Stephen Hawking’s chilling warning for humanity as he urges space boffins to be incredibly wary of extraterrestrial life
The genius says alien life could do for the human race what Columbus did for Native Americans
Genius scientist Stephen Hawking has warned that humanity must seek out intelligent life before it finds us - or we could be wiped out.
Hawking, 74, says a technologically advanced alien race could send our vulnerable race the way of the dodo if we're not careful.
He made the chilling claim in the documentary "Stephen Hawking's Favorite Places" on .
In the programme he is seen orbiting the potentially life-supporting exoplanet Gliese 832c in the animated starship 'U.S.S. Hawking'.
"If intelligent life has evolved (on Gliese 832c), we should be able to hear it," he says.
"One day we might receive a signal from a planet like this, but we should be wary of answering back.
"Meeting an advanced civilization could be like Native Americans encountering Columbus. That didn't turn out so well."
The revered physicist has made other doom-and-gloom prophecies concerning the rampant rise of technology.
Hawking recently warned us that the human species could be brutally finished off by 'rogue' robots which are too strong for us to defeat.
The legendary boffin is one of the most prominent critics of the unrestrained development of artificial intelligence, because he fears super-smart machines could end up turning on their human creators and sending us the way of the dodo.
