Stephen Hawking issues another WARNING: the world should NOT contact aliens
STEPHEN Hawking has warned that we should NOT contact aliens and warned against inviting them to Earth.
Professor Stephen Hawking has said that we shouldn't contact aliens or invite them to Earth
The scientist warned against alerting aliens to our presence in the solar system.
In a new half-hour programme, 'Stephen Hawking's favourite places' the world famous physicist speaks about the potentially habitable exoplanet Gliese 832c and speaks of intelligent life.
He said: "If intelligent life has evolved (on Gliese 832c), we should be able to hear it.
"One day we might receive a signal from a planet like this, but we should be wary of answering back.
"Meeting an advanced civilisation could be like Native Americans encountering Columbus. That didn't turn out so well."
The famous physicist talks about alien life in a new half-hour programme
Approaching Gliese 581d
It's not the first time Hawking has said such things about alien life, in July last year he spoke of how intelligent life could destroy humanity.
One day we might receive a signal from a planet like this, but we should be wary of answering back
"It's time to search for life beyond Earth. The Breakthrough initiatives are making that commitment.
"We are alive. We are intelligent. We must know."
Scientists currently have no idea what alien life-forms might look like, or how they might respond to contact from human civilisation.
Hawking also discusses the potentially abitable exoplanet Gliese 832c
Last year he spoke of how intelligent life could destroy humanity
"Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they could reach," Hawking said in 2010 on an episode of 'Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking', a TV show that aired on the Discovery Channel.
"If so, it makes sense for them to exploit each new planet for material to build more spaceships so they could move on.
"Who knows what the limits would be?"