Not only is the economy bad, but now we have to get off Earth?

[johnmiic]

There's always some cataclysmic event going on. I think the hebrew calendar has an "end of world" date coming up in 27 years? Also there is an asteroid which will pass a little too close to Earth in 110 or so years. That we need to worry about. It never ends.

[Brazoo]

The Mayan's did not think the world is going to end in 2012. That's just Hollywood fearmongering. The Mayan calender does not end on December 31 2012. It's just the end of one long count period and another imediately starts.

There is also no cataclysmic planatary alignment coming. Heck every December the Earth and our sun align with the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. It happens every year. It doesn't mean anything or cause anything bad to happen.

I predict that in 2013 we're going to see a lot of new age 2012 mayan books for sale on ebay cheap.

[Joe90]

The Mayan's did not think the world is going to end in 2012. That's just Hollywood fearmongering. The Mayan calender does not end on December 31 2012. It's just the end of one long count period and another imediately starts.

There is also no cataclysmic planatary alignment coming. Heck every December the Earth and our sun align with the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. It happens every year. It doesn't mean anything or cause anything bad to happen.

You're right.

However, the part of the exact alignment of the sun with the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, etc, doesn't happen all that often. The scheduled 2012 alignment actually was miscalculated by the Mayans. It occurred in 1998.

Actually, the Greeks/Babylonians/Egyptians had a similar view of the end of an era: there would be chaos and upheaval, but when that passed we would see... The Dawning of a New Age...

I don't think that Dr Hawking is advocating that we abandon Earth. I think that we have enough advanced technology that a small segment of the human race would survive any sort of cataclysm. It would be much like the Ice Age and the human race would experience a Population Bottleneck.

Still, just because Hawking is a genius doesn't preclude that he's bit of an eccentric, and a little kookie.

[livnxxxl]

As the old saying goes, "one has nothing to do with the other"

Very true.

[Brazoo]

Actually, the Greeks/Babylonians/Egyptians had a similar view of the end of an era: there would be chaos and upheaval, but when that passed we would see... The Dawning of a New Age...

I think almost every mystical belief system comes with that type of prediction - Unless you're saying the greeks/babylonians/egyptians all had 2012 in mind for those predictions - in which case I've never heard that before.

[Brazoo]

From what I've read 'The Nibiru Collision' is the prediction started this whole nutty 2012 thing. This nutcase Nancy Lieder, who claims to speak to aliens through a device they implanted in her head, started talking about 2012 after her end-of-the-world prediction for 2003 failed.

Apparently making a bad end-of-the-world prediction doesn't discredit you - it just makes you an expert.

She used misinterpreted readings of the maya calender to back her theory up - as Werewolf said before, their calender doesn't really end.

I guess over time regular folks filtered out the more insane ideas - like crashing into planet/spaceship Nibiru - and replaced it with more realistic disaster events and the "prediction" got more popular.

The thing that makes me crazy is that ANYTHING that happens in 2012 now is going to be accredited to this dumb non-prediction. Same way every time something happens people make vague and fake references to Nostradamus.

Nancy Lieder herself has now hedged her bets by saying in 2012 the world won't end - it will just be a time of change - or some nonsense like that.

[Sandman9580]

Nancy Lieder herself has now hedged her bets by saying in 2012 the world end - it will just be a time of change - or some nonsense like that.

And the human race breathes a collective sigh of relief.

[Captain]

Well, I dont know about the end of the world, but after what somebody just did in my bathroom I feel like leaving the Earth.


...I hate house guests!!

[Hector]

Where do we find fossils like this guy?

I didn't want to take this stance...but it really has bothered me a bit with that quote of yours.

I know you are a person of faith...I can't help but to think you dismissing Hawking as a fossil, is motivated by your own personal beliefs.

I'll avoid being confrontational...but I will be upfront...

Just because you might not agree with his views...that's no reason to call him a fossil.

The man is alive...has a brilliant mind (whether you agree with him or not)...he is completely paralyzed from that terrible disease (ALS)...it's hell to live like that...I kinda know a little bit how that feels on a much smaller scale...since I myself was unable to move a single muscle for six weeks (long story)...and had to do intense physical therapy for over a year in order to walk again.

The thing that kept me going is that I KNEW I was going to eventually walk again...Hawking doesn't have that luxury.

I applaud the man...if only I could be that brave and strong.

I could see him being called fossil if he was a bad person...perhaps a loon in your opinion...but he's definitely not a bad person.

I thought you were a person of faith (I myself think of you as a good and cool person)...compassion should be your motto...even if you highly disagree with that particular individual.

You will not see me calling the Pope or other religious leaders fossils...I don't agree with any of them...but I respect their beliefs.

Please don't take it as an attack...just an observation.

[Hector]

Well, it's not really Hawking's fault that the media shares information with us after Hawking shares his opinions with them in an interview.

As for what he knows about the subject, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he's capable of at least some cross-disciplinary study. But even if he weren't, I think it is his background in mathematics that informs his thinking about apocalypse, existence of aliens, etc. All he's suggesting is that in light of nuclear weapons and viral warfare, there's a much-reduced probability of human survival, so we should have a contingency plan. No, I don't think anyone's going to take the idea seriously, unless we come to the brink and get a really, really good look over the edge. (In which case it would likely be too late anyway.) But what he's saying seems entirely reasonable to me.

*And what's with the OP calling him a fossil? He's afflicted with ALS and is completely paralyzed. Sheesh.

Exactly.

[Chippupperty]

If 2012 doesnt happen, Nasa already started with solar flares for 2013---makes me wonder when that doesnt happen what will be instore for 2014, 2015,and so on---you get the drift!! Nothing like creating Hysteria!!

[Tothiro]

I remember working in a bookstore right before I moved up to NYC in 2001... It was probably March or so when I got an early morning phone call from a panicked person desperate to find an end times title that predicted the coming Armageddon-Ragnarok-apalooza in THE YEAR 1995!!! They completely flipped out (like the OMG my house is on fire variety) when we didn't have it on hand. I was like, "What? Y2K was three months ago, that too topical for you? You just wake up from a coma or something? Buy a newspaper already... find out what day it is today and have a cookie - you'll be fine"

[livnxxxl]

Does anyone here remember when people went ape sheet running around buying up all of the duct tape and plastic window covering? Unreal what extent some people will go to for nothing.

[Adam West]

I would tend to agree with blaming the media more than Hawking. He certainly is entitled to his opinion on subject matters that might not be his area of expertise.

If I had a chance to ask him a follow-up question; it would be related to the comment that "man's genetic code carries selfish and aggressive instincts". I would presume an Evolusionist would say that these are hard-wired primal survivor instincts.

What is the reason for this selfish and aggressive instinct that he mentioned still exist in our genetic code rather than evolved out? Since the planet is one of finite resources, wouldn't Evolutionary suggest that humans would lose this genetic code and change to be less selfish and less aggressive? Doesn't our ultimate survival ultimately depend on this?

[Joe90]

I think almost every mystical belief system comes with that type of prediction - Unless you're saying the greeks/babylonians/egyptians all had 2012 in mind for those predictions - in which case I've never heard that before.

You're right, most belief systems have the "Utopia after Chaos" predictions. But no, those civilizations didn't have the date 2012 in mind, but I think that all Astrological systems, simply by the fact that they chart the movement of the stars, attached some significance to the particular alignment that was due at the end of the 20th Century, or the beginning of the 21st Century.

More and more evidence is coming to light that the world was rather "Globalized" in Ancient Times, and we are seeing strong connections made between the Americas and the Egyptians, the Romans, and the Chinese. It wouldn't be a stretch to think that there would be an exchange of trade goods, information and ideas.

Then there's the architecture...

Egypt



Mexico



Iraq



About 10 years ago I read an article stating how geneticists had discovered that a type of maize which has been cultivated in Pakistan for thousands of years has a Meso-American origin. They believed that at some point 3,500 years or more ago, the plants were brought to Pakistan.