Professor Stephen Hawking considers himself an optimist, but you
wouldn’t know it from some of the things he had to say in his latest
interview.
‘Since civilization began, aggression has been useful inasmuch as it has definite survival advantages. It is hard-wired into our genes by Darwinian evolution. Now, however, technology has advanced at such a pace that this aggression may destroy us all by nuclear or biological war.’
But despite his
warnings of artificial intelligence and global warming sending us down a
path toward total annihilation, Hawking maintains that he feels good
about the future.
“All this may sound a bit doom-laden but I am an optimist,” he told The Times. “I think the human race will rise to meet these challenges.”
But how?
“We
need to be quicker to identify such threats and act before they get out
of control,” Hawking said. “This might mean some form of world
government.”
That, however, could lead to global tyranny, the optimistic scientist added.
At any rate, these kinds of alarms have been raised by Hawking before. Last year, he made headlines when he spoke at Oxford University about mankind’s urgent need to explore space travel. He even offered up a timeline:
“I don’t think we will survive another 1,000 years without escaping our fragile planet,” he said. Market Watch
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