Steven Hawking warns not to talk to aliens

[zemelo.franky]

Whether or not we should talk to aliens depends entirely on the aliens we are considering talking to.

 

[logician]

Don’t talk to aliens, warns Stephen Hawking - Times Online

Kinda like being told not to talk to strangers....Now, Hawking is a major proponent of the idea that other beings are out there...but it's better off not letting them know about us and keeping a low profile....

Is Hawking right, or should humanity be trying to communicate with other races?

Considering what we ahave done to other species on earth, i.e. driven many to extinction, it probably would be a good idea to not advertise our existence. We can't assume an intelligent species capable of interstellar travel would be benevolent.

 

[St Giordano Bruno]

I have a good reason to feel not too alarmed; the problem is for the aliens are physical distance. Just to put it into perspective even a return journey to the nearest star is the equivalent to making 100 million round trips to the moon or 10 thousand round trips to the most remote solar planet, Neptune. Or near star is just over 4 light-years and our instruments are sensitive enough to pick up intelligent messages up to as far as 40 light-years. You would have to travel reasonably close to the speed of light to get anywhere or there is no point in even bothering. Also travelling at a speed a substantial fraction of the speed of light would also present problems as even specks of dust to size of microbes would hit that spaceship like deadly missiles as well as deadly cosmic rays to contend with, which would be far more deadly at the speed we are required to travel at.

So distance is going present a serious obstacle not only for aliens but also for us in our future ambition to colonize other planets. So that is a good reason to strive for a sustainable existence on this planet. Just think of the direction our technology is going, it is a far cry from our technological ambitions in the 1960's when the space race was king and we had Star Trek fantasies about travelling in distant worlds. Today it has been almost forgotten about and humanity has put much of its faith in information technology such as your iphones and your GPS gadgets etc. Those distant aliens, if they are out there could be far more brilliant at nanotechnology that we could ever dare dream and make our iphones look like stone tablets, but as for conquering space they, like us, have long given up on that for the same reasons. To them interstellar space travel may seem as silly to them as Jules Verne's, Journey to the Center of the Earth is to us. There are clear physical restraints why it cannot be done.

 

[PolyHedral]

...over human timescales. If you're willing to wait 400 years to get to Alpha Centuari, that's relatively feasible.

 

[St Giordano Bruno]

...over human timescales. If you're willing to wait 400 years to get to Alpha Centuari, that's relatively feasible.

I doubt if there would be any aliens living on a planet near Alpha Centauri, it is a multiple star system. An earthlike planet would not hold a stable orbit. Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf and emits dangerous flares ruling it out.

 

[idea]

I have to say I'm disappointed that a smart person like him would think of extraterrestrial beings in such a way...

Unless they are human-looking creatures that have aircrafts of types, I wouldn't be too worried. They, just as we, are another species of animals, evolved differently.

I'm disappointed too. Perhaps he has seen too many BEM movies? If they are more advanced, then let's learn from them. If less advanced, than let's try to teach them. There is always much to be gained through communication.

btw - I believe in aliens, and I also believe that they are human looking - panspermia supports this - if the instructions for life came from other planets, we are related to life on other planets - same blue-prints going on... COSMIC ANCESTRY: The modern version of panspermia. by Brig Klyce

 

[idea]

... the problem is for the aliens are physical distance. ...

what about travel in higher dimensions? we could be much closer than we think.
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT] http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal/jse_21_3_beichler.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-dimensional_space
this is where we will start to see the higher dims...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider

how to see in higher dims... if you can learn to visualize 3Dobjects by their 2D shadow, then you can start to visualize 4D objects by their 3D shadow.
[FONT=&quot]Dimensions Watch E[/FONT]

 

[St Giordano Bruno]

what about travel in higher dimensions? we could be much closer than we think.

http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal/jse_21_3_beichler.pdf
Five-dimensional space - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
this is where we will start to see the higher dims...
Large Hadron Collider - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

how to see in higher dims... if you can learn to visualize 3Dobjects by their 2D shadow, then you can start to visualize 4D objects by their 3D shadow.
[FONT=&quot]Dimensions Watch E[/FONT]

Probably just a science fiction fantasy for the moment.

 

[Absolute Zero]

Who noes?Maybe we will find God

 

[outhouse]

I have a good reason to feel not too alarmed; the problem is for the aliens are physical distance. Just to put it into perspective even a return journey to the nearest star is the equivalent to making 100 million round trips to the moon or 10 thousand round trips to the most remote solar planet, Neptune. Or near star is just over 4 light-years and our instruments are sensitive enough to pick up intelligent messages up to as far as 40 light-years. You would have to travel reasonably close to the speed of light to get anywhere or there is no point in even bothering. Also travelling at a speed a substantial fraction of the speed of light would also present problems as even specks of dust to size of microbes would hit that spaceship like deadly missiles as well as deadly cosmic rays to contend with, which would be far more deadly at the speed we are required to travel at.

So distance is going present a serious obstacle not only for aliens but also for us in our future ambition to colonize other planets. So that is a good reason to strive for a sustainable existence on this planet. Just think of the direction our technology is going, it is a far cry from our technological ambitions in the 1960's when the space race was king and we had Star Trek fantasies about travelling in distant worlds. Today it has been almost forgotten about and humanity has put much of its faith in information technology such as your iphones and your GPS gadgets etc. Those distant aliens, if they are out there could be far more brilliant at nanotechnology that we could ever dare dream and make our iphones look like stone tablets, but as for conquering space they, like us, have long given up on that for the same reasons. To them interstellar space travel may seem as silly to them as Jules Verne's, Journey to the Center of the Earth is to us. There are clear physical restraints why it cannot be done.

except.

if someone else made it off their rock. Colonized a space station that has been in motion for thousands/millions of years traveling around and just happens to be passing this way.

we are at our infancy a few shoes away from primates. We have only traveled to the moon. In the universe thi swoul dbe the same as learning how to crawl. They could be world class sprinters compared to us.

basically, we flat just dont know jack at this stage.

 

[PolyHedral]

I doubt if there would be any aliens living on a planet near Alpha Centauri, it is a multiple star system. An earthlike planet would not hold a stable orbit. Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf and emits dangerous flares ruling it out.

Then wait 40,000 to get somewhere interesting?

 

[idea]

what about travel in higher dimensions? we could be much closer than we think.

http://www.scientificexploration.org...3_beichler.pdf
Five-dimensional space - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
this is where we will start to see the higher dims...
Large Hadron Collider - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

how to see in higher dims... if you can learn to visualize 3Dobjects by their 2D shadow, then you can start to visualize 4D objects by their 3D shadow.
[FONT=&quot]Dimensions Watch E [/FONT]

Probably just a science fiction fantasy for the moment.

I would not call it sci-fi..

is curved space sci-fi?
consider flatland - 2D creatures on a big balloon - on the surface of the balloon there is only "x and y" (think of a graph) only their little x/y graph is a little warped, a little curved... as if they are sitting on top of something - sitting on something which has an extra dimension - 2D creatures sitting on a 3D balloon... our 3D x-y-z platform is curved... as if we are sitting on something else... 3D creatures sitting on 4D...

[youtube]9VS1mwEV9wA[/youtube]
‪3D to 4D shift‬‏ - YouTube

 

[PolyHedral]

4D spacetime is accepted science. FTL travel is not. 5+ dimensional space is not.

 

[idea]

4D spacetime is accepted science. FTL travel is not. 5+ dimensional space is not.

not "generally" accepted "yet" ...

but there is sure a lot of stuff that points towards it!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-dimensional_space
"Whether or not the real universe in which we live is somehow five-dimensional is a topic that is debated and explored in several branches of physics, including astrophysics and particle physics."

 

[Orias]

They would most definitely come for the Life force of the planet and its inhabitants.

 

[idea]

They would most definitely come for the Life force of the planet and its inhabitants.

I think they are currently avoiding us (for the most part) because of the life and pollution on this planet

 

[Orias]

4D spacetime is accepted science. FTL travel is not. 5+ dimensional space is not.

Do our sciences really manufacture and limit the possibility of the Universe possessing no beings that are so much more advanced that they couldn't through travel through space-time?

I think what's generally accepted is generally flawed, I mean the challenge never truly ends

 

[Orias]

I think they are currently avoiding us (for the most part) because of the life and pollution on this planet

Yea, why would they want to interact with beings that soak in their own filth? They might do something stupid heh.

 

[PolyHedral]

Do our sciences really manufacture and limit the possibility of the Universe possessing no beings that are so much more advanced that they couldn't through travel through space-time?

I think what's generally accepted is generally flawed, I mean the challenge never truly ends

You cannot break the laws of physics. Physics indicate that the universe is 4D ATM.

 

[idea]

Yea, why would they want to interact with beings that soak in their own filth? They might do something stupid heh.

they might get infected with some disease... or end up with a bunch of dependents leaching off of them for the rest of their lives