It’s a cornerstone of our pop culture that humans always beat aliens. It would be impossible to list even a tenth of the works of fiction where the gutsy human race beats back a technologicaly superior. The reasons vary; sometimes it’s because we’re a special race. Sometimes it’s because we’re average across the board, leaving no obvious weakness for the aliens to exploit. Sometimes it’s simply because humanity’s greater warrior skill overcomes the technology gap. Whatever the reason, we view humans winning as simple, common sense.
Stephen Hawking disagrees;
Stephen Hawking is, to put it mildly, a smart guy. After Einstein, he’s probably most people’s go to example of a genius. Specialising in the fields of general relativity and quantum gravity, he is also the author of the best selling ‘A Brief History of Time.’
Steven Hawking has already been in the news in recent months as one of a large number of scientists, more than a bit uneasy about AI development. Apparently subscribing to the Terminator school of AI development, Dr. Hawking isn’t super keen for us to create self aware machines.
And now Stephen Hawking is making the news for voicing concerns that discovering an advanced alien race would not end well for humanity;
‘If aliens visit us, the outcome could be much like when Columbus landed in America, which didn’t turn out well for the Native Americans’
Interestingly, this doesn’t mean the famed theoretical physicist doesn’t want us looking for ET and his friends. On Monday, he backed a new $100 million initiative to search for extraterrestrial life alongside tech billonaire Yuri Milner.
The project will analyze massive amounts of radio signals in an attempt to find signs of intelligent life. No messages will be sent out though, due to the fears of Hawking and others about attracting the attention of something we’re not prepared to deal with.
