Is time running out for humanity? Physicist Stephen Hawking has once again suggested that humans need to figure out where our species is going to live next because humanity will not survive another 1,000 years on Earth, as stated in a report published by UK-based online newspaper The Independent. In January, he had made similar comments while speaking to the UK-based news organisation BBC. He has repeatedly highlighted nuclear war, global warming and genetically-engineered viruses as possible threats. After his statements, social media users were left deep in thought about the effects their actions have on the planet. There were others who didn’t believe what he had to say.
Temy Beal: “Humans running about today are not fundamentally different from humans running about 100,000 years ago. Should there be such a thing as humans 100,000 years hence, it will be the same. We are a hierarchical and male dominated species. That can never change unless we literally re-engineer our entire genome. Stephen Hawking recently said he gives humans no more than 1,000 years of continued existence. I sure hope it is nowhere near that long. I would put it at three centuries, tops. By then we either will be extinct or will have morphed into mostly non-biological beings. Maybe more than one species. As long as humans exist, it will always be the case that a relative handful will live beyond their wildest dreams, and the masses of the billions will suffer and scrub in the dirt for their existence.”
Barry Chepren: “Stephen Hawking is a theoretical physicist which is a real science. Climate change is a long term oscillation of the average temperature of the earth. The only thing they both have in common is they are both based on real scientific principles. Physicists aren’t any better at predicting the weather tomorrow than your local news man let alone the weather of 1,000 years from now!”
Sunny Suniga: “There’s a mass capacity cap for each species and humans seem to already be well above our second cap. We’re destroying nature, our resources and killing off animals. Every living thing has a purpose on this earth and is vital to our existence. Nothing’s going to change; we aren’t going to change. All we can do is to just sit, wait and watch things unravel.”
Annet Elizabeth: “I have always thought this planet will wear out at some point.”
Madeleine Bianchini: “I think 1,000 years is quite generous. I would say more like 300 at this rate. Deadly outbreak? Asteroid? I am pretty sure the scarcity of resources and backlash of our consumption will get us before some disaster.”
Jerry L. Clark: “The greedy, short-sighted and conservatives have doomed our planet and they can’t stop themselves now. They don’t listen to science and truth, but they will at least be able to buy a few years of luxury before our world ends.”
Maria Geussippina Piludu Warneke: “Well, if we keep doing so much damage to our planet like we have...I could see that it just may be possible and it may be sooner than 1,000 years.”
Henry St.Pierre: “I think he’s being a bit optimistic. What I’m seeing today leads me to believe that we will manage to prove him wrong by a large degree. Wish I could live long enough to see.”
Ethan Costigan: “This world has become a sad and volatile place.”
— Compiled by Rabab Khan/Community Interactivity Editor
