Article: Prof Stephen Hawking Has More Bad News For Humanity...

[Ultralight]

Prof Stephen Hawking Has More Bad News For Humanity: We’re About To Wipe Ourselves Out

http://news.yahoo.com/prof-stephen-h...091739271.html

[kib]

The MSN article is a lot cheerier, what he seems to be saying is that this is a touchy time for humanity, we may extinguish ourselves before we can get a handle on our technology or improve it enough to attempt extraterrestrial colonization. For a guy who's been locked into his body for fifty years, he's really pretty upbeat.

“We are not going to stop making progress, or reverse it, so we must recognise the dangers and control them,” he (SH) added.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/techno...0uY?li=BBnb7Kz

[simplelife4me]

Hogwash. We could have been wiped out by our own creations 50 years ago too (nuclear). The sky is not falling.

[Ultralight]

Hogwash.

How do you know it is hogwash?

[LDAHL]

How do you know it is hogwash?

Well, you could certainly argue from the fact of our continued existence that doomsaying has proven to be hogwash so far. Based on the record of various doomers over the centuries, a certain degree of pessimistic metainduction from past falsity might seem justified. Of course, one of them may eventually be proven right; they just won't be around to gloat about it. That's why I feel there's very little downside to an optimistic outlook.

[Ultralight]

Well, you could certainly argue from the fact of our continued existence that doomsaying has proven to be hogwash so far. Based on the record of various doomers over the centuries, a certain degree of pessimistic metainduction from past falsity might seem justified. Of course, one of them may eventually be proven right; they just won't be around to gloat about it. That's why I feel there's very little downside to an optimistic outlook.

My car keeps running...until it doesn't?

[LDAHL]

My car keeps running...until it doesn't?

More like I will live until I don't. The hand-wringing of the doomers may be justified, but I'll be spared their annoying "I told you sos" if it is. At the very worst, I avoid the time wasted on hand-wringing.