That’s right. Stephen Hawking, the world’s most admired physicist (and also the world’s only physicist who is regularly and affectionately mocked on the hit TV sitcom, the Big Bang Theory) is afraid that if we ever find extraterrestrial life, we might regret it. Hawking fears that we might come across aliens who are so super intelligent and advanced that they might conquer earth rather than cooperate with earthlings.
Not to be deterred, Hawking has still teamed up with a very rich Russian man to seriously search for alien life. When the two recently announced their $100 million plan called Breakthrough Listen, Hawking offered this warning:
“If you look at history, contact between humans and less intelligent organisms have often been disastrous from their point of view, and encounters between civilizations with advanced versus primitive technologies have gone badly for the less advanced. A civilization reading one of our messages could be billions of years ahead of us. If so, they will be vastly more powerful, and may not see us as any more valuable than we see bacteria.”
Bacteria.
According to one of the smartest scientists in the world, humans may not be nearly as smart as they think they are. In fact, all our most brilliant accomplishments in science, medicine, technology might be so primitive by comparison that other advanced alien societies may consider the human race as little more than a bunch of single cell germs that can make you sick.
No fair.
What about all those intangible qualities that represent the best of our humanness? Love, compassion, empathy, kindness?
Hawking is going to have to argue that point with social scientists and theologians, who have spent millennia trying to figure out and promote all the ways that humans are unique and special.
The world’s most rich and powerful humans might also have a thing or two to say to Hawking. I can’t imagine rich and powerful humans rolling over to some alien conquerors without a super, colossal fight to protect their riches and power. Every tyrant, schemer and politician alive would bristle at the thought of being dismissed as inferior and remedial by a superior intelligence.
Can you imagine Donald Trump sitting on some intergalactic short bus?
Heck no! The Donald would wave his fists, pound the table and hurl invectives to warn conquering aliens that no one messes with The Donald because he is obviously richer and smarter than anyone, human or extraterrestrial.
Maybe that’s the answer. If Stephen Hawking and Breakthrough Listen really do find alien life, I hope they let Donald Trump be Planet Earth’s first emissary to communicate with them.
Then, if the aliens turn out to be warlike and conquering, I’ll only head for the hills if The Donald does.
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photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/79707490@N00/493446575″>Stephen Hawking @ Birzeit</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/”>(license)</a>
photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/22007612@N05/5440002785″>Donald Trump</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/”>(license)</a>