Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Hawking Says Space Colonies Needed

The survival of the human race depends on its ability to find new homes elsewhere in the universe because there's an increasing risk that a disaster will destroy the Earth, world-renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking said Tuesday.

Humans could have a permanent base on the moon in 20 years and a colony on Mars in the next 40 years, the British scientist told a news conference.


[. . .]

He added that if humans can avoid killing themselves in the next 100 years, they should have space settlements that can continue without support from Earth.


Hawking continues to stick to his guns on the issue of human sustainability, and rightly so. I find it interesting that the time-frame he proposes coincides, if only roughly, with the assumed technological "Singularity" many readers of this blog are doubtlessly tired of hearing about. On first take, at least, this seems to be a compelling coincidence.

And once again I wonder if we're living in a simulation, an evolutionary stress-test conducted by some postsingular intelligence who watches our attempts to cope from behind a curtain of computation.

2 comments:

Old Gary said...

Your last paragraph is kind of similar to what religious types believe, i.e. God is watching to see who's naughty or nice.

Mac said...

Your last paragraph is kind of similar to what religious types believe, i.e. God is watching to see who's naughty or nice.

Well, in my scenario the "god" doesn't necessarily care one way or another. It's just an experiment, albeit an ambitious one.