{"id":56907,"date":"2015-04-27T12:00:57","date_gmt":"2015-04-27T11:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=56907"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:25:48","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:25:48","slug":"stephen-hawking-says-that-aggression-humanitys-greatest-vice-will-destroy-civilization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/04\/stephen-hawking-says-that-aggression-humanitys-greatest-vice-will-destroy-civilization\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Hawking Says That \u2018Aggression,\u2019 Humanity\u2019s Greatest Vice, Will Destroy Civilization"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<\/a>

British scientist Stephen Hawking arrives on the red carpet for the 2015 British Academy Film Awards ceremony at The Royal Opera House in London on Feb. 8. (Facundo Arrizabalaga\/European Pressphoto Agency)<\/p><\/div>\n

Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has a long list of things that will bring doom and destruction<\/a> to the human race. Add one more to that list: human aggression.<\/p>\n

Hawking was asked last week what he believed was humanity\u2019s greatest shortcoming. He said that human beings continue to be stupidly aggressive\u00a0\u2014 long after the evolutionary benefit of that kind of behavior has gone away.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe human failing I would most like to correct is aggression,\u201d said Hawking, according to CNET<\/a>. \u201cIt may have had survival advantage in caveman days, to get more food, territory or partner with whom to reproduce, but now it threatens to destroy us all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Specifically\u00a0\u2014 and Hawking probably isn\u2019t wrong about this\u00a0\u2014 aggression combined with nuclear capabilities could spell \u201cthe end of\u00a0civilization, and maybe the end of\u00a0the human race<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scared yet? Hawking, a brilliant theoretical physicist, and the subject of the Oscar-nominated\u00a0film<\/a> \u201cThe Theory of Everything,\u201d is a man whose thoughts on the biggest\u00a0\u2014 and most depressing\u00a0\u2014 topics of our day are in high demand.<\/p>\n

Over the years, Hawking has argued that humans face the threats from machines, aliens, and now ourselves.<\/p>\n

Late last year, he said that Artificial Intelligence could end up destroying the world.<\/p>\n

The great irony, of course, is that Hawking, who has the motor neuron disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig\u2019s Disease and is paralyzed an unable to speak, is now capable of communicating verbally thanks to the help of an advanced artificial intelligence program developed for him by Intel.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cOnce humans develop artificial intelligence, it will take off on its own and redesign itself at an ever-increasing rate,\u201d Hawking warned<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cHumans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn\u2019t compete and would be superseded.\u201d<\/p>\n

And let\u2019s not forget, of course, aliens.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn\u2019t turn out very well for the Native Americans,\u201d\u00a0he said in 2010, according to the Times of London.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk warned that artificial intelligence could be our biggest existential threat and believes there should be some regulatory oversight at the national and international level, while speaking at the MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics department\u2019s Centennial Symposium in October 2014. ______________________________<\/p>\n

Stephen Hawking just got an artificial intelligence upgrade, but still thinks AI could bring an end to mankind<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The 12 threats to human civilization, ranked<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Abby Phillip is a general assignment national reporter for the Washington Post. She can be reached at abby.phillip@washpost.com<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 washingtonpost.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hawking was asked what he believed was humanity\u2019s greatest shortcoming. He said, \u201cThe human failing I would most like to correct is aggression. It may have had survival advantage in caveman days, to get more food, territory or partner with whom to reproduce, but now it threatens to destroy us all.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-focus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56907\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}