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4 Stephen Hawking Predictions to Ruin Your Faith in Humanity

Like many geniuses, Stephen Hawking had a pretty bleak view on the future of our species. ¦ Free-Photos/Pixabay

Like many geniuses, Stephen Hawking had a pretty bleak view on the future of our species. ¦ Free-Photos/Pixabay

“I have led an extraordinary life on this planet, while at the same time traveling across the universe by using my mind and the laws of physics. I have been to the furthest reaches of our galaxy, traveled into a black hole and gone back to the beginning of time.”

These are the words of the late famous British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking in his last book in which he tries to answer some of life’s biggest questions.

So, how did this brilliant mind see the future of humanity and Earth?

Here is a list of the top 4 Stephen Hawking predictions that will make you more fearful of the future than before.

These are not fortune-teller-like predictions of the future but professor Hawking’s vision of where the world could be headed based on the current state of Earth and humanity and their interaction.

Stephen Hawking Prediction #1: AI

In 2017,  Hawking warned of “a new form of life that will outperform humans”. He was talking about artificial intelligence that can replicate itself like a computer virus, and which might one day be able to replace humans altogether.

He thinks that the AI genie “is out of the bottle” and that we should foster this genie and leverage its power but at the same time remain wary of its “very real dangers.”

Read More: How Super AI is the Modern Midas’ Curse

Stephen Hawking Prediction #2: Earth Turns Red Hot 

The physicist has warned that President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement could send Earth on a slippery slope towards irreversible climate damage.

Hawking told BBC News that:

“We are close to the tipping point where global warming becomes irreversible. Trump’s action could push the Earth over the brink, to become like Venus, with a temperature of two hundred and fifty degrees, and raining sulphuric acid,”

He believes that due to the “inbuilt greed and aggression to the human genome”, space colonization is a necessity if we’re to survive our own energy consumption methods.

Read More: What Stephen Hawking Got Wrong About Dark Matter

Stephen Hawking Prediction #3: Space Colonization

To ensure the survival of humanity and longevity of their civilization, Hawking thinks we’ll have to leave Earth and look for another world to call home.

For Hawking, humans should venture into space and colonize other planets not because they can but because they have to.

“Spreading out may be the only thing that saves us from ourselves. I am convinced that humans need to leave Earth,” he said in 2017.

And we need to proceed fast in the space exploration and colonization program because, according to Hawking, we’re really pressed for time.

Read More: NASA Finalizes Plans for First Deep Space Exploration Mission

Stephen Hawking Prediction #4: Our Final Century

In 2016, Hawking predicted that humanity has 1,000 years to leave the planet before the Earth becomes uninhabitable.

Climate change, asteroids, overpopulation, and epidemics would gather to spell the end of our home world and us.

Then, in 2017, he moved up the deadline to just 100 years.

According to Hawking:

“Our earth is becoming too small for us, global population is increasing at an alarming rate and we are in danger of self-destructing… I would not be optimistic about the long-term outlook for our species,” 

Read More: Isaac Asimov’s Predictions for 2019, 35 Years Later

Living on Borrowed Time

Who knows, maybe Hawking’s predictions may never come true. But, with someone who had such a deep understanding of human nature and the Universe, it’s hard to ignore his lack of optimism for the future of our species. Regardless of his predictions, it does show that there is plenty for humanity to do before we can ensure the safety of our future.

Read More: Stephen Hawking’s “Brief Answers to the Big Questions”

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Zayan Guedim

Trilingual poet, investigative journalist, and novelist. Zed loves tackling the big existential questions and all-things quantum.

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