{"id":494,"date":"2010-04-25T09:41:35","date_gmt":"2010-04-25T09:41:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/roddreher\/2010\/04\/hawking-talking-to-aliens-myob.html"},"modified":"2010-04-25T09:41:35","modified_gmt":"2010-04-25T09:41:35","slug":"hawking-talking-to-aliens-myob","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/roddreher\/2010\/04\/hawking-talking-to-aliens-myob.html","title":{"rendered":"Hawking: “Talking to aliens? MYOB.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Physics demigod Stephen Hawking sensibly says we should mind our own business on the subject of extraterrestrial life.<\/a> Excerpt:<\/p>\n

\nSuch scenes are speculative, but Hawking uses them to lead on to a serious point: that a few life forms could be intelligent and pose a threat. Hawking believes that contact with such a species could be devastating for humanity.
\nHe suggests that aliens might simply raid Earth for its resources and then move on: “We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet. 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.”
\nHe concludes that trying to make contact with alien races is “a little too risky”. He said: “If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Physics demigod Stephen Hawking sensibly says we should mind our own business on the subject of extraterrestrial life. Excerpt: Such scenes are speculative, but Hawking uses them to lead on to a serious point: that a few life forms could be intelligent and pose a threat. Hawking believes that contact with such a species could…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science"],"yoast_head":"\nHawking: "Talking to aliens? MYOB." - Rod Dreher<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/roddreher\/2010\/04\/hawking-talking-to-aliens-myob.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hawking: "Talking to aliens? MYOB." - Rod Dreher\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Physics demigod Stephen Hawking sensibly says we should mind our own business on the subject of extraterrestrial life. Excerpt: Such scenes are speculative, but Hawking uses them to lead on to a serious point: that a few life forms could be intelligent and pose a threat. Hawking believes that contact with such a species could…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/roddreher\/2010\/04\/hawking-talking-to-aliens-myob.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rod Dreher\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-04-25T09:41:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rod Dreher\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Hawking: \"Talking to aliens? MYOB.\" - Rod Dreher","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/roddreher\/2010\/04\/hawking-talking-to-aliens-myob.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Hawking: \"Talking to aliens? 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