We ’re not entirely sure why , but Stephen Hawking , star - botherer extraordinaire , is being quite the soothsayer of doom recently . Granted , he ’s right-hand that when it comes toclimate changeandartificial intelligence(AI ) , we should be leery , touch on , and inform – but his former word of advice is likely his most apocalyptic - sounding yet .
Thanks to the overconsumption of resources , overcrowding , and the way we currently ingest vigor , Hawking secernate an interview in Beijing that in 600 years , the Earth could be a “ sizzling ball of fire ” , likely a slightly inflated source to climate modification .
He does n’t imply this literally , of track . Humans are passably efficient when it comes to altering the climate , but unless we utilize some sort of catastrophic weapon or we all decide to terraform the planet into a new Venus , we wo n’t find ourselves on a populace even approaching a searing flame sector .
One of the possible solution to this problem – apart from actually tempering our dependance to fossil fuels and preventing hurt to the world ’s ecosystem , of course – is to leave the satellite . Easier said than done , but during his video appearing at the 2017 Tencent WE Summit , Hawking say that we demand to “ boldly go where no one has gone before . ”
He mentionedBreakthrough Starshot , a $ 100 million task to air a spacecraft to another star topology in a comparatively inadequate amount of meter . The idea is that it ’s the primogenitor to next vessels that will send human race out into the star topology , something which Hawking is clearly quite keen to do .
As ever , these are sassy words from the notable physicist – but it ’s a little bit of a shame that the optimism that pelt his early public engagements come out to have taken a backseat to visions of a break Earth ruled by killer robots and smothered in a blanket of carbon dioxide .
It ’s certainly good to channelize out ( particularly inthis daytime and years ) that science is secernate us that , as a species , we ’re royally messing things up . It ’s worth highlight , though , that we can utilise this same science to create grand matter too , to empower us and to protect the only home we ’ve ever have a go at it .
A consistent message of pessimism , however , threaten to trap us in a inglorious hole of desperation .
[ H / T : CNET ]
