Are the green men out there? Might man-made 'AI' beat the aliens to global domination?
As Ridley Scott’s new film, ‘The Martian’, continues to pack out cinemas everywhere, it is my sad duty this week to let you know, dear readers, that, according to no less an authority than Professor Stephen Hawking, we humans are banjaxed one way or the other.
The Professor believes the Artificial Intelligence we are now creating will probably take control of the world in less than 100 years.
But, before or after that occurrence, we will be conquered by nomadic aliens looking for new worlds to colonise.
“The outcome could be like when Columbus landed in America and things didn’t turn out too well for the native Indians,” warned the distinguished Professor.
“To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational,” he declared, adding that “such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads looking to take over whatever planets they can reach.”
Professor Hawking is currently heading up a major search for intelligent alien life using two of the world’s most powerful telescopes.
The telescopes will scour one million of the closest stars to Earth for faint signals thrown out into space by intelligent life beyond our own world.
Scientists taking part in the Stg£64 million initiative will also scan the very centre of our galaxy along with 100 of the closest galaxies for low power radio transmissions.
Well, good luck to the lads in their search but they should do so with great caution.
It wasn’t too long ago that Professor Hawking warned humanity about trying to contact aliens.
“Until we know what they are like, it might be better if they didn’t know we were here,” he cautioned. Too right, Stephen. Too fecking right.