Physicist Stephen Hawking has endorsed new efforts to search for signs of intelligent alien life in the cosmos, even though he thinks it’s likely that such creatures would try to destroy humanity.
Since at least 2010, Hawking has spoken publicly about his fears that an advanced alien civilization would have no problem wiping out the human race the way a human might wipe out a colony of ants.
At the media event announcing the new project, he noted that human beings have a terrible history of mistreating, and even massacring, other human cultures that are less technologically advanced – why would an alien civilization be any different?
And yet, it seems Hawking’s desire to know if there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe trumps his fears.
Stephen Hawking appeared with Russian billionaire Yuri Milner on Monday to announce Breakthrough Listen, the new $100 million initiative looking for signs of intelligent life, the famous physicist seems to have at least partially reconsidered.
Hawking says the initiative is of special importance in a moment when humanity’s achievements in space are in the spotlight. “We are alive. We are intelligent. We must know,” he said of the search for life beyond earth.
Organizers said the initiative will be the most powerful search ever initiated for signs of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe.
