Why Stephen Hawking is wrong to warn about intelligent extraterrestrials
The set of telescopes named after Allen, which operates the SETI Institute for the search for intelligent extraterrestrials in Northern California, brings us closer to the day when we will encounter extraterrestrial intelligence. It is likely that the day of the meeting will come sooner rather than later due to Moore's Law (proposed by Gordon A. Moore, one of the founders of Intel), according to which the computing power of computers doubles every year or two. It turns out that this exponential growth curve describes most technologies, including technologies related to the search for extraterrestrials. The founder of SETI, Frank Drake, claims that our search today is 100 trillion times more efficient than the searches we conducted 50 years ago, and that the limit of improvement is not yet visible on the horizon. If IT is indeed located somewhere, we will contact him. But what will happen when this happens and how should we respond?
These questions, which were once the domain of science fiction only, occupied one of the most respected journals in the world very seriously - Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A - In the February 2011 issue, he singled out seventeen scholarly articles on the subject of "detecting extraterrestrial life and its implications for science and society". Many articles casually dismiss myths such as those that claim that this will lead to society degenerating into a state of fear or hysteria, or that scientists and politicians will conspire to cover it up. Two examples prove that these myths will not hold true. One from December 2010, when the American space agency, NASA, held a press conference that received a lot of exposure in which it announced a possible life form based on arsenic, and the other in 1996 when scientists announced that a rock from Mars contains fossilized evidence of ancient life on the surface of the Red Planet and the President of the United States At that time, Bill Clinton even issued a statement on the subject. Budget-hungry space agencies, such as NASA, and private organizations that depend on raising resources, such as the SETI Institute, will make a world of noise about any discovery related to extraterrestrials that will come their way, from bacteria to the inhabitants of Mars. But should we answer the aliens?
Stephen Hawking thinks we should keep our mouths shut. "We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life could evolve into something we don't want to meet," Hawking explained in his 2010 Discovery Channel documentary television series. “I imagine they might exist in huge starships, having exhausted all the resources of their home world. Such advanced aliens will perhaps move to a nomadic life to conquer and colonize any planet they reach." Relying on the history of encounters between ancient human cultures, during which the more developed culture enslaved the less advanced culture or destroyed it, Hawking concludes: "If we are ever visited by aliens, I think the result will be similar to what happened when Columbus first landed in America, an encounter that did not go well in terms of Native Americans.”
I'm in Doubt. Although we can only examine the subject on one subject, the human race, and that the history of the first encounters between the cultures of this subject is indeed not a source of pride, the trend in the last 500 years is actually encouraging: colonialism is dead, slavery is dying out, the proportion of populations that perished in wars has decreased , crime and violence are decreasing, civil liberties are increasing, and as we see in Egypt and other Arab countries, the desire for democratic representation is spreading, along with the progress of education, science and technology. These trends have made our culture more inclusive and less exploitative. If we continue this 500-year trend line and stretch it over 5,000 years or 500,000 years, we can get an idea of what an alien culture might look like.
In fact, any culture capable of extensive space travel will be found long after the exploitative colonialism phase and the use of depletable energy sources. Enslaving natives and exploiting their resources is an approach that may yield short-term gains for earthly civilizations, but it is not sustainable over the tens of thousands of years needed for interstellar travel.
In this sense, the thought of extraterrestrial civilizations forces us to consider the nature and progress of our earthly culture. This gives rise to hope that when we make contact with an extraterrestrial culture, it will prove to us that at least one other culture has managed to reach a level where the harnessing of new technologies has replaced the control of fellow creatures and that space exploration has prevailed over the conquest of lands. Go to the stars!
Michael Shermer is the publisher of Skeptic magazine (www.skeptic.com and his upcoming book is The Believing Mind. Follow him on Twitter: @michaelshermer
30 תגובות
Dani have you ever heard of the Indians? The USA killed them and imprisoned them in reservations (where they are still today)
Sabdarmish Yehuda
Right. Alexander is also not a follower of the nations of the world. And maybe there is no such thing as an "enlightened conqueror" at all. very sad
R.H
I was seriously amazed! So many catastrophes around the corner and I didn't know...
The truth can be said that I myself am an alien. I do not live in the country, and I am not involved in the affairs of the country in which I live. Maybe I really should consult a psychologist. But, on the other hand, why should I? I'm fine with my warning psyche 🙂
jubilee,
The truth is that this discussion is a bit funny to me. The whole country and in fact the world is facing a severe economic crisis, an ecological crisis of global warming, people are in the streets, the doctors are on strike, tomorrow the Palestinians will announce, the Turks may invade Syria, in Iran they are already debating the prioritization of the targets of the nuclear bomb, the revolution in Libya and Syria is delayed, the money for science, medicine and all The rest of the important things are getting smaller and we still haven't bought the kids things for school which is about to start and what worries some people is whether the aliens are friendly or not. It's good that we don't argue about what will happen when a new ice age arrives.
I wonder what psychologists have to say about this? Escape? repression?
Thank you R.H
So if this redhead didn't destroy the economic infrastructure of Mesopotamia, another redhead did. The redhead is just a name and a symbol. I could have chosen instead, for example, the Taliban who blew up Buddha statues or the Muslims who burned down the library in Alexandria. As mentioned, we can destroy without reckoning and can also strive to preserve the cultures we conquer.
Dear world visitor
Even if we don't know what will happen in an encounter with aliens, that doesn't stop us from discussing it
Obviously there are three options
A difficult encounter
A pleasant meeting
An indifferent meeting
From the experience we had on Earth in the encounters of cultures the encounters were usually difficult - Indians, Aboriginals in Australia, dark skinned in Africa.
The case for a pleasant meeting brought by Yuval Chaikin is also misleading because we forget what Alexander the Great did to his opponents, for example, the city of Tyre, which was completely destroyed because it dared to stand up against him.
I can't forget seeing an American biology textbook from the beginning of the XNUMXth century where different types of tree monkeys were described - chimpanzee, orangutan, gorilla and nigger. To remind you, a nigger is a negro.
If you would like to better understand what the reference will be, see what we did and are doing to the dolphin culture, the buffalo culture, and the mackerel and herring cultures because that will be the reference to us - primitive creatures and cultures.
I expect a difficult meeting or at best, if we are lucky - an indifferent meeting, a research trip where they will take several samples for biological research, and move on.
That's my opinion
Good Day
Sabdarmish Yehuda
the world critic
Fk TJS Hfuk Katuk Atku,
SPOCK
Do you suppose that Q of Star Track and Q of James Bond are one and the same?
My concept is the best ever conceived by humans. I come to serve, and my service will honor you. My species are far superior to humans but we cooperate knowing the human spark is unique in the galaxy. and so we form the mightiest coalition
ever assembled
in terms of other life forms in the universe, just visit your local Hollywood retailer to obtain the recent harvest of alien-ware plots
cowboys and aliens, super8 are mildly entertaining recent examples with some degree of logic.
My farewell comes to you
in the words the all mighty Q
"And if you're very lucky I might drop by from time to time to say hello
See you – out there –
LLAP
Guys, I don't like it.
I hate to tell you how ridiculous the things you write are.
Stephen Hawking can understand a great many things in the physical realm of our world and perhaps also of the universe,
But if he says he knows something about the nature of aliens, he certainly doesn't understand aliens.
Look at China, which was once closed to the Western world - without exposure to the Western world, the Chinese developed a very different culture and a different medicine, with a different basis, and I'm talking here about humans on Earth.
There is no way to tell what aliens' culture will look like and what it will be like, because they haven't even evolved on Earth.
When Hawking and some of the commenters talk about alien technology, inside their heads they compare types of technologies that are known to them as technologies that developed on Earth - and this is already a mistake.
Comparing technology developed by humans to advanced alien technology will start to resemble when you compare the invention of horse riding to the invention of the most advanced spaceship that exists today. 🙂
There's no way to know what will happen when first contact with aliens is made, but I'm pretty sure trying to run away from them would be futile.
You know, maybe they will pass by the surface of the earth, scan the planet and not even recognize that there are living creatures here.
There is no reason for the way humanity works to seem familiar to them.
It could be that we are surrounded by aliens here on Earth and they are not picked up at all by our human senses or they are picked up but we don't perceive their behavior as something alive.
Mr. Sabdarmish, I'm surprised you didn't bring up these options.
In any case, I would be happy to continue this discussion with anyone who wants to.
jubilee,
You are bitterly mistaken about Genghis Khau. Please read Weatherford's book:
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/1203918.html
I can think of two types of invading and conquering aliens. One is Alexander the Great who chose to study and preserve the cultures of the nations he conquered and the other is Genghis Khan who simply destroyed and destroyed indiscriminately.
One day, perhaps in the next century and perhaps, if we are blessed with grace, in just a few hundred years, we will have to leave our world which will no longer be able to live and conquer new worlds. Will we then be like Alexander the Great or like Genghis Khan?
The other possibility, that aliens will come to conquer our world, is really irrelevant. What are they looking for here?
"The Other Me"
Hawking's opinion and others like him are favored over the opinions of others because Hawking knows what he is talking about.
Just because you believe in all kinds of aliens doesn't mean you know what you're talking about.
There are those who think there are aliens. There are those (like you) who think there are different types of aliens. There are those who think there are no aliens. Why should they adopt your opinion?
You can see that from the article it appears that if there are aliens then there could also be a possibility that the aliens evolved in such a way that allows them to consider other BH (different from them) and in such a way that allows the aliens to take care of those BH. Who knows, maybe when we meet aliens they will actually enrich the human race with 'exotic' knowledge...
Discussing aliens in science is a quantum leap into a fantastic reality...
What qualifies Hawking (a scientist of stature to be sure) to advise us on aliens? Or Michael Shermer?
Everyone has an opinion on the subject (and it has already been said about this Opinions are like a*ssholes – everybody's got one I think that India will rise due to the dirty Harry). What makes the opinion of the two gentlemen better than any commenter here?
By the way, it is clear to me that there are aliens of all kinds - good, bad, developed, primitive, evil woodsmen, full of good intentions, exploiters, etc., etc. - these are not news at all.
Donny: "There is a situation that Hawkins is the first swallow of the alien vanguard force to conquer the planet - the Earth....In the first step he is trying to sow fear and panic..."
Bonnie: "Well, Donny, you're up to something..."
Donnie" Thanks Bonnie."
Every creature that roams somewhere in space, began its journey as a predator at the top of the food chain on the planet where it began its journey.
Every predator, be it a tiger or a human or some IT, takes good care of itself and does so with sharp claws or a better developed brain than the prey.
And so if they are so smart that they can reach us, that is, much more than us, I am with Hawking. Let's turn off the light, breathe softly, and not make a lot of noise.
What does SETI have to do with it? They closed the budget a few months ago
And in general to travel all over the world just to eat falafel? Sounds a bit lame...
And the God of Israel?
To A. Yoav
There is a theory that they did plan to create biological robots but something went wrong and we were created instead (the story of the Garden of Eden and eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge?) and since and according to their moral laws there is a prohibition against harming sentient beings we were not exterminated by them.
We must prepare. Build spaceships large enough to contain human populations large enough to survive an indefinite period of time. At first we will still stay in touch with the mother planet, but there will come a day when we will have to disconnect. This is difficult to do, but important for the continued existence of humanity and the preservation of our spiritual assets.
We should not wait until the sharp sword is already placed on our neck. We have to start even earlier. Better today.
In my opinion, dear Michael, they will treat vegetarians as a preferred product with a refined taste, without a lot of unnecessary fats.
Salvation will not come from here!
Good Day
Sabdarmish Yehuda
I hope they will consider those who chose to be vegetarian.
On the other hand - if my approach represents a new stage in cultural evolution - then maybe they will consider them all.
This is exactly Mr. Point, the aliens will behave to us exactly as we behave to cows, sheep, birds, fish, pigs, etc., they will also justify themselves in our behavior towards those inferior to us.
And if at all we will also be delicious to your taste, then at all it went to us.
I remembered, going to eat chicken for lunch
Good Day
Sabdarmish Yehuda
Apparently, Michael Shermer forgot that there are other creatures on earth besides humans that we do with as we please.
In my opinion there is no reason to fear. There is nothing on earth that an advanced civilization would want at all.
All the claims about servitude and slavery, it's clear to everyone that in almost every type of work a good robot is better than a disgruntled slave (whether it's mining for materials or any other need for slavery, a robot will simply do the work cheaper than humans)
Regarding minerals, today we know about precious and huge minerals spread all over the galaxy, there is no mineral that exists on earth that is not found in huge quantities in other stars in the solar system and certainly in the entire universe, so what reason does an advanced culture have to take over us and use it for our consumption???
Because of this, we have nothing to fear at all because an advanced culture that crosses the entire universe will not need all the perverse things that are outdated values of humans such as slaves or exploitation of resources.
This is also the reason why the theory of the ancient astronaut does not really understand why intelligent beings would try to produce a human-slave when one high-quality robot can do its job a thousand times better and faster.
As long as there is doubt that such hostile creatures exist, we would not want to check who is right, whether the author or Hawking is better to follow Hawking's method - shut up
Another thing I don't understand, what is the connection between guesses about what the aliens we might meet will be like and a scientific website?
Is there a logical/experimental reason to assume something about aliens we don't have any data about?
Those who want to go through all the possible scenarios will be able to fulfill their wishes with science fiction movies.
Scenarios that include: wise and evil aliens who destroy humanity, retarded aliens who always lose, an alien who falls in love with a human (or an alien with a human) and fights against her own kind, and more and more...
I don't understand why to assume that an advanced civilization will develop into colonialism, and not into a peace-loving culture.
I have not met aliens in yintes, but among humans there are both.
There are the British, for example, who tried to enslave the world.
On the other hand, there is Switzerland, for example, who are really not interested in conquering other countries.
As far as I know, even the USA, which is itself, never set out to conquer, except in self-defense (Afghanistan), or defense of allies (Korea).
I also agree with Hawking that the meeting with the extraterrestrials will end very badly, but I believe that the meeting
It will exist whether we want it or not, so humanity must prepare for it!
How?, that's really the big question!
Good Day
Sabdarmish Yehuda
A fragmentary article
What is the connection between ETSI and meeting with aliens???
ETSI can at best pick up a transmission that was broadcast a few hundred million years ago and even then the believers will remain believers, the skeptics and the naysayers will deny that the transmission was orchestrated and everything was a conspiracy from the beginning.
Regarding a meeting, yes humanity has progressed...
70 years ago in the USA, Negroes were ranked equal to dogs, but now they are ready for foreigners, come on...
A world where religion plays such a central role is no longer ready for much less outsiders.
I agree with Hawking, it will end very badly.
To such an extent - the aforementioned creatures have no good reason to meet us... We won't be able to contribute anything to them, and in no case will we become an increasing threat when we are exposed to advanced technologies.