Enter Stephen Hawking with the not-so-glad tidings of a planetary disaster on Earth. The famous theoretical physicist said that a likely disaster on Earth is a ‘near certainty’ and linked this disaster to the ever-increasing risks due to advancing in science and technology.
Hawking was speaking to Radio Times and said that the genetically engineered viruses, global warming and nuclear war are threats that are just around the cornet to take the humanity out in the foreseeable future. He stated with the publication that these threats are real and although “the chance of a disaster on planet Earth in a given year may be quite low, it adds up over time, becoming a near certainty in the next thousand or ten thousand years.”
Apart from these grim prophecies, Hawkins still exhibited some optimism and stated that we can save humanity instead of letting it perish with Earth. He said, “by that time we should have spread out into space, and to other stars, so it would not mean the end of the human race […] However, we will not establish self-sustaining colonies in space for at least the next hundred years, so we have to be very careful in this period.”
He also spoke of the paradox that the past advancements have placed us in. Despite them being the reason for getting us to this point, they are also going to be our salvation. He explained, “Most of the threats we face come from the progress we’ve made in science and technology. We are not going to stop making progress, or reverse it, so we must recognize the dangers and control them. I’m an optimist, and I believe we can.”