Why didn’t Stephen Hawking want to make contact with extraterrestrials?

The search for intelligent life beyond Earth has been going on for thousands of years. both through the efforts of ancient people observing the skies and through messages sent into space, such as the Arecibo Message. —The mission was assisted by astronomer, astrophysicist and scientific popularizer Carl Sagan. But not everyone supports this goal. Physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking has publicly expressed his disapproval of the idea of ​​humanity sending messages to aliens.

Since mid-2010, Hawking begins expressing fears about sending messages to possible extraterrestrialsBecause they may have much more advanced technology than ours.

The astronomer’s hypothesis is that these so-called alien beings may find Earth and treat us the same way colonists treated indigenous people thousands of years ago, without compassion or empathy.. Ultimately, most of the indigenous civilizations were destroyed by European colonists.

At an event in 2015 related to a project aimed at detecting possible extraterrestrial radio transmissions, Stephen Hawking stated that it would not be prudent to respond to a message sent by ETs.

The scientist’s theory is similar to the Dark Forest hypothesis and suggests that: The universe is like a dangerous forest, and in order to stay safe, the beings in the forest must remain silent and not communicate with others.

“We don’t know much about aliens, but we do know about humans. If we look at history, we see that contact between humans and less intelligent organisms often ends in disaster from their perspective, and encounters between civilizations with advanced technologies and civilizations with primitive technologies,” Hawking said. We may have harmed the developed ones. A civilization that reads one of our messages could be billions of years ahead of us. If so, they will be much stronger and they may not see us as more valuable than bacteria,” he said at an event.

Stephen Hawking and the search for extraterrestrial life

It is important to emphasize that Hawking was particularly opposed to contact with possible extraterrestrial civilizations, but advocated the search for signs that would confirm the hypothesis of life beyond Earth. In other words, the problem lies in contact with these hypothetical alien humans. Hawking believed that just as life developed spontaneously on our planet, it could also form in other parts of the universe.

At the event organized by the Breakthrough Listen initiative in 2015, astrophysicist Martin Rees opposed Hawking’s suggestion and stated that a highly advanced civilization would already be aware of the existence of humanity.. Other scientists also disagreed with the physicist; They suggested that a possible intelligent society outside Earth might be so advanced that it would not need to face conflicts, wars, or other problems.

“Although Sir Stephen Hawking has warned that alien life might try to conquer or colonize Earth, I respectfully disagree. If aliens came here, it would only be to explore the universe, we would probably not be their first extraterrestrial encounter. If aliens came to Earth “If he could visit , that would mean they would have such advanced technological capabilities that they wouldn’t need slaves, food, or other planets,” said Jill Tarter, former director of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) program, disagreeing with Hawking’s sentiment.

Although there is a significant debate in understanding the potential problems of contact with extraterrestrials, There is no evidence of the existence of any life, intelligent or otherwise, beyond Earth.

Did you like the content? Stay up to date with more extraterrestrial curiosities at TecMundo. If you wish, take the opportunity to understand how the Three-Body Problem explains how the ‘Black Forest’ solves the Fermi paradox.