Professor Hawking would love to meet intelligent aliens and ask endless questions about the Universe, but says he still fears that they might end up destroying us if we ever made contact. He has been warning about the dangers of alien contact for years.
Professor Hawking appears in a new online movie – ‘Stephen Hawking’s Favorite Places’ – in which he is ‘commander’ of a futuristic spaceship, the SS Hawking.
The SS Hawking can travel at warp speed (fictional faster-than-light) and takes him wherever he likes in the Universe.
As ‘Commander’ Stephen Hawking pilots the SS Hawking on a journey of a lifetime through space, he visits a black hole, the Big Bang, the planets Saturn and Gliese 832 c, and makes a final stop at Santa Barbara in California. He’d love to talk to smart aliens, he says, but worries that if he did, things could go badly for us. (Image: cdn.curiositystream.com)
Regarding his epic voyage, Professor Hawking says:
“My goal is simple: complete understanding of the Universe,” Hawking said. “It’s always been a dream of mine to explore the Universe. So, what if I could? Imagine I could go anywhere and see anything… join me on a fantastical journey to my favorite places, only on CuriosityStream.”
Professor Hawking visits Gliese 832c
During his journey across the Universe, he visits Gliese 832c, a distant planet in the constellation of Grus, about 16 light-years from Earth, i.e. 151,500,000,000,000 km (94,137,735,623,956 miles).
Gliese 832c has an Earth Similarity Index of 0.81. A planet with an Earth Similarity Index of 1 would be completely identical to our planet, while one with an Index of 0.01 would be totally different.
Gliese 832c is in the ‘Habitable Zone’, also called the ‘Goldilocks Zone’ – its distance from its star means it is neither too hot nor too cold to support liquid water, a vital ingredient for life as we know it.
Wouldn’t it be great if Gliese 832c had life – perhaps even an advanced civilization? Most of us would be excited at the prospect of making contact with them. Prof. Hawking said he would also find it irresistible, but wonders whether it might not go well for us.
#StephenHawking has landed on @CuriosityStream. Need we say more? Watch Now: https://t.co/ydzvixZLlg & spread the word: #HawkingFavorites pic.twitter.com/hiohoBBZ0N
— CuriosityStream (@CuriosityStream) September 22, 2016
In the new online movie, Prof. Hawking says:
“One day, we might receive a signal from a planet like this. But we should be wary of answering back. Meeting an advanced civilization could be like Native Americans encountering Columbus. That didn’t turn out so well.”
Many scientists don’t fear aliens
Many scientists insist that an advanced civilization would not be a threat to us. They argue that any intelligent extraterrestrial life form that was advanced enough to visit us would already know about our existence via the TV and radio signals that we have been sending out into space for the past century.
Making contact with smart aliens is only a part of his 26-minute documentary. During his space voyage he makes five separate stops:
– He observes the Big Bang. According to scientific theory, about 13.8 billion years ago, the Universe was born in a massive explosion known as the Big Bang, when matter and energy emerged. In a tiny fraction of a second, the Universe was formed.
– He visits a supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy – the Milky Way. A black hole is a region of space where matter has collapsed in on itself. In this catastrophic collapse, an enormous amount of mass is concentrated in an incredibly tiny area.
If there are intelligent aliens out there and some of them are monitoring humans on Earth, I wonder what they think of us?
– He does a stopover at Gliese 832c.
– He tours Saturn, the sixth planet from our Sun and the second-largest in our Solar System.
– He ends up in Santa Barbara in California, a place he calls ‘my home away from home.’
Professor Hawking says that Caltech (the California Institute of Technology) offered him a job in California in 1974. “I jumped at the opportunity. In the sun with my young family, it was a world away from the grey skies of Cambridge, [UK]. I’ve traveled the globe, but I’ve never found anywhere quite like this.”
Regarding Stephen Hawking and how his early life influenced his career, Executive Producer of the new documentary, Steve Burns, said:
“We tend to think of these exceptional individuals as geniuses – the scientists, authors or educators we know as their public persona. But, they are also incredibly fascinating people with children and families, and early childhood memories that have inspired their life’s work—the stories behind their story, which we don’t usually get a chance to hear about.”
“Stephen Hawking’s Favorite Places provides that intimate, exclusive insight into his early life and the influences that have shaped his life and career, and the wonder and curiosity that drives and motivates one of the most visionary minds of our time.”
Video – Professor Hawking warns on contacting aliens
Renowned theoretical physicist Professor Stephen Hawking has again warned the public that alien beings may not be so friendly to humans. He expresses his thoughts in a short documentary.
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