Can The Human Race Survive The Next 100 Years?

Can The Human Race Survive The Next 100 Years? That was the question posted by Dr Stephen Hawking at Yahoo! Answers about a month ago.

His exact question was: In a world that is in chaos politically, socially and environmentally, how can the human race sustain another 100 years?

It has generated 25,489 responses so far. Go read some of the answers. Hawking's own answer is this: "I don't know the answer - that's why I posted the question." The Guardian, via TODAY Online, has the story:

LONDON — It was an unusual move for one of the world's most eminent scientists.

Having built a career shedding light on the darkest secrets of the universe — from the essence of space-time to the complexity of black holes — Professor Stephen Hawking turned to the Internet for answers to the latest conundrum occupying his planet-sized brain.

The 64-year-old scientist posed an open question: "In a world that is in chaos politically, socially and environmentally, how can the human race sustain another 100 years?"

It appeared on the Yahoo Answers website a month ago, immediately stirring up an Internet storm that saw more than 25,000 people log on to give their deeply-considered views: Some said we should just learn to get along, others predicted technology would see us through and more still invoked the powers of God, love and peace.

But what the world wanted most of all was to hear the great scientist's answer, an intervention that would amount to nothing less than a definitive treatise for human survival.

On Wednesday, he responded in a videoclip, with the familiar electronic voice saying: "I don't know the answer. That is why I asked the question."

Signs of disappointment were muted. One respondent chose to applaud the scientist's honesty. "It is humbling to know that this question was asked by one of the most intelligent humans ... without knowing a clear answer," wrote Inetap.

Others concluded that humans had had a good innings and it was time to hand over the planet, albeit in a shabby state, to a new caretaker species to see if they could do better.

"Maybe the human race shouldn't survive. Let other life forms flourish. We suck," said Videostooge. But Prof Hawking's frank admission that even he was stumped by the question merely opened a lengthy response.

In a four-minute recorded reply, he laid out a beginner's guide to the changing face of threats to mankind — from a devastating asteroid impact and nuclear war to climate change and rampaging genetically-modified viruses.

In the long term, humans will only survive if they can leave the rock they call home and spread out into space, to transform and occupy planets around our own sun and then around other suns. Failing that, he says, perhaps our best bet is to use genetic engineering to tinker with the human species and make us less prone to fighting war. — The Guardian

What do you think? Me? I don't know. I just wish I can write like the way The Guardian writers do.