five centuries ? that's optimistic Steven.. I'd give us about 40 years to get out and establish self perpetuating colonies in the solar system and then 100 to get out to Alpha Centauri. I think we'll find most planetary systems worth having will already be inhabited. I mean what's the chance of finding an Earth like planet .....BUT WITHOUT Millions of species.
I also really like Mr Hawking. I've worked on a series all about his work and I've read some of his writings for laypeople. His slightly ridiculous view that we should keep quiet or bad aliens will come and get us is a bit childish. A) they know we're here. B) we're still alive C) if you're a space faring race, you probably need to develop ethics for visiting planets (like they have in Star Trek) .. even our smartest can't reach escape velocity of the human imagination limit. ie we always think about the unknown couched in our own little relatively inexperienced terms.. speak to a good sci-fi writer. they can see round corners where light can't bend !
Alpha Centauri has no interesting planet, but Proxima Centauri b looks interesting -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxima_Centauri_b
Also interesting:
https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/TblView/nph-tblView?app=ExoTbls&config=planets
I thought Alpha Centauri bb was a rocky planet just a bit larger than Earth.. It doesn't really matter. All stars have planets and our m class star is a pretty common star type. It's perfect for evolving life over billions of years. steady, not too warm, not too intense.. just a nice bright glow. I watched Blue Planet 2 last night (The Deep). it seems life can pretty much exist anywhere. There are fish living at the absolute bottom of the Mariana Trench.. 50 jumbo jets worth of pressure per square inch.. it was thought impossible.. until now !
Cheers for the links.. I wish more people would respond with links !!
yeah sure like the european ethics when visiting america
not quite sure what you mean @hueso ? are you talking about the way European people wiped out the indigenous cultures ? by gun, flu and by guile.. If so, that's exactly what I'm talking about. I think you'll also find that Europeans have been wiping each other out for centuries and before them the Romans wiped out - or more correctly conquered then absorbed pretty much anyone that stood in their way. Alexander the Great did the same for the Greeks until they pretty wore themselves out. It's human nature to conquer. If we go into space, we need to grow up a bit first
That's right. I think that's Hawkings' point when preaching to "stay quiet". The aliens may have the same conquering manners towards the Earth's inhabitants.
I know. but my point is we always refer to ourselves. we're talking chimps with guns. If you can get around from star to star, you're a bit smarter. I'm not saying that there won't be any bad aliens out there. but I think it's pretty obvious we're here. our tv signals UHF have already travelled to many of our nearest stars. I'd keep away if I was an alien. It would feel a bit like travelling to Planet of the Apes.. which is exactly what Earth is ! I just think they'd have space lasered us by now if they wanted to ! He might be right though.. in which case, forget it.
If aliens manage to balance the resource consumption in their planet they don't need to go spacefaring in order to survive.
I don't think exploring space is even about balancing resources. If you have interstellar crafts, you have all the energy balanced already. Again we seem to be only able to think of others in terms of ourselves. To me, that's a huge and glaringly obvious mistake that only we humans would make. We don't know about how another evolved intelligence might see the universe. possibly in a different way altogether. At best we are probably a curiosity. a primitive technological society on the cusp of either destroying ourselves or about to escape the velocity curve of our own past.