The end of the world as we know it ?
Hawking recently got on his prophet of doom soap box and told us to get the hell off the planet or we're doomed:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20012990-71.html
Bullshit.
The destruction of the human race is not inevitable unless we leave the planet. Especially given the time scales we are talking about. This is just another example of an intelligent man demonstrating the limitations of thinking like a 21st century human rather than a 30th or 40th century one.
Firstly worrying about the planet becoming uninhabitable is extraordinarily short sighted. What about the universe ? that’s going to end one day too. Why isn’t Hawkins worried about us getting the hell off the universe ?
Skipping that situation for one moment here’s a few things we could do to stay on earth.
1: Move the planet. If the solar system becomes uninhabitable then lets move earth to another solar system. Why spend the resources and time building giant space arcs when we’re standing on a fully functioning one right now, we’d be better off travelling around the universe on it than trying to recreate it’s technological equivalent.
2: Build a new sun. If the sun is getting too hot, lets get rid of it and build a new one, alternatively lets control and modulate our existing one. Controlling a sun is similar in complexity to faster than light travel, possibly simpler. That should buy us a few extra million years.
3: Leave the universe. We’re currently closer to proving the existence of and working out how to jump between alternative universes. That should be easier than bumbling around in this one and also avoids the niggling inevitability of our current universes own heat death.
4: Reboot the planet. Invent time travel, rewind the universe a few million years and start again. There’s no reason to believe we haven’t already done this several times. Maybe billions of times.
5: Create another universe. This is probably the simplest way round the problem. We’re not currently sure what existence is anyway. Download the planets consciousness into a simulation, infinitely slow down the passage of time within the simulation and let it run down slower than the physical universe. Not only will we last billions of years longer than the physical universe but In all likely hood the simulated humans will have time to come up with solutions we haven’t dreamt of.
6: Die out but convince ourselves we didn’t. This ones really easy. Kill everyone but implant the memory that it never happened. Chances are we might have already done that and who’s to say this current retroactive experience we call life isn’t what existence is anyway ?
7: Tell God to stop it. There’s currently no proof that this whole thing isn’t controlled by someone. Lets contact them and petition them to let the universe continue existing.
8: Lets kill the universe. This ones tricky but lets face it, Hawkings has pretty much made it clear the universe is trying to kill us, and who am I to argue, it's pretty fucking hostile out there. So how about a pre-emptive strike ? It's what we're best at and it's not like we haven't had enough practice. Besides, It's one of the universal truths of humanity that the only way to secure immortality is to face your enemy in battle, destroy it or die trying. So lets kick it's ass. Even if we fail it'll send a decent message to any other universe that tried to mess with our shit.
All of these seem just as viable as space arcs which are, lets face it, a pretty primitive solution even by our current standards.
I don't know... maybe I'm just getting a little sick of his defeatist attitude but bugging out seems a little too much like quitting for my tastes. Fuck the universe. Remember the Alamo.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20012990-71.html
Bullshit.
The destruction of the human race is not inevitable unless we leave the planet. Especially given the time scales we are talking about. This is just another example of an intelligent man demonstrating the limitations of thinking like a 21st century human rather than a 30th or 40th century one.
Firstly worrying about the planet becoming uninhabitable is extraordinarily short sighted. What about the universe ? that’s going to end one day too. Why isn’t Hawkins worried about us getting the hell off the universe ?
Skipping that situation for one moment here’s a few things we could do to stay on earth.
1: Move the planet. If the solar system becomes uninhabitable then lets move earth to another solar system. Why spend the resources and time building giant space arcs when we’re standing on a fully functioning one right now, we’d be better off travelling around the universe on it than trying to recreate it’s technological equivalent.
2: Build a new sun. If the sun is getting too hot, lets get rid of it and build a new one, alternatively lets control and modulate our existing one. Controlling a sun is similar in complexity to faster than light travel, possibly simpler. That should buy us a few extra million years.
3: Leave the universe. We’re currently closer to proving the existence of and working out how to jump between alternative universes. That should be easier than bumbling around in this one and also avoids the niggling inevitability of our current universes own heat death.
4: Reboot the planet. Invent time travel, rewind the universe a few million years and start again. There’s no reason to believe we haven’t already done this several times. Maybe billions of times.
5: Create another universe. This is probably the simplest way round the problem. We’re not currently sure what existence is anyway. Download the planets consciousness into a simulation, infinitely slow down the passage of time within the simulation and let it run down slower than the physical universe. Not only will we last billions of years longer than the physical universe but In all likely hood the simulated humans will have time to come up with solutions we haven’t dreamt of.
6: Die out but convince ourselves we didn’t. This ones really easy. Kill everyone but implant the memory that it never happened. Chances are we might have already done that and who’s to say this current retroactive experience we call life isn’t what existence is anyway ?
7: Tell God to stop it. There’s currently no proof that this whole thing isn’t controlled by someone. Lets contact them and petition them to let the universe continue existing.
8: Lets kill the universe. This ones tricky but lets face it, Hawkings has pretty much made it clear the universe is trying to kill us, and who am I to argue, it's pretty fucking hostile out there. So how about a pre-emptive strike ? It's what we're best at and it's not like we haven't had enough practice. Besides, It's one of the universal truths of humanity that the only way to secure immortality is to face your enemy in battle, destroy it or die trying. So lets kick it's ass. Even if we fail it'll send a decent message to any other universe that tried to mess with our shit.
All of these seem just as viable as space arcs which are, lets face it, a pretty primitive solution even by our current standards.
I don't know... maybe I'm just getting a little sick of his defeatist attitude but bugging out seems a little too much like quitting for my tastes. Fuck the universe. Remember the Alamo.