Stephen Hawking: Humans Should Ride a Beam of Light to Other Planets

[Sagan]

By Tia Ghose, Senior Writer | June 20, 2017 04:02pm ET


Humanity should focus its efforts on exploring other worlds that we might inhabit, and to get there, Earthlings may need to ride on a beam of light, famed physicist Stephen Hawking says.

Hawking made his remarks today (June 20) at Starmus, an arts and science festival in Norway whose advisory board he sits on. In his speech, he reiterated his belief that humans need to explore space to avoid the dangers of our own finite world. And then he described how humans could one day travel on a beam of light, harnessing the power of Einstein's theory of relativity to reach mind-bogglingly distant planets.

Earth in peril

The human imagination has led us to peer ever deeper into the universe with scientific tools, Hawking said. Yet despite this ability to investigate the most distant reaches of the universe without leaving our backyards, humans shouldn't be content with this sedentary approach.

"Shouldn't we be content to be cosmic sloths, enjoying the universe from the comfort of Earth? The answer is, no," Hawking said in his address. "The Earth is under threat from so many areas that it is difficult for me to be positive."

- See more at: https://www.livescience.com/59556-ha....C7JBacwI.dpuf

[Chantellabella]

I've pondered this too. But my thought is that there is something out in space already capable of moving around the universe.

I think there's some plan for our puny planet and if we just hit the right button, we will be contacted to join them.

I guess I don't have much faith in humans achieving space travel "for all" is something that will happen in our future without interference from another race.

Humanity seems too steeped into class privilege that I think only the rich will ever make it off the planet while the rest of us die in fumes.

Wow! Ok, Cindy, that was morbid

[InvisibleGuy]

It's kind of fascinating to think about, imo. Back in my college days I took a physics class and the professor used to tell us, the only way to travel at the speed of light is to become a beam of light. Idk. I don't think he had much of an imagination lol, his lectures were....pretty dry, pretty dull and mind numbing. He was very analytical, and his whole personality was very...pragmatic.

I'm always gonna be the ultimate pessimist so I agree that if we don't find a way to inhabit some other planet we're going to ultimately kill ourselves off this planet. It's just a matter of time, we're our own worst enemies.

[Skippy]

I've pondered this too. But my thought is that there is something out in space already capable of moving around the universe.

I think there's some plan for our puny planet and if we just hit the right button, we will be contacted to join them.

I guess I don't have much faith in humans achieving space travel "for all" is something that will happen in our future without interference from another race.

Humanity seems too steeped into class privilege that I think only the rich will ever make it off the planet while the rest of us die in fumes.

Wow! Ok, Cindy, that was morbid

LOL! Morbid, but prolly true. I wish the dang human race would come off this insecurity bullshit that caused all the probs in the first place.
if not for that and greed we could so advance and increase quality of live by unimaginable margins!

ohh yah to get to far off space we prolly have to distort space to bring it to us, rather than think about movement in the usual way; as even light could never reach stuff in our lifetimes....