Physicist Stephen Hawking while speaking to the BBC Reith Lecture has warned that most of the threats humans now face come from advances in science and technology. The renowned cosmologist said that the possibilities of calamity on planet Earth will rise in the next one to ten thousand years, and it will require more than a century to establish communities in the outer space. Hawking said “We will not be able to set up self-sustaining colonies in space in about the next hundred years, so we have to be very cautious during this time.”
Lord Rees, the astronomer royal also raised this issue in his book “Our Final Century” published in 2003. Hawking also said that now we can’t stop ourselves from progressing in technology, so we have to acknowledge the threats and restrain over them. He said “When I turned 21, I realized that I had a rare and slowly progressing form of motor neuron disease, my expectations were reduced to zero.” He added “I’ve been very fortunate in almost everything else.” And according to him his physical abnormality was not a vital defect. Answering the question “What kept his spirit up?” he said “His work and sense of humor.” He said “It’s also important not to get angry, no matter how difficult life is, because you can lose all hope if you can’t laugh at yourself and at life in general.”
His lecture will be broadcasted in two parts on BBC Radio 4 at 9am on 26th January and 2nd February. In his lecture, he explains about the black holes. He told that Black holes form when stars burst due to their own gravity. They were called “frozen stars” earlier, but now they are known as “black holes”.
These were named as black holes in 1967 by the physicist John Wheeler. During the lecture, Hawking said that there are chances to fall into a black hole and come out to another universe. He also said that a return trip back to our own universe would not be possible.
He answered a question on whether the electronic voice had shaped his personality, perhaps changing a self-centered person into an unreserved person.
Replying that he had never been called such type of person before, “I use to spend a lot of time in thinking, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t like parties and adventures.”
He delivered his lecture to an audience of about 400 at the Royal Institution (Ri) in Mayfair, London.
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