THE aliens are out there and Earth had better watch out, at least according to Stephen Hawking. He has suggested that extraterrestrials are almost certain to exist — but that instead of seeking them out, humanity should be doing all it that can to avoid any contact.
The suggestions come in a new documentary series in which Hawking, one of the world’s leading scientists, will set out his latest thinking on some of the universe’s greatest mysteries.
Alien life, he will suggest, is almost certain to exist in many other parts of the universe: not just in planets, but perhaps in the centre of stars or even floating in interplanetary space.
Hawking’s logic on aliens is, for him, unusually simple. The universe, he points out, has 100 billion galaxies, each containing hundreds of millions of stars. In such a big place, Earth is unlikely to be the only planet where life has evolved.
“To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational,” he said. “The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like.”
The answer, he suggests, is that most of it will be the equivalent of microbes or simple animals — the sort of life that has dominated Earth for most of its history.
One scene in his documentary for the Discovery Channel shows herds of two-legged herbivores browsing on an alien cliff-face where they are picked off by flying, yellow lizard-like predators. Another shows glowing fluorescent aquatic animals forming vast shoals in the oceans thought to underlie the thick ice coating Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter.
Such scenes are speculative, but Hawking uses them to lead on to a serious point: that a few life forms could be intelligent and pose a threat. Hawking believes that contact with such a species could be devastating for humanity.
He suggests that aliens might simply raid Earth for its resources and then move on: “We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet. 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.”
He concludes that trying to make contact with alien races is “a little too risky”. He said: “If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.”
The completion of the documentary marks a triumph for Hawking, now 68, who is paralysed by motor neurone disease and has very limited powers of communication. The project took him and his producers three years, during which he insisted on rewriting large chunks of the script and checking the filming.
John Smithson, executive producer for Discovery, said: “He wanted to make a programme that was entertaining for a general audience as well as scientific and that’s a tough job, given the complexity of the ideas involved.”
Hawking has suggested the possibility of alien life before but his views have been clarified by a series of scientific breakthroughs, such as the discovery, since 1995, of more than 450 planets orbiting distant stars, showing that planets are a common phenomenon.
So far, all the new planets found have been far larger than Earth, but only because the telescopes used to detect them are not sensitive enough to detect Earth-sized bodies at such distances.
Another breakthrough is the discovery that life on Earth has proven able to colonise its most extreme environments. If life can survive and evolve there, scientists reason, then perhaps nowhere is out of bounds.
Hawking’s belief in aliens places him in good scientific company. In his recent Wonders of the Solar System BBC series, Professor Brian Cox backed the idea, too, suggesting Mars, Europa and Titan, a moon of Saturn, as likely places to look.
Similarly, Lord Rees, the astronomer royal, warned in a lecture earlier this year that aliens might prove to be beyond human understanding.
“I suspect there could be life and intelligence out there in forms we can’t conceive,” he said. “Just as a chimpanzee can’t understand quantum theory, it could be there are aspects of reality that are beyond the capacity of our brains.”
Probably a good call in my opinion, but, if they're out there and they have the intention of going around and fucking up other planets they'll probably find us anyway.
I don't think what he presented was in any way particularly "interesting." I'd imagine most people are aware of the "possibility" (if even mathematical probability) of "alien lifeforms" existing, and that most (the majority of) such people believe such extraterrestrial lifeforms are probably (possibly?) a threat to mankind. It just happens to be newsworthy because it was brought up by Stephen Hawking - almost any other guy saying this would be brushed off as simply speaking "common sense."
It seems a bit too sci-fi movie like to me. I agree that aliens probably exist due to the galaxy's immense size but they are assuming that aliens will act like how we humans acted in the past.
IMO, if Alien's are that technologically advanced, able to travel billions lightyears within our life spam, they wouldn't need us in the first place. Also, going by his number theory, even if they are looking for a planet to leech off of, I'm sure there are alot more planet(number theory) like us closer to them or even with more resource. Conclusion, it's interesting, but not worrisome. Like Southlight said, attentions there only because Stephen Hawking said it.
On April 27 2010 22:20 madnessman wrote: It seems a bit too sci-fi movie like to me. I agree that aliens probably exist due to the galaxy's immense size but they are assuming that aliens will act like how we humans acted in the past.
I think the biggest assumption is that they'd actually be able to reach us. I don't think it's too much to assume that if there is a race of highly intelligent beings out there with technology far superior to ours that they'd probably be malevolent.
Hawking has a neuro-muscular dystrophy that is related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a condition that has progressed over the years and has left him almost completely paralysed.
Lobotomy (Greek: λοβός – lobos: "lobe (of brain)"; τομή – tome: "cut/slice") is a neurosurgical procedure, a form of psychosurgery, also known as a leukotomy or leucotomy (from the Greek λευκός – leukos: "clear/white" and tome).
Leaving that aside it also looked like "Stephen Hawking Lobotomy." Whatever, just minor dorky amusement on my part.
On April 27 2010 22:24 EntertainMe wrote: IMO, if Alien's are that technologically advanced, able to travel billions lightyears within our life spam, they wouldn't need us in the first place. Also, going by his number theory, even if they are looking for a planet to leech off of, I'm sure there are alot more planet(number theory) like us closer to them or even with more resource. Conclusion, it's interesting, but not worrisome. Like Southlight said, attentions there only because Stephen Hawking said it.
Yea, humans are obviously the prime resource on our planet, not the planet itself.
I feel Hawkings is just stating the obvious here. You have the obvious example in your fellow man with the raping of new land and decimation of their native inhabitants, so why should you expect any better from some extraplanar species? It'd be naive.
What if the evil space invaders looking for resources is actually...us??? There also exists the (improbable) statistic that if there are alien races, humans are actually the most technologically advanced.
On April 27 2010 22:51 PanoRaMa wrote: What if the evil space invaders looking for resources is actually...us??? There also exists the (improbable) statistic that if there are alien races, humans are actually the most technologically advanced.
Serves other, less developed alien races right for sitting on all those resources, you DO take expands even if your opponent already had a nexus there, don't you?
On April 27 2010 22:20 madnessman wrote: It seems a bit too sci-fi movie like to me. I agree that aliens probably exist due to the galaxy's immense size but they are assuming that aliens will act like how we humans acted in the past.
I think the biggest assumption is that they'd actually be able to reach us. I don't think it's too much to assume that if there is a race of highly intelligent beings out there with technology far superior to ours that they'd probably be malevolent.
Oh really? Why haven't they blown each other up then? Or are they something like planetary outlaws who have already blown planets and committed genocides?
i actually saw the majority of this show and though it is a pretty obvious concept that there is most likely aliens out there somewhere, he did have some pretty interesting theories, but then again, nothing Hollywood hasnt thought of =P
I'm more worried that alien bacteria would wipe out life on Earth accidentally. Its potentially as deadly as an intelligent invader, and much more common.
what he's saying isn't really so far fetched. Imagine the shitshow that would happen if we did encounter intelligent aliens?? People would go fucking insane
On April 27 2010 22:44 plated.rawr wrote: I feel Hawkings is just stating the obvious here. You have the obvious example in your fellow man with the raping of new land and decimation of their native inhabitants, so why should you expect any better from some extraplanar species? It'd be naive.
I now think it's obvious, but I hadn't thought about it that way before and I suspect most people don't think about it that way.
On April 27 2010 23:21 Hawk wrote: what he's saying isn't really so far fetched. Imagine the shitshow that would happen if we did encounter intelligent aliens?? People would go fucking insane
Worse, imagine if we encountered aliens that were like ourselves.
I get the feeling that if we ever make contact with aliens they will be so entirely different from us in every way imaginable that we won't even be able to understand what is going on... Perhaps in their solar system a 1000 megaton nuclear warhead fired from orbit is considered a good way to say hello, because radiation gives them strong bones and teeth.
I'm watching Hawking's new show right now. There's nothing new that you can't find on similar documentaries on youtube already. The show is just really well made with good examples and visuals.
On April 27 2010 22:24 EntertainMe wrote: IMO, if Alien's are that technologically advanced, able to travel billions lightyears within our life spam, they wouldn't need us in the first place. Also, going by his number theory, even if they are looking for a planet to leech off of, I'm sure there are alot more planet(number theory) like us closer to them or even with more resource. Conclusion, it's interesting, but not worrisome. Like Southlight said, attentions there only because Stephen Hawking said it.
Yea, humans are obviously the prime resource on our planet, not the planet itself.
I feel Hawkings is just stating the obvious here. You have the obvious example in your fellow man with the raping of new land and decimation of their native inhabitants, so why should you expect any better from some extraplanar species? It'd be naive.
There are all sorts of philosophical arguments, like a species that lived long enough to achieve interstellar travel would have had to learn how to conserve resources... unless a barbaric species like us was given the technology by an older, more mature race.
Either way it's all been discussed ad nauseum in about six thousand sci-fi books in the past century or so.
Yeah, because a highly advanced intelligent race with the technology to travel such large distances that they'd be able to make physical contact with us couldn't find better ways to get needed resources. They'd certainly rather fight over the small amount we humans haven't already stripped from this planet. Let's never mind that the biosphere is unlikely to one that they could even survive in anyway. It's sad, because even Mass Effect's take on the future of space seems more reasonable than this.
It's highly unlikely that any alien race would care about Earth for any other reason than that it also eventually held intelligent life. And in that sense, they'd probably steer clear since despite their likely curiosity, as dealing with a species that can't even get along with their own kind long enough to work toward a greater good seems dangerous and unrewarding.
I too think that the chance that some kind of life form exists out there is high, just because of the sheer numbers.
It sounds pretty stupid though to fear an alien invasion for something like resources. If an intelligent species develops interest in humanity then probably rather for research or enslavement (unlikely for a space travelling race) or anything where they need actual humans. There's no point in travelling all the way to earth for resources, the universe has plenty of everything. Why would you start a war over resources on a far away planet when there's a million times as much right in front of your door?
I've always been under the impression that if aliens showed up we'd be fucked. I've pretty much always believed in them as well. Imagine if zerg/protoss/alien/predator just showed up? That'd be gay. Even the lizard monsters on "V" are up to something (decent show btw, check it out airs tuesdays - see on tv-dome.net)
Has anyone ever seen the movie The Fourth Kind? That was some pretty freaky shit since most of that stuff happened to those people. I'm gullible and don't think the doctor would lie about the research. Shit was definitely going down.
AND STONEHENGE? THE LATEST INDIANA JONES MOVIE!? Well the latest indi movie sucked but still, aliens signs exist i bet oo
On April 27 2010 22:20 madnessman wrote: It seems a bit too sci-fi movie like to me. I agree that aliens probably exist due to the galaxy's immense size but they are assuming that aliens will act like how we humans acted in the past.
I think the biggest assumption is that they'd actually be able to reach us. I don't think it's too much to assume that if there is a race of highly intelligent beings out there with technology far superior to ours that they'd probably be malevolent.
Oh really? Why haven't they blown each other up then? Or are they something like planetary outlaws who have already blown planets and committed genocides?
Malevolent towards the inferior beings they encounter (us), not each other :O
On April 28 2010 00:49 QibingZero wrote: Yeah, because a highly advanced intelligent race with the technology to travel such large distances that they'd be able to make physical contact with us couldn't find better ways to get needed resources. They'd certainly rather fight over the small amount we humans haven't already stripped from this planet. Let's never mind that the biosphere is unlikely to one that they could even survive in anyway. It's sad, because even Mass Effect's take on the future of space seems more reasonable than this.
It's highly unlikely that any alien race would care about Earth for any other reason than that it also eventually held intelligent life. And in that sense, they'd probably steer clear since despite their likely curiosity, as dealing with a species that can't even get along with their own kind long enough to work toward a greater good seems dangerous and unrewarding.
On April 27 2010 22:24 EntertainMe wrote: IMO, if Alien's are that technologically advanced, able to travel billions lightyears within our life spam, they wouldn't need us in the first place. Also, going by his number theory, even if they are looking for a planet to leech off of, I'm sure there are alot more planet(number theory) like us closer to them or even with more resource. Conclusion, it's interesting, but not worrisome. Like Southlight said, attentions there only because Stephen Hawking said it.
Sure, but if they were carbon-based organisms like ourselves and other forms of life on Earth, then it's logical that they would have extra affinity for a world like Earth, which to our current knowledge, is the only place capable of sustaining carbon-based life forms. Too seek out aliens would be like dangling meat in front of a wolf.
Also, your usage of the term, "number theory", doesn't make sense. Number theory is a branch of pure maths. Maybe you mean statistical likelihood - although statistics cannot exist for something that is unknown like life on other planets. Therefore, logically speaking, there is no basis to determine whether life exists in other parts of the universe or its nature.
Given the eccentricity of geniuses past, I was wondering when Hawking would join them. This is a step that I've long awaited. He may be right, but it's certainly an odd topic to discuss.
Like someone said previously in this blog. Hawking always believed there was intelligence out there. It's just now, he is becoming more public with it.
he's a brilliant man. our solar system is just 1 in a hundred billion in our leg of the galaxy our galaxy being just one in an infinite amount in our universe
to say that we are the only sentient life would be mistaken.
"hordes of aliens that pillage earth for its resources"
independence day?
hell, starcraft?
not like these are new and innovative ideas. I like that he's thinking on this, and I'm not questioning his intelligence, but I believe he has lost his edge a little and should go back to black holes or w/e.
Aliens wouldn't have to be malevolent to wipe out humans. It's doubtful the human brain could even comprehend what a species capable of FTL travel would even be like, since they'd likely be hundreds of millions of years more evolved than us. Would they have physical bodies in the way we envision most beings? Could we even detect (see) them with our primitive senses? It's kind of like us caring about microbes we find on an alien moon. Why would we value their existence over our own benefit? From a simply logical point of view, it really doesn't make much sense.
I don't think they'd go out of their way to harm us, or choose our planet over any similar-but-uninhabited planet. I just think if they did make their way 'here' (whether that means location, time, dimension, or something else we don't understand yet), our existence won't have any influence on their actions - positive or negative.
On the other hand, I also doubt any attempt to outreach to aliens (high powered radio waves, probes, etc) will have any influence on whether aliens actually find us. Until we figure out a way to (knowingly & controllably) send something FTL, our reach is too small and their technology will undoubtedly discover us with or without our efforts to be found.
the american settlers could have just stayed in europe...plenty of resources there
they decided to come to america and mass genocide the indians and steal all the resources...and thats their own race! imagine what aliens would not hesitate to do to us!
On April 28 2010 02:39 Ian Ian Ian wrote: Why does everyone always assume aliens are evil :s
Because obviously the Ancients and the Asgard are just non-existent.
If there was intelligent life out there that could reach us in the next few generations, there is a pretty good chance that'd we'd never know due to technological and communication differences. Part of me still wants to believe that Stargate is a government cover-up (as depicted in actual episodes) of the actual Stargate program that could be running right under us.
I think Hawking needs to rethink his theory for more reasons than one. As people have said an advanced enough civilization would not need to find resources as we do, colonizing planets and stripping it of resources (Hawking's been playing too much DOW2 lol). In addition as someone else said an advanced civilization, if it wanted to find other civilizations, would have already found us if it were capable of finding us at all. And the third and final point to make is that an advanced enough life, if it moved past its colonization phase without developing a technology capable of finding earth, would probably have developed to a stage past human comprehension. They wouldn't be little green men.
It's an interesting theory, but it competes with every single other plausible but not probable theory of alien life out there, without having any notable advantage.
On April 28 2010 06:51 Coagulation wrote: i have a hard time believing human kind would be of any interest to life forms that have evolved to the point of being able to observe us.
On April 27 2010 22:24 EntertainMe wrote: IMO, if Alien's are that technologically advanced, able to travel billions lightyears within our life spam, they wouldn't need us in the first place. Also, going by his number theory, even if they are looking for a planet to leech off of, I'm sure there are alot more planet(number theory) like us closer to them or even with more resource. Conclusion, it's interesting, but not worrisome. Like Southlight said, attentions there only because Stephen Hawking said it.
Sure, but if they were carbon-based organisms like ourselves and other forms of life on Earth, then it's logical that they would have extra affinity for a world like Earth, which to our current knowledge, is the only place capable of sustaining carbon-based life forms. Too seek out aliens would be like dangling meat in front of a wolf.
Also, your usage of the term, "number theory", doesn't make sense. Number theory is a branch of pure maths. Maybe you mean statistical likelihood - although statistics cannot exist for something that is unknown like life on other planets. Therefore, logically speaking, there is no basis to determine whether life exists in other parts of the universe or its nature.
If extraterrestrial life were carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur and phosphor based organism like ourselves, covergionism, then yes, that likely can be the case.
However, the majority believes in divergionism, which means the universe is not limited to the variety we have on Earth, but can convergently evolve. Too seek out aliens then would be like dangling meat in front of a lamb.
And yes, the usuage of the term "number theory" didn't make sense. It was a reference to his quote inside the article: “To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational,”
On April 28 2010 06:56 obesechicken13 wrote: I think Hawking needs to rethink his theory for more reasons than one. As people have said an advanced enough civilization would not need to find resources as we do, colonizing planets and stripping it of resources (Hawking's been playing too much DOW2 lol). In addition as someone else said an advanced civilization, if it wanted to find other civilizations, would have already found us if it were capable of finding us at all. And the third and final point to make is that an advanced enough life, if it moved past its colonization phase without developing a technology capable of finding earth, would probably have developed to a stage past human comprehension. They wouldn't be little green men.
It's an interesting theory, but it competes with every single other plausible but not probable theory of alien life out there, without having any notable advantage.
edit: spelt his name wrong
curious. you. an average what. college -goer thinks that one of the smartest men in the world should change his theory?
dont you think he spends a BIT more time thinking things over than you?
On April 27 2010 23:11 R0YAL wrote: i actually saw the majority of this show and though it is a pretty obvious concept that there is most likely aliens out there somewhere, he did have some pretty interesting theories, but then again, nothing Hollywood hasnt thought of =P
Hollywood hasn't thought of anything -_-. They buy the ideas from SF writers!
On April 28 2010 06:56 obesechicken13 wrote: I think Hawking needs to rethink his theory for more reasons than one. As people have said an advanced enough civilization would not need to find resources as we do, colonizing planets and stripping it of resources (Hawking's been playing too much DOW2 lol). In addition as someone else said an advanced civilization, if it wanted to find other civilizations, would have already found us if it were capable of finding us at all. And the third and final point to make is that an advanced enough life, if it moved past its colonization phase without developing a technology capable of finding earth, would probably have developed to a stage past human comprehension. They wouldn't be little green men.
It's an interesting theory, but it competes with every single other plausible but not probable theory of alien life out there, without having any notable advantage.
edit: spelt his name wrong
You're thinking of "resources" in a simplistic sense. The basis of resources and scarcity within the physical universe is simply energy/matter. Matter translates into energy and vice versa. This is the "stuff" with which the physical world is made of. Potential energy, stored energy, etc are all resources for an advanced civilization. We're not talking about lumber and deer skins here. It doesn't matter how advanced a civilization is, it most likely cannot create matter/energy out of a vacuum. It will still have an economy that relies on energy/matter conversion, storage, and circulation.
Therefore, the "resources" of planet Earth would be its energy potential, geothermal, kinetic etc. The same with our sun. It's basically a giant fusion energy reactor. While an alien species may not come down to our planet as little green men and shoot us with lasers, they could just as easily fly into our solar system, encase our sun in a dyson sphere that is designed to siphon the energy emanating from it, and thereby starve our solar system of energy. That would be absolute catastrophe for the human species, and to the alien species it's as simple as plugging a power cord into an outlet.
Even when you advance the thought of alien civilizations to the point of superconduction, lossless systems, virtualized existences etc, they are still reliant on energy as a resource. I can't really comment about dark matter, anti-matter, other exotic forms etc because I don't know nearly enough about those fields, but I'm pretty confident in saying that energy/matter economy is what a normal living civilization will use as their supply/demand model.
And no, FTL does not imply that this civilization is god-like, omniscient, etc. While our current understanding of physics rules out the possibility of FTL travel, that doesn't mean it's really light years ahead of us. It wasn't too long ago that humans thought the earth was flat and there was no way to get from Europe to India by going west.
Also, the concept of "millions of years ahead of us" is flawed because it doesn't account for the relativity of time. There is no set amount of progress per year a civilization has existed. Take for instance our modern civilization. In ten years, we progress faster than the human species has in the previous 10,000 years. And this effect is exponential. So, a civilization with FTL travel could be only a century or two ahead of us in terms of sophistication. And truthfully, there is no concrete way to describe technological sophistication. Sometimes, it takes one breakthrough to have the whole species leap forward. There's the diffusion of application technology which takes longer, but the theoretical is what's revolutionary, and that really can't be measured in terms of years.
According to something I read once, we could be working on warp engines now if the person who invented the origional steam engine didn't give up on the idea. Apparently someone invented it a few hundered years before they actually became used around the world so we would of had to develop more energy ways earliar.
The first steam engine was used for to open temple doors in the 1st century AD (and entertainment, if my memory is correct)- but it isn't exactly like the steam engine of the 19th century. And one invention does not necessarily lead to another in a linear fashion.
As far as life ever encountering us goes, it's really a matter of the improbability of life forming (that can communicate in a way that at least rivals speaking in terms of flexibility, build tools, have the desire to invent things, be far in advanced of what we are capable technologically) versus the size of the universe. No one has a solid grasp of all the requisites that need to be fulfilled for an alien to show up on Earth. Suffice to say the list is probably quite long, and several of the variables probably have a very low probability. If the magnitudes of these two things are roughly the same, we'd probably never observe them.
Also, I will cite Starcontrol 2 http://sc2.sourceforge.net/ (the open source made by the original authors)- it's often assumed aliens will have similar interests to us, but that's a really bad assumption. Or maybe they're similar, but to the point it would actually inhibit them caring about finding other life forms (ie, Earthcraft 2 just came out, and the entire population just plays the game all day long trying to become a professional... wait a second...).
On April 28 2010 09:37 Faronel wrote: Agreed... Stephen Hawking is just rehashing the plot of Independence Day. (PROTOSS USER) Agreed... Stephen Hawking is just rehashing the plot of Starship Trooper. (ZERG USER)
On April 28 2010 09:37 Faronel wrote: Agreed... Stephen Hawking is just rehashing the plot of Independence Day. (PROTOSS USER) Agreed... Stephen Hawking is just rehashing the plot of Starship Trooper. (ZERG USER)
editted
i add this Agreed... Stephen Hawking is just rehashing the plot of District 9 (TERRAN USER)
On April 27 2010 22:24 EntertainMe wrote: IMO, if Alien's are that technologically advanced, able to travel billions lightyears within our life spam, they wouldn't need us in the first place. Also, going by his number theory, even if they are looking for a planet to leech off of, I'm sure there are alot more planet(number theory) like us closer to them or even with more resource. Conclusion, it's interesting, but not worrisome. Like Southlight said, attentions there only because Stephen Hawking said it.
Sure, but if they were carbon-based organisms like ourselves and other forms of life on Earth, then it's logical that they would have extra affinity for a world like Earth, which to our current knowledge, is the only place capable of sustaining carbon-based life forms. Too seek out aliens would be like dangling meat in front of a wolf.
Also, your usage of the term, "number theory", doesn't make sense. Number theory is a branch of pure maths. Maybe you mean statistical likelihood - although statistics cannot exist for something that is unknown like life on other planets. Therefore, logically speaking, there is no basis to determine whether life exists in other parts of the universe or its nature.
Given the fact that if said aliens managed to travel such whatever distance they would be surprised to see we are already stripping the planet of it's resources and the planet itself in bad shape.
On April 28 2010 06:56 obesechicken13 wrote: I think Hawking needs to rethink his theory for more reasons than one. As people have said an advanced enough civilization would not need to find resources as we do, colonizing planets and stripping it of resources (Hawking's been playing too much DOW2 lol). In addition as someone else said an advanced civilization, if it wanted to find other civilizations, would have already found us if it were capable of finding us at all. And the third and final point to make is that an advanced enough life, if it moved past its colonization phase without developing a technology capable of finding earth, would probably have developed to a stage past human comprehension. They wouldn't be little green men.
It's an interesting theory, but it competes with every single other plausible but not probable theory of alien life out there, without having any notable advantage.
edit: spelt his name wrong
You're thinking of "resources" in a simplistic sense. The basis of resources and scarcity within the physical universe is simply energy/matter. Matter translates into energy and vice versa. This is the "stuff" with which the physical world is made of. Potential energy, stored energy, etc are all resources for an advanced civilization. We're not talking about lumber and deer skins here. It doesn't matter how advanced a civilization is, it most likely cannot create matter/energy out of a vacuum. It will still have an economy that relies on energy/matter conversion, storage, and circulation.
Therefore, the "resources" of planet Earth would be its energy potential, geothermal, kinetic etc. The same with our sun. It's basically a giant fusion energy reactor. While an alien species may not come down to our planet as little green men and shoot us with lasers, they could just as easily fly into our solar system, encase our sun in a dyson sphere that is designed to siphon the energy emanating from it, and thereby starve our solar system of energy. That would be absolute catastrophe for the human species, and to the alien species it's as simple as plugging a power cord into an outlet.
I don't recall thinking of deerskin when I made that comment
On April 28 2010 06:56 obesechicken13 wrote: I think Hawking needs to rethink his theory for more reasons than one. As people have said an advanced enough civilization would not need to find resources as we do, colonizing planets and stripping it of resources (Hawking's been playing too much DOW2 lol). In addition as someone else said an advanced civilization, if it wanted to find other civilizations, would have already found us if it were capable of finding us at all. And the third and final point to make is that an advanced enough life, if it moved past its colonization phase without developing a technology capable of finding earth, would probably have developed to a stage past human comprehension. They wouldn't be little green men.
It's an interesting theory, but it competes with every single other plausible but not probable theory of alien life out there, without having any notable advantage.
edit: spelt his name wrong
curious. you. an average what. college -goer thinks that one of the smartest men in the world should change his theory?
dont you think he spends a BIT more time thinking things over than you?
Yeah he's definitely smarter than me... but that doesn't mean that his theory doesn't have some holes.
To use an analogy, just because Einstein was Chrisitian, it doesn't mean that I have to be.