Hawking bangs his drum again

More from the theBigThink.com … Stephen Hawking banging the drum once more for the colonisation of space to preserve the human species.  This is something on which I have views, which I have already blogged about.

There’s a 2-minute audio clip of Hawking speaking, an article on his idea, and a long discussion board. Whilst some contributors dwell on the technical issues raised, others dwell on the ethical and political aspects, which are of more interest to me.

Mark Wulas says : “Why is it so important for us to survive? …. We don't miss dinosaurs that much and I don't think anybody will miss us that much either. It's normal for species to go extinct as they are replaced by new ones. That's how the universe works.”  

Michelle Phillips says that instead of moving to another planet, humanity should start to learn how to clean up its own mess. “We are problem solvers, we are explorers, we are always searching for new things, places and ways of doing. Let's … make this planet Earth into all it can be instead of moving on to another planet on which to wreak havoc.”  The wreaking havoc tendency, she points out, doesn’t suddenly stop when we blast off.

Dave Pullin essentially agrees with me so I won't bother repeating it.

John McNamara strays into the technical arena, science fiction at this stage really, but there's an insightful twist in his final sentence.  He says to leave this planet “we will have to discover how to digitally copy our individual minds … and transmit the signal to another advanced alien planet ... Our digital minds could then be downloaded into a blank cloned version of their lifeform. Our knowledge and history would go with us. Our alien partners would have to see the benefit of this merger for them to co-operate.”