Stephen Hawking - Aliens

But if they're already this far ahead of us, that means they'll develope better stuff than us, faster. Unless we find some secret that they never did, then the longer we live, the more both us and them progress. The problem is, 100 + 10% is 110. 200 + 10% is 220.
110 vs 220 is no better than 100 vs 200.

But if they're already this far ahead of us, that means they'll develope better stuff than us, faster. Unless we find some secret that they never did, then the longer we live, the more both us and them progress. The problem is, 100 + 10% is 110. 200 + 10% is 220. 110 vs 220 is no better than 100 vs 200.

You're oversimplifying. There are a lot more than just two opposing forces at work. They could destroy themselves just the same as we could destroy ourselves, or even be destroyed/set back by catastrophe. It isn't one smooth curve to the top, it's a bumpy road which could (and most likely will) end with a crash.

Hm... true enough. Infact, they might even come here asking for our help, now that I think about it... I mean, there's just as much a chance at that, as the other, right?

"The possibilities are endless."

So where do you think our space progarms should go? In what direction? I honestly think Mars would be great to explore given the ample amount of frozen water to be studied. We've had rovers collecting data, but it's time we put a man, or woman on Mars.

I think we should explore places where life potentially does exist, like Europa, to see if we can find signs of life elsewhere, with an extra focus on trying to find new places for us to inhabit. We need to spread to survive. Even if we were to terraform Mars or something, we need to continue to spread even outside of our galaxy. What if something were to happen to our sun?

That's the next issue, in which fusion may be able to handle. If we can develop some sort of energy technology that has substainability and longevity to outlast many generations then of course we could manage to survive. I would imagine we would kill our own race off of this planet before anything were to happen to the sun, but if? Who knows.

And I would agree, Europa would essentially be the best place we could ever go to. But would it be possible within the next few hundred years? Could be. There needs to be an enormous breakthrough in prupolsion technology that could legitimately get humans to that planet in a managable amount of time (20-30 years?). 800,000,000 miles is the estimated average distance from the Earth to this unknown planet, and it does change with the orbit around Jupiter. There are so many obstacles including asteroids and other space debrit in the way of sending a satellite/ship that long of a distance. But I think in the next 50 years our technology should have evolved enough to make something like this feasible.

We need to atleast be gearing up to send unmanned ships and scientific gathering equipment to gauge more information of this other planet.

I think we should explore places where life potentially does exist, like Europa, to see if we can find signs of life elsewhere, with an extra focus on trying to find new places for us to inhabit. We need to spread to survive. Even if we were to terraform Mars or something, we need to continue to spread even outside of our galaxy. What if something were to happen to our sun?

KA,

While I think searching for extraterrestrial life is fantastic, I don't see any real practical value to it. Not to say that I disagree with you -- I agree with you wholeheartedly, but in a society which places so much emphasis on practical results, how would you justify an expedition costing billions of dollars for a discovery whose practical benefits are uncertain at best? Say that you were a notable advocate for searching for life outside of our planet. What would you say to convince the rest of us that this is a good idea?