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

[laura_seabrook]

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

Apparently the good doctor thinks we should be cautious with Aliens, as they may come and conquer or kill us!

Comments

[stephen-dedman.livejournal.com]

I find it difficult to imagine why aliens would bother with us, unless they're compulsive collectors of other creatures for their zoos, or fanatical about converting others to their ideology. While we're stuck on Earth, we don't pose any sort of threat, nor are we likely to possess any sort of resources they can't get more easily elsewhere.

I think it's somewhat more likely that there are alien races that have detected our radio and TV signals, but haven't bothered replying. "Oh, it's just those primitives from Sol 3: they're still watching reality TV and listening to Alan Jones. No intelligent life there, clearly."

[laura-seabrook.livejournal.com]

There was an argument that they want our resources, but I suspect that there would be much better pickings on worlds without life.

[strang-er.livejournal.com]

A lot would have to depend on whether faster than light speed travel was possible. If not, so i've read it argued, the millions of years it would take an alien race to reach us would be so long that they'd probably lose interest, change plans or evolve in some way so that the original journey became irrelevant long before they ever got here or, if they did arrive, it would be unlikely to coincide with the time span our little race happens to occupy.

Of course, if warp speed can be done, then we can only put our hope in humble microbes or a double-hearted hipster in a blue porta-loo.