Making a run for it!

Stephen Hawking figures that the only way for us to survive is to totally bail.

The survival of the human race depends on its ability to find new homes elsewhere in the universe because there’s an increasing risk that a disaster will destroy Earth, world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking said Tuesday....“It is important for the human race to spread out into space for the survival of the species,” Hawking said. “Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of.”

Now I have an immense amount of respect for Dr. Hawking. And space travel is the proverbial "good thing." I'd rather we spent money on that than buying armanents. Still, this is pretty pessimistic, no? Sure, when the smartest guy in the world says we should just say "screw it," cut and run, that's probably not a good sign. But just giving up, starting over and making the same mistakes somewhere else doesn't strike me as taking a good long term view. And this is from a guy who's done some serious thinking about the fate of the universe. We may have irrevoccably messed up Earth, dunno. But if humanity's only chance is colonization, maybe we should get our act together, or just forget it.