In his new Discovery Channel, Into The Universe With Stephen Hawking, the renowned British physicist and scientific theorist turns his formidable mind towards other matters concerning humanity, with some interesting ideas.  For example, Professor Hawking believes that humanity’s constant search for extraterrestrial life in the depths of the universe is “a bad idea.”  Given Prof. Hawking’s love of facts, figures, and rational thinking, it seems disturbingly rational when he puts forth the idea that any aliens we contact might be a little too much like us for our own good.

“We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet,” says Hawking.  “I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet.  Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach.  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.”

When you hear it put forth like that, it’s pretty clear that maybe projects like SETI should be used for finding and avoiding alien life, not finding it and contacting it.  Humans are pretty dangerous animals, but against an advanced alien life force with space travel far beyond our own?  Yeah, I don’t like those odds.

Tags: extraterrestrial life, alien life, the universe, Stephen Hawking, dangerous ideas, weird science, contacting aliens a bad idea, dangers, science-fiction, Into The Universe With Stephen Hawking, Discovery Channel

I’ve never had a problem eating food from a gas station.  Just two weeks ago, I ate a couple of hot dogs purchased from a gas station.  They were delicious.  That’s not the first time I’ve eaten gas station food, and I doubt it will be the last.  There’s nothing like a fun food novelty. […]

Commissioner Roger Goodell gathered 32 NFL owners for one big question.  One of the league’s most wanderlust-stricken franchises is looking to move again.  The Oakland-Los Angeles-Oakland Raiders, tired of gutting it out in a run-down stadium, were once again looking for greener pastures.  Only the Miami Dolphins refused to cooperate.  With a vote of 31-1, […]

In 2006, an injury to Dallas Cowboys starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe opened the door for an undrafted free agent by the name of Tony Romo to take the helm of America’s Team and lead the Dallas Cowboys to an early playoff exit.  Bledsoe went from starter to afterthought in a season.  Now, the circle continues […]

For 89 years, Oscars has never had a major mistake.  The last few Oscars might have had a few flubs, but at least they never got the most important category of the night wrong.  Well, that’s now changed, all thanks to OG Bonnie and Clyde legends Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.  When Faye Dunaway called […]

Tom Brady has been wildly successful, if controversial.  He’s the first quarterback ever to win five Super Bowls and only the second player to do so after Charles Haley.  Unlike Haley, Brady won all his Super Bowls with the same team, the New England Patriots.  The only thing that seems to be able to stop […]

Ben Affleck, no matter what you might think of him, is a talented actor and director.  He’s got the goods, but he’s smart enough to know when he’s in over his head.  All along, since he took on the mantle of Batman, he’s had his eyes on writing, directing, and starring as the Caped Crusader. […]

In May, students for the for-profit American College of Education were running into some problems.  Their access to email accounts and course information was locked down by Google, who had disabled their accounts.  The reason why?  A fired IT worker for the American College of Education locked the school out of their Google cloud account. […]