Stephen Hawking - Aliens

So where do you think our space progarms should go? In what direction? I honestly think Mars would be great to explore given the ample amount of frozen water to be studied. We've had rovers collecting data, but it's time we put a man, or woman on Mars.

I think we should explore places where life potentially does exist, like Europa, to see if we can find signs of life elsewhere, with an extra focus on trying to find new places for us to inhabit. We need to spread to survive. Even if we were to terraform Mars or something, we need to continue to spread even outside of our galaxy. What if something were to happen to our sun?

That's the next issue, in which fusion may be able to handle. If we can develop some sort of energy technology that has substainability and longevity to outlast many generations then of course we could manage to survive. I would imagine we would kill our own race off of this planet before anything were to happen to the sun, but if? Who knows.

And I would agree, Europa would essentially be the best place we could ever go to. But would it be possible within the next few hundred years? Could be. There needs to be an enormous breakthrough in prupolsion technology that could legitimately get humans to that planet in a managable amount of time (20-30 years?). 800,000,000 miles is the estimated average distance from the Earth to this unknown planet, and it does change with the orbit around Jupiter. There are so many obstacles including asteroids and other space debrit in the way of sending a satellite/ship that long of a distance. But I think in the next 50 years our technology should have evolved enough to make something like this feasible.

We need to atleast be gearing up to send unmanned ships and scientific gathering equipment to gauge more information of this other planet.

Europa is a moon, not a planet. And according to its wikipedia page, fly-by missions have visited it before, and a mission to Jupitor's icy moons is planned for 2020.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_(moon)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_...System_Mission

If we can develop some sort of energy technology that has substainability and longevity to outlast many generations then of course we could manage to survive.

Wait, you mean, like a space colony, or something? Something big enough that a large group could get on and travel for generations, then land and populate elsewhere?

So, how far have we come, exactly, from the 1960's? I mean, other than the moon, and exploring places... not much, huh? I agree with D3V, it's time we at least hit Mars. If we could find a way to live there, we could land a base, which would, at the least, shave a few years off later travels.

I think we should explore places where life potentially does exist, like Europa, to see if we can find signs of life elsewhere, with an extra focus on trying to find new places for us to inhabit. We need to spread to survive. Even if we were to terraform Mars or something, we need to continue to spread even outside of our galaxy. What if something were to happen to our sun?

KA,

While I think searching for extraterrestrial life is fantastic, I don't see any real practical value to it. Not to say that I disagree with you -- I agree with you wholeheartedly, but in a society which places so much emphasis on practical results, how would you justify an expedition costing billions of dollars for a discovery whose practical benefits are uncertain at best? Say that you were a notable advocate for searching for life outside of our planet. What would you say to convince the rest of us that this is a good idea?

What would you say to convince the rest of us that this is a good idea?

"Free Icecream" could always work.

Now, since I'm not expert on global affairs and what not, I can't really say this and be sure, but, if every country in the entire world (or, at least, the important countries) agreed on it, couldn't we do it all for free? I mean, the government does "run everything", right?

Well most of the idea behind searching for other life, in my eyes, is that if we find other life elsewhere, we find other places which can support life. I definitely think our focus should be on figuring out how we can get at least some of us off of this ball of dirt. We're essentially keeping all of our eyes in one basket, and if that basket drops the human race (as well as all life as we know it, potentially) is gone.

You're right though, past that there isn't really any value in finding other life, unless it is advanced enough that we can learn from it in some way. But honestly, I think the same could be said about any sort of space exploration, and a lot of science and research in general.

Well most of the idea behind searching for other life, in my eyes, is that if we find other life elsewhere, we find other places which can support life. I definitely think our focus should be on figuring out how we can get at least some of us off of this ball of dirt.

Interesting. I've never thought about looking for aliens from a utilitarian standpoint before. But if the rationale in looking for aliens is a search for hospitable planets, why spend money on something we've had absolutely no success at so far rather than learning how to terraform a planet, which we might be able to do in small, incremental steps, where each step has some sort of tangible result.

You're right though, past that there isn't really any value in finding other life, unless it is advanced enough that we can learn from it in some way. But honestly, I think the same could be said about any sort of space exploration, and a lot of science and research in general.

I think theoretical scientific research, even the research that is not eventually productive, can make a legitimate claim for public money and support. Since science by its nature investigates the unknown, we don't have the foresight to know which fields will be productive and which won't. I think we have to invest across all fields that are considered viable. Something useful will invariably turn up after a while. Seeing as we've had absolutely no success in finding aliens, I don't think the SETI program can make those same claims.

That said, I am, and probably always will be, a SETI supporter.

why spend money on something we've had absolutely no success at so far rather than learning how to terraform a planet, which we might be able to do in small, incremental steps, where each step has some sort of tangible result.

Well if you wanna fix out planet AND save money, have everyone suddenly turn off all electrical power plants. We'll suddenly all fall to pieces, and only to sane people, who have the brain power to actually live without watching the next episode of Lost will... live. Suddenly, nothing's poluting anything, the world repairs itself (seriously, it's practically programed to fix itself, we just damage it too much, too fast). It's all a matter of us suddenly stopping or not.
I think.

Well if you wanna fix out planet AND save money, have everyone suddenly turn off all electrical power plants. We'll suddenly all fall to pieces, and only to sane people, who have the brain power to actually live without watching the next episode of Lost will... live. Suddenly, nothing's poluting anything, the world repairs itself (seriously, it's practically programed to fix itself, we just damage it too much, too fast). It's all a matter of us suddenly stopping or not. I think.

KA thinks that it's a good thing to get off this rock. I agree with him, and we were discussing the merits of different approaches to accomplish that. To that effect, you completely missed the point.

In fact, you missed the point of this conversation so hard, you deserve the following:

FAIL!

Stay in school nubface.

But to comment on your post, I agree -- we should work on fixing this planet. You go too far in my opinion, though.