Gillie on 15/6/2006 at 15:05
Could livening in space ever happen I don't think so!.Star Trek is beginning to happen :cool:
(
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/15062006/323/humans-close-finding-answers-origin-universe-hawking.html)
Inline Image:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y50/gillie6/hawking150.jpgHONG KONG (AFP) - Acclaimed physicist Stephen Hawking has said that humanity is finally getting close to understanding the origin of the universe.
Speaking at a lecture in Hong Kong, Hawking said that despite some theoretical advances in the past years, there are still mysteries as to how the universe began.
"Despite having had some great successes, not everything is solved. We do not yet have good theoretical understanding of the observation of the expansion of the universe," he told an audience of 2,500 at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
"Without such understanding, we cannot be sure of the future of the universe.
"New observational results and theoretical advances are coming in rapidly; cosmology is a very exciting subject. We are getting close to answering these old questions: why are we here, where did we come from?"
The 64-year-old also said his unfulfilled ambitions, among many, were to find out what happens inside black holes, how the universe began and how the human race can survive in the next 100 years.
Above all, he joked, he wants to understand women.
On Tuesday Hawking said the human race should reach for the stars to survive as the Earth is at risk of being wiped out by a disaster.
He believes humans should settle in space, predicting a lunar settlement within 20 years and a Martian colony in 40.
Hawking, a Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, speaks with a voice synthesiser and has been in a wheelchair since developing motor neurone disease.
During his Hong Kong visit he also revealed he is writing a children's book with his daughter about theoretical physics.
Hawking is the author of international best seller "A Brief History of Time", which attempted to explain a range of subjects in cosmology, including the Big Bang, black holes, light cones and superstring theory.
He is on a six-day visit to Hong Kong and will meet Chief Executive Donald Tsang Friday before heading to Beijing Saturday where he will give a lecture on string theory.
Women don't need understanding.:p
Para?noid on 15/6/2006 at 18:23
More like you CAN'T understand women.
At any rate I don't think even in 40 years a Martian Colony will be feasible. The world will be a very different place politically and it won't be on the agenda of the people with the resources and the balls to pull it off
Agent Monkeysee on 15/6/2006 at 18:46
Yeah that jumped out at me. I *might* see a semi-permanent lunar presence before I die but there's no way we're building anything on Mars for another century. Maybe I'm just being cynical but they've been saying "just a few more years" for the last 40 years.
Gillie on 15/6/2006 at 18:52
Quote Posted by Para?noid
More like you CAN'T understand women.
I can understand Women!. I am a Women.:p
I never thought it wiill be possible either.Even fourty Years from now.
All the billions wasted trying.They have been watching to much Star wars.
True the World will be a different place. Doubt If I will be here anyway
Fingernail on 15/6/2006 at 18:59
The thread title made me wonder if Steven Hawking is
himself the origin of the universe.
Think on it my friends.
Also:
Quote:
I can understand Women!. I am a Women.
zing
trevor the sheep on 15/6/2006 at 19:10
Quote Posted by Gillie
Doubt If I will be here anyway
Don't think
you can go gallivanting off to Mars and leave us all behind.
Ulukai on 15/6/2006 at 19:45
On a related note, I seem to recall Hawking advocating the pursuit of Mars elsewhere recently ( the catastrophic extinction event on Earth possibly being as the result of genetic engineering.)
I find myself wondering that should the colonisation of Mars occur against all odds, and if Earth is subsequently wiped out - what kind of life is living in cramped quarters on a hostile planet plagued with sand storms which last years, dust so fine it gets into everything and the prospect of a breathable atmosphere centuries away?
What are the odds of such a civilisation enduring that kind of fragile existance without reaching breaking point?
Much as I love the idea of colonies on the Moon & Mars recently I've become more concerned with the pursuit of looking after our own planet.
I'd still like my own FireFly, btw :D
Gillie on 15/6/2006 at 21:38
Quote Posted by trevor the sheep
Don't think
you can go gallivanting off to Mars and leave us all behind.
In fourty Years time I will total un-capable of doing so.
It is true.We need to look at our Planet first.Arnold Schwarzenegger's total recall was pure fantasy the very Idea though:eek:
The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whiz
As fast as it can go, the speed of light you know
Twelve million miles a minute and that’s the fastest speed there is
So remember when you’re feeling very small and insecure
How amazingly unlikely is your birth
And pray that there’s intelligent life somewhere up in space
Cause there’s bugger-all down here on Earth .
From Monty python's the Meaning of life!.Matthew on 15/6/2006 at 21:44
We've had 35 years since the last manned mission to another celestial body to 'look at our planet first', with what result? I say pour the space funding on.
jermi on 15/6/2006 at 22:16
The global economy coupled with the collective mental landscape means that this biosphere will be destroyed long before we really get off this planet. The current system, built on narrow nationalistic and corporate interests, simply lacks global long-term planning and implementation. The game that is played by the "short-term monetary profit is king" rule will eventually kill everything on this planet including us. Only 60% of the species that lived on this planet in the '50s survive today, and the extinction rate is rapidly accelerating, so after another 50 years, expect to be already rather close to 0%.
We'll never get to colonies on Mars. There's no quick profit in it. There is quick profit in, for example, digging up fossils and burning them and converting the heat into electricity. Consequently, carbon dioxide production is growing at an accelerating rate, despite the fact that it's probably already at a higher level than the biosphere can handle.
Martian colony in 40 years? Even if that happens (and it won't) it won't last without regular support from Earth. During the latter half of this century, as the ecosystem and civilization finally break down, that support will stop, and the theoretical colonists will perish.
