Astrophysicist and professor Stephen Hawking warns that there is imminent danger for the human race, and colonizing the “new world” in space may be our surest bet at survival. “I see great dangers for the human race,” Hawking said. “There have been a number of times in the past when its survival has been a question of touch and go. The Cuban missile crisis in 1963 was one of these. The frequency of such occasions is likely to increase in the future.”
According to Hawking, wars, depletion of natural resources, and a growing population on earth are causes for concern. Moving to space would be one possibility to avoid the extinction of the human race. “It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster in the coming hundred years, let alone the next thousand or million,” Hawking says. “Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain inward looking on planet Earth, but to spread out into space. We have made remarkable progress in the last hundred years. But if we want to continue beyond the next hundred years, our future is in space.”
However, space travel, exploration and colonization isn’t without risks according to the professor. In a Discovery Channel series, Hawking warns that aliens and other intelligent life forms in space may not be friendly. Still, yet another challenge, would be travel to space. The next closest star to earth is Proxima Centauri, 4.2 light years away, or approximately 4.2 years to get there traveling at the speed of light or about 50,000 years til ETA using current technologies.
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