stephen hawkins says lets search for alien life

i found this story strange since wasn,t it not that long ago he said he believes its the worst thing we could try to do?

why the change of heart?

news.sky.com...

a reply to: sparky31

I thought the same thing when I read your title. Maybe there was pressure for him to change his stance after being informed of new astronomical findings?

The scientific method requires reexamination of the finding. This simply means he hasn't stopped working.

And how do we know it was he who said it? Maybe his voice computer was hacked???

a reply to: Iamthatbish

I think the poor guy has been in some sort of Weekend at Bernies movie for quite some time.

originally posted by: WeRpeons
a reply to: sparky31

I thought the same thing when I read your title. Maybe there was pressure for him to change his stance after being informed of new astronomical findings?

its not if he didn,t believe anything was out there,he said us trying to find or contact them could be worst thing we ever do so for him now to come out in support of it is strange.

some how i don,t see how hes going to be pressured into changing his thinking.

originally posted by: khnum
a reply to: Iamthatbish

I think the poor guy has been in some sort of Weekend at Bernies movie for quite some time.

That's both funny and sad. Because he could become a puppet at any time if i understand his disability correctly.

You guys have misunderstood what Hawking said.

He said that contact with advanced alien life is what he was concerned with. Making contact or them finding us.

Specifically he said: "If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans"

Passively listening for intelligent life on the other hand is a different mater.

nm

originally posted by: eriktheawful
You guys have misunderstood what Hawking said.

He said that contact with advanced alien life is what he was concerned with. Making contact or them finding us.

Specifically he said: "If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans"

Passively listening for intelligent life on the other hand is a different mater.

True! Looking for ET and communicating to ET are totally different things.

Sadly I won't be holding my breath for this one, I doubt we will find anything really exciting. You ever feel like the older you get the more unrealistic the idea of ever seeing ET becomes?

a reply to: eriktheawful
Sure because there is absolutely no way that our passive listening systems could ever be detected by a species that is that is technically more advanced than us….or maybe that is the same thing as contacting them in their world…Oops.

Thank you for this Sparky. I am also intrigued as to why the sudden change of heart. That being said, I did get a chuckle from VoidHawk with a dose of: Hmmmm…

Why don't you send his office an email and ask?
Prof.Hawking@damtp

a reply to: sparky31

I believe Part of the money is allocated to have debates on whether we should make contact.

Im sure it will also discuss how to search without being found aswell? But we might have already jumped the gun on that.

Too late Stephen, they're already here.I bet 99.9% of the scientific community who are searching for alien life have never researched even a single UFO case.

What if advanced, warlike aliens send out signals in the hopes that planets like ours reply, giving away our location?

It would be one way for them to find potential targets...

This topic is already available for discussion here:

Royal Society and the search for ET

Please visit the above thread for further information and comment.

Thank you.