)

[imcarthur]

Make fun all you like but Steve is right. Aliens do exist. They're just waiting for Chuck Norris to die before they attack.

Ian

[HHI944]

Originally Posted by imcarthur

Make fun all you like but Steve is right. Aliens do exist. They're just waiting for Chuck Norris to die before they attack.

Ian

And Jillian Michaels. Seriously, I think she'd make more than a few ET's her beotch.

Slightly on topic, the show was pretty interesting. I enjoyed it, but I would have enjoyed it more without the corny narrator, just have Hawking do all the narration.

[Heel n Toe]

Originally Posted by HHI944

...I would have enjoyed it more without the corny narrator, just have Hawking do all the narration.

I watched some of it. I noticed that when each segment began, it was Hawking's voice, and they morphed it into the narrator's voice.

I'm sure they did that because they did some focus groups on it and found out that people tuned out if Hawking's computer-generated voice was used continuously.

[dd74]

I wouldn't mess with the off-world sort...

...you might end up like Vikus...

[m21sniper]

PREDATORS TRAILER:



I'll need better spoons...

There are two Alien prequels coming too, Directed by Ridley Scott, and in 3d!

[sc_rufctr]

Originally Posted by dd74

I wouldn't mess with the off-world sort...
...you might end up like Vikus...

Great movie...

[TGTIW]

Aliens, pffft.
We've got god on our side!

[Laneco]

Originally Posted by BGCarrera32

But then Windows usually isn't compatible with Windows either. I think Windows is, in fact, written by aliens.

Finally! An explanation for Windows Vista that makes sense!

angela

[GH85Carrera]

Any aliens with the technology to travel the light-years to another planet would not consider us any threat. I suspect the laws of physics will make interstellar travel something that takes many centuries. I hope was can contact aliens. Just a conversation will take decades at best.

[Rick Lee]

The insult to Hawking is that he is a Brit. But his computer voice was designed by an American and thus has an American accent. I think technology has come along such that he could make the switch. But his American accented computer is now known by everyone who knows who Hawking is.