Aliens are very likely out there, according to eminent scientist Stephen Hawking - but we should keep quiet and hope they don't notice us.

In a new documentary for the Discovery Channel, the theoretical physicist warns against making contact with any extra-terrestrials.

Professor Hawking, who retired as the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge last year, claims such space life would only abuse Earth's resources and move on.

"We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet," he said.

"I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet.

"Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach."

"If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans."

The documentary, which begins on May 9, explores the British scientist's vision of the universe.

While most aliens were in all probability simple organisms such as microbes, Professor Hawking said it would only take a few intelligent ones to spell disaster for humans.

"To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational," he explained.

"The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like."

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20100425/tod-co...-h-870a197.html

I have had my suspicions about a few of the posters on here for some time...........

The Thai Immigration Department has been on top of the risk aliens pose for some time now....

But can they buy land in Thailand? It was a good idea to post this thread here rather than the Sandbox - it should avoid the usual crowd who'll blame the Americans for conspiring with the Martians to secretly acquire Earth's resources. However, I don't think Prof Hawkins has too much to worry about. I'm sure that these pillaging pirates of the cosmos could find a planet or two far closer to their own patch in space to do their plundering without having to travel all the way to Earth.

E:T

By the time they got here, they'd be too old and knackered to fight anyway.

PS: All aliens look like Robin Williams and are very funny so there should be no problem as long as you can say......Nanu nanu.

By the time they got here, they'd be too old and knackered to fight anyway.

Not unlike many forum members.

Crickey, hes nicked the theme of 'Independence Day'!!

I have always thought that for us to believe that the inhabitants of this planet could be the only life form out there, is arrogant or just plain ignorant, to say the least. Finally, Hawkins is on the same wave length as me

I have always thought that for us to believe that the inhabitants of this planet could be the only life form out there, is arrogant or just plain ignorant, to say the least. Finally, Hawkins is on the same wave length as me

You'll be telling us next that Stephen Hawking supports the Mighty 'Dale and eats Black Pudding...

I have always thought that for us to believe that the inhabitants of this planet could be the only life form out there, is arrogant or just plain ignorant, to say the least. Finally, Hawkins is on the same wave length as me

...wavelength as us.

You can say "finally", but he (finally) got on to the same wavelength as me way back when he recanted and decided that information is NOT lost in black holes.

Except I don't have any statistical data to project that the intelligent aliens would be hostile. For sure, humans are aggressive.....but that doesn't neccessarily extrapolate to aliens.

....... It was a good idea to post this thread here rather than the Sandbox - it should avoid the usual crowd who'll blame the Americans for conspiring with the Martians to secretly acquire Earth's resources. .....

Well if anyone was going to conspire, (and then probably double cross) the aliens, it would be the Americans or the Chinese. And since the Chinese have pretty girls and haven't invaded any countries recently.....it's the Americans that get the current flack.

I have always thought that for us to believe that the inhabitants of this planet could be the only life form out there, is arrogant or just plain ignorant, to say the least. Finally, Hawkins is on the same wave length as me

...wavelength as us.

You can say "finally", but he (finally) got on to the same wavelength as me way back when he recanted and decided that information is NOT lost in black holes.

Except I don't have any statistical data to project that the intelligent aliens would be hostile. For sure, humans are aggressive.....but that doesn't neccessarily extrapolate to aliens.

If they're more advanced than us, then almost certainly aggressive - advances in 'civilisation' have always been made as a competitive need - the wheel transferred more bulk more quickly and thus a tribe fed better in it's kills - so on.

And competitiveness comes from an aggressive nature.

Ah well, I was wrong. This thread is definitely shaping up very much as Sandboxish. Now, who's going to kick off the flaming?

Ah well, I was wrong. This thread is definitely shaping up very much as Sandboxish. Now, who's going to kick off the flaming?

Well, I doubt anyone here could out thing Micheal Hawking...... ever.

Out THING him ?

Ah well, I was wrong. This thread is definitely shaping up very much as Sandboxish. Now, who's going to kick off the flaming?

Well, I doubt anyone here could out thing Micheal Hawking...... ever.

'

I wonder if Michael Hawking is any relation to Stephen Hawking ?

^I believe that Michael is a distant cousin (comes from Neptune).

What's up with you guys?

Have you not heard of the Thinging Michael Hawking Conundrum, it is similar to Occam's Razor Concept.

Ah well, I was wrong. This thread is definitely shaping up very much as Sandboxish. Now, who's going to kick off the flaming?

Well, I doubt anyone here could out thing Micheal Hawking...... ever.

'

I wonder if Michael Hawking is any relation to Stephen Hawking ?

Or even any relation to Micheal Hawking?

I have always thought that for us to believe that the inhabitants of this planet could be the only life form out there, is arrogant or just plain ignorant, to say the least. Finally, Hawkins is on the same wave length as me

...wavelength as us.

You can say "finally", but he (finally) got on to the same wavelength as me way back when he recanted and decided that information is NOT lost in black holes.

Except I don't have any statistical data to project that the intelligent aliens would be hostile. For sure, humans are aggressive.....but that doesn't neccessarily extrapolate to aliens.

If they're more advanced than us, then almost certainly aggressive - advances in 'civilisation' have always been made as a competitive need - the wheel transferred more bulk more quickly and thus a tribe fed better in it's kills - so on.

And competitiveness comes from an aggressive nature.

Yes.....if you think on a terrestrial animal wavelength and in human terms.

If advanced life forms are aware of us I am sure they have declared Earth a zoo.

'Take a good look at these complete failures, XXZEDffef334dd... that's what you'll end up like if you don't finish your ammonium chloride like a good boy.'

I think we should be so lucky as to be 'at risk' from aliens- because our chances of coming across actual beings is so unlikely. First of all, though the chance for there to be other lifeforms is high, the chance that they are intelligent in a way that would lead to any meaningful contact is smaller. The chance, furthermore, for such contactable aliens to exist within our contact limits is even smaller, and even if they are in contact limits they would not necessarily be anywhere close- if they are 500 light years away, the soonest they would hear a return signal from us is 500 years after we send it, and the *closest* star (pretty unlikely at this point to have any life) is 4 light years away! And if a group of aliens did choose to visit us based on a signal, they would have to be going a significant part of the speed of light to make it even in those lengthy times, and that assumes that there is actually some way for that group of aliens- with whatever their physiology and technology- to do so. We may simply be 'unlucky' and live in a universe that makes it vanishingly unlikely for intelligent species to exist for long enough to make any contact with others even by radio signal, much less actual travel- and that's if the theories about periodic x-ray and gamma ray supernova flash extinctions of entire galaxies are incorrect.

So I'm really not too bothered about the aliens- if we're looking for threats from space, asteroids are a much more clear, present, and (pre)-historically demonstrated problem.

Ah well, I was wrong. This thread is definitely shaping up very much as Sandboxish. Now, who's going to kick off the flaming?

Well, I doubt anyone here could out thing Micheal Hawking...... ever.

'

I wonder if Michael Hawking is any relation to Stephen Hawking ?

Or even any relation to Micheal Hawking?

555 Well spotted. (Not MichEAl himself, but the spelling. Although, I suppose that if MichEAl is, indeed, Stephen's Neptunese cousin, he may be 'well spotted' himself.)

(It's alright - I was just about to leave anyway...)

Yes intelligent aliens ought to be avoided by the human race....because we might corrupt them.

If you don't believe me just look at what's happenining in Bangkok right now.

Aliens ought to be avoided, because we might spread our stupid and foolish practices to them.

Wasn't it George Bernad Shaw who said that the way humans behaved seemed to show that Earth was used as the insane asylum for the other races of the galaxy?

Actually it seems stupid to assume that aliens would have the technology to travel here, and somehow want to take something from us. If our solar system is any example, their equivalent of a solar system would have the resources to take care of them for many centuries, long before they had to go to other systems to get resources for their development.

I find it ludicrous to believe the idea that aliens would send vehicles to Earth just to take a few thousand gallons of water back to their home. The cost, just for an example, would be too great...not to mention the time required to move it.

Frankly, the idea that they would come all the way to Earth, just to exploit us, is nonsense. If it is to be credited it at all, it would be because they would regard us as to "primitive" to be regarded as worth bothering with...we might be thought of as we regard dogs or cats...nice as pets, but not to be given full rights.(and we'll be nuetered so as not to breed, like cats or dogs are).

Like the song said, "We'll make great pets."

All the archangels are ending with 'el'.

Gabriel; Raphael; Uriel; Michael and so on.

I think we should be so lucky as to be 'at risk' from aliens- because our chances of coming across actual beings is so unlikely. First of all, though the chance for there to be other lifeforms is high, the chance that they are intelligent in a way that would lead to any meaningful contact is smaller. The chance, furthermore, for such contactable aliens to exist within our contact limits is even smaller, and even if they are in contact limits they would not necessarily be anywhere close- if they are 500 light years away, the soonest they would hear a return signal from us is 500 years after we send it, and the *closest* star (pretty unlikely at this point to have any life) is 4 light years away! And if a group of aliens did choose to visit us based on a signal, they would have to be going a significant part of the speed of light to make it even in those lengthy times, and that assumes that there is actually some way for that group of aliens- with whatever their physiology and technology- to do so. We may simply be 'unlucky' and live in a universe that makes it vanishingly unlikely for intelligent species to exist for long enough to make any contact with others even by radio signal, much less actual travel- and that's if the theories about periodic x-ray and gamma ray supernova flash extinctions of entire galaxies are incorrect.

So I'm really not too bothered about the aliens- if we're looking for threats from space, asteroids are a much more clear, present, and (pre)-historically demonstrated problem.

You may be overlooking that as yet we have no unified theory, and that quantum physics may yet reveal that "faster-than-light travel" (which may not be "travel" as such, but a bending of space) is possible.

The aliens may have mastered this already, and as such could visit us from thousands of light years away instantaneously.

Who's to say that they wouldn't treat the discovery of slightly intelligent life forms on the 3rd planet from Sol as curiosities that should be quarantined and studied closely before any contact be made.....imagine the precautions our own scientists would employ upon finding a new ecosystem.

Brings to mind the Wollamai Pine and how it's location is still secret, how it is treated as a VIP of the flora of Australia.....the aliens may very well be very benevolent towards us, especially if they are exploring with science in mind.

I think we should be so lucky as to be 'at risk' from aliens- because our chances of coming across actual beings is so unlikely. First of all, though the chance for there to be other lifeforms is high, the chance that they are intelligent in a way that would lead to any meaningful contact is smaller. The chance, furthermore, for such contactable aliens to exist within our contact limits is even smaller, and even if they are in contact limits they would not necessarily be anywhere close- if they are 500 light years away, the soonest they would hear a return signal from us is 500 years after we send it, and the *closest* star (pretty unlikely at this point to have any life) is 4 light years away! And if a group of aliens did choose to visit us based on a signal, they would have to be going a significant part of the speed of light to make it even in those lengthy times, and that assumes that there is actually some way for that group of aliens- with whatever their physiology and technology- to do so. We may simply be 'unlucky' and live in a universe that makes it vanishingly unlikely for intelligent species to exist for long enough to make any contact with others even by radio signal, much less actual travel- and that's if the theories about periodic x-ray and gamma ray supernova flash extinctions of entire galaxies are incorrect.

So I'm really not too bothered about the aliens- if we're looking for threats from space, asteroids are a much more clear, present, and (pre)-historically demonstrated problem.

You may be overlooking that as yet we have no unified theory, and that quantum physics may yet reveal that "faster-than-light travel" (which may not be "travel" as such, but a bending of space) is possible.

The aliens may have mastered this already, and as such could visit us from thousands of light years away instantaneously.

Who's to say that they wouldn't treat the discovery of slightly intelligent life forms on the 3rd planet from Sol as curiosities that should be quarantined and studied closely before any contact be made.....imagine the precautions our own scientists would employ upon finding a new ecosystem.

Brings to mind the Wollamai Pine and how it's location is still secret, how it is treated as a VIP of the flora of Australia.....the aliens may very well be very benevolent towards us, especially if they are exploring with science in mind.

As a simple Brit - I would have thought that the Wollamai Pine was to be found in Wollamai.

Are you colonial convicts doing us over once more? Really, this is too bad of you. Have to take it out into the open at the next Ashes Tour, or maybe on a rugby trip.

As a simple Brit - I would have thought that the Wollamai Pine was to be found in Wollamai.

5555 That's what I love about the Asylum...

Yeah, Harcourt, but then if you allow such advanced physics, you have to start asking why we haven't *already* been contacted- and then I guess at that point we hear from the people who insist we have... and at that point I find my attention beginning to wane...