Physicist Stephen Hawking's 5 groundbreaking predictions
Stephen Hawking - who died aged 76 - battled motor neurone disease to become one of the most respected and best-known scientists of his age. A man of great humour, he became a popular ambassador for science and was always careful to ensure that the general public had ready access to his work.His book A Brief History of Time became an unlikely best-seller although it is unclear how many people actually managed to get to the end of it. Stephen William Hawking was born in Oxford on 8 January 1942.
Stephen Hawking made some insane predictions about the future of earth, and humanity. Here are some of the predictions which he made in 2017:
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We have only 100 years left on earth
Hawking had predicted in 2016 that humans have 1,000 years time limit on this palnet. Last year he reduced that horizon exponentially—100 years left, he warned, unless we changed our ways.
According to Hawking in his BBC science series, Tomorrow’s World, climate change, overdue asteroid strikes, epidemics and population growth are to blame for the new century-long doomsday clock.
Earth will one day look like Venus if global warming continues
In July, Hawking told the BBC that humanity is at a “tipping point” where global warming would become so bad that Earth will “become like Venus, with a temperature of 250 degrees celcius, and raining sulfuric acid.”
He also commented about President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement has doomed our planet. Hawking's said, Earth will one day look like the 460°C (860°F) planet Venus if we don't cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Hawking's said, 'Next time you meet a climate change denier, tell them to take a trip to Venus. I will pay the fare.'
By the year 2600, the world's population would be standing shoulder to shoulder
The renowned physicist believes soaring population sizes and increasing demands for energy will lead to the catastrophe. In 2016, November at a Tencent WE Summit, he predicted that the global population has been doubling every 40 years, and our planet can only take so much.
Hawking also explained, “This exponential growth cannot continue into the next millennium."
Artificial Intelligence as threat to humanity
“Earth is becoming too small and humanity is bound to self-destruct, with AI replacing us as the dominant being on the planet,” he told wired.com in November 2017.
“I fear that AI may replace humans altogether. If people design computer viruses, someone will design AI that improves and replicates itself. This will be a new form of life that outperforms humans,” Hawking said.
Donald Trump could push earth over the brink
Stephen Hawking said, "Climate change is one of the great dangers we face, and it’s one we can prevent if we act now. By denying the evidence for climate change, and pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement, Donald Trump will cause avoidable environmental damage to our beautiful planet, endangering the natural world, for us and our children."
Also Read: Why Stephen Hawking never won a Nobel Prize for his groundbreaking theory on black holes?
First published: 14 March 2018, 17:50 IST