Stephen Hawking has revealed he strongly believes in aliens and warned that Earth could be at risk from an invasion.
In a documentary series, the renowned astrophysicist argued that it is ‘perfectly rational’ to assume intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe.
And in an extraordinary series of assertions, he said Earth might be at risk from what he imagines to be ‘massive ships’ which could try to colonise our planet and plunder our resources.
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Professor Hawking said: ‘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.’
It would be ‘too risky’ to attempt to make contact with alien races, he concluded.
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‘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.’
The 68-year-old eminent scientist has spent three years working on the Discovery Channel documentary series, Universe, despite being paralysed by motor neurone disease.
Professor Hawking, who communicates using a speech synthesizer, re-wrote large parts of the script and kept a close eye on the filming.
The programmes use imagined illustrations to explain why he believes in extraterrestrial life and the forms it could take.
The scientist said that most alien life is likely to consist of small animals or microbes in planets, stars or floating in space.
But in one scene, shoals of fluorescent animals are depicted living under thick ice on Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, while flying yellow predators prey on two-legged herbivores in another.
April 29, 2010
