This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Stephen Hawking Warns About The Greatest Threat To Humanity
Submitted by Jake Anderson via TheAntiMedia.org,
Stephen Hawking has been outspoken in recent years about the catastrophic dangers humanity faces in the 21st century. He said we should be cautious in attempting to contact aliens, warning that advanced extraterrestrial life may not be friendly toward us and could destroy the human race. He also stated we should be cautious in creating strong artificial intelligence. The renowned physicist joined Tesla’s Elon Musk, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, and Google executive Demis Hassabis in signing a letter that warned against a military artificial intelligence arms race.
Hawking even issued a warning to the scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) about the dangers of the Higgs Boson “God Particle,” claiming it could initiate “catastrophic vacuum decay” — a quantum bubble that expands at the speed of light and wipes out the universe.
Recently, Hawking addressed the threat he says may be more far more dangerous to the future of human civilization than robots, aliens, or quantum particles: capitalist greed. During a Reddit AMA, he argued that the future is wrought with the peril of rampant inequality expedited by an automated machine-based global economic system.
“If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed.” Hawking continued, “Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality.”
Predictably, a dramatic response thread followed. Many commenters agreed with Hawking and denounced the globalist oligarchy that is currently consolidating wealth at an unprecedented rate. Responses ranged from calls for a “bloody revolution” to references to the recent films Elysium, Wall-E, and Zeitgeist 2: Addendum. One commenter invoked the anarcho-syndicalist political views of linguist Noam Chomsky.
The main theme of the discussion centered around the automation of labor and how that would affect the human workforce and the global economy. Hawking seems to believe that our current trajectory will make such automation a death knell for the working classes, with the bourgeoisie machine owners exerting total economic control over human civilization.
One commenter strongly disagreed with Hawking, referencing recent Journal of Economic Perspective articles and claiming “technology has never, will never, and simply cannot result in structural unemployment.”
The comment thread is a treasure trove of wide-ranging ideas that include:
- The efficacy, or lack thereof, of voting
- A “universal basic income”
- Microeconomics
- Techno-socialism, with “an open source decentralized consensus algorithm for the masses”
- A post-scarcity society run by strong artificial intelligence
* * *
As we recently noted, Stephen Hawking is undoubtedly a nice man and a genius in his field. This is probably also the field he should stick with. Anyway, we can lay his worries to rest: once there is no longer scarcity in the world, nobody will have reason to worry about wealth redistribution. Of course, it’s also not going to happen anytime soon and probably never will. There is also no reason to worry about employment while at least vestiges of a free market exist: as long as there remain unsatisfied human wants and as long as there are more resources than people, everybody will find work. The only real problem is government intervention in the market process.
...
It is truly remarkable how deeply embedded socialist thought remains in society to this day, in spite of the downfall of the socialist Prison State in the late 1980s/early 1990s, after its utter bankruptcy could no longer be concealed (as an aside, we plan to soon post another article on the enduring popularity of collectivism, a phenomenon that strikes us as more than passing strange). Thus yet another popular and renowned physicist, namely Stephen Hawkins, has jumped into the debate, seemingly attacking capitalism. According to the Huffington Post, “Stephen Hawking Says We Should Really Be Scared Of Capitalism, Not Robots”.
To paraphrase Albert Jay Nock, it is downright absurd that socialist ideas are still so unquestioningly accepted that one is actually forced to discuss and defend capitalism, as if there were any other type of economy! An economy cannot be anything but capitalistic; without economic calculation, there is simply no rational economy to discuss. It makes no sense to call any other system an “economy”.
It follows that the only people who have reason to discuss the viability of the capitalist system are those who want to return to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. But they can do that without trying to enforce their nonsense on anyone else. Surely there is enough room in the Amazon forest. If a handful of morons eager to shun civilization want to ship themselves there, we imagine no-one would object (such as e.g. the insane eco death-cult of Paul Kingsnorth in the UK; they probably wouldn’t do it though, due to the lack of wall plugs needed to recharge the batteries of their iPhones).
»
- 39662 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
Another Hawking "me-too" comment. Nothing original. Move on.
Hawking "Aliens may wipe us all out"
Not Obama, looks like he is working on it Steve.
" Tthe economic anarchy of capitalism is the real source of evil"
- Albert Einstein, The World As I See It, 1949
Hence, being a talented physicist does not predispose to litteracy in economics.
Hawking is the Pope of Science, also on board with the one world commie system.
pure evil
Can someone tell him that Soros is an Alien?
I want to like Stephen Hawking, but he's been little more than an egocentric well-marketed speaker than a scientist for a long time...
That ^^ Is idiotic. The universe and our galaxy is tens of billions of years old. If life is abundant in the universe, and intelligent life is common, then either the aliens already exist everywhere and we're just too f-ing boring for them to bother with us, or space travel is damn-near impossible and all of the intelligent species are bound to their own solar-systems. Either case means that contact with them is going to be relatively benign. If we had any value to a superior, spacefaring race, we would have been wiped out or enslaved a long long time ago.
That ^^ Is also retarded. It presumes that artificial intelligence can be self-sustaining when left to it's own devices without eons of biological life to back it up. You see, biological intelligence is the only intelligence we know at the moment. The only reason biological intelligence exists is because the biological life that it exists in already exists with innate traits of self-preservation and survival, as well as being extremely well adapted to survival on this planet. Any artificial intelligence we create would lack all of those advantages and would essentially be the biological equivalent of a manufactured fish in a world with no oceans. Artificial intelligence will not be as self-sustaining as biological life, it would take significant adaptation for it to reach that point.
That ^^ is so ridiculous it should be embarassing to Hawking.
I want to like the guy, but even as a physicist he was very wrong in his predictions, and just relied on marketing himself.
Dude has turned into a complete attention whore.
At least he diidn't say it was climate change!
Hawking's biggest fear?
Being bitch-slapped by his wife.
[Has anybody looked into the possibility that his voice synthesizer has been hacked by Al Gore and George Soros?...]
There's little left of America's middle class so no need to worry about them anymore. Democrats wiped them out.
Too late! Non Human psychopaths have taken all of the seats of power on the global boards and banks.
George Hanson's Misguided Dream: Well, they are people, just like us - from within our own solar system. Except that their society is more highly evolved. I mean, they don't have no wars, they got no monetary system, they don't have any leaders, because, I mean, each man is a leader. I mean, each man - because of their technology, they are able to feed, clothe, house, and transport themselves equally - and with no effort...Why don't they reveal themselves to us is because if they did it would cause a general panic. Now, I mean, we still have leaders upon whom we rely for the release of this information. These leaders have decided to repress this information because of the tremendous shock that it would cause to our antiquated systems. Now, the result of this has been that the Venutians have contacted people in all walks of life - all walks of life. [laughs] Yes. It-it-it would be a devastatin' blow to our antiquated systems - so now the Venutians are meeting with people in all walks of life - in an advisory capacity. For once man will have a god-like control over his own destiny. He will have a chance to transcend and to evolve with some equality for all
“technology has never, will never, and simply cannot result in structural unemployment.”
Well, downstream effects due to resource depletions quickened by advances in technology just might be able to cause it imho.
I wonder if Stephen Hawking is a rich Capitalist himself. Did he donate the proceeds of his books and lectures to charity?
Proof that Genius' can be Crazy as Fuck
There is a fine line between brilliant and crazy.
Yes, he's crazy as fuck. But DON'T BE FOOLED. Scientists are all card carrying members of the FSA. Ultimately what he's saying is spend more money on ME (er, I mean science). Talking his book.
Most physicists wasted their entire career on string theory, which was totally blown away by the recent discovery of higgs boson. Hawking, specifically has almost nothing to show for his life's work. Pathetic.
Observing current and increasing extreme wealth inequality, verifies his position. Corporations will not fix the problem since they are legally obliged to act in the interest of the shareholders, non-shareholders be damned.
The only position of Hawking that is verified is that he is an alien artificial intelligence placed on earth to destroy civilization by encouraging socialism. His hair brained failures at physics are only comedy reflief for his real purpose.
why does he still sound like an old Speak and Spell from 1978?
They can't figure out any fucking way to fix that shit and give him some modern voice tones? Or does he just like to scare little kids w/ that voice?
There is reason to believe this man was not born Stephen Hawking. I mean, for starters, whats the longest ANY ONE has survived with ALS? Hawking has the record by some margin! Seems likely he was swapped when he died, about 20+ years ago, with another cripple.
I mean, how hard would it be, really, for someone to tell his computer what to say (for speeches and that kind of thing)? Dead easy.
It appears 'Hawking' has lived 51+ years with ALS. The next longest is 31, I believe...
TIMMAH!
why don't you
give it a try, herd?
He died and was replaced by a Cyborg which is why nobody has seen him in person for over 20 years.
His satanic handlers speak for him saying "There is no God" and such.
Soon he will talk about global warming too after saying
those refugees are a gift to Europe.
After a few months he will come out for the kosher gun collection agenda
speaking from Diane Feinsteins office. She will demonstrate the guns to be collected
as he urges us to Shut It Down, Feel the Bern and vote for Bush.
Steven tells us to listen to our phones and just hand our weapons over to the Black Lives Matter lesbian racist anarchists.
Manbearpig!! Run for your lives! Considering what passes for intelligence around here I reckon we are good.
I doubtful about scientist. They believe that what they say should matter. Forget about the accumulated knowledge that they worked from. The marginal (in the long run) knowledge these individuals have added to the overall base is but a speck. There is so much more to know. Steve, take the 'great' mind of yours and figure out a cure for ALS. There is more hope in that than your proof texting Albert Einstein.
@smithcreek
I know!! I saw him on TV the other day jumping around hysterically waving his arms, yelling at the top of his lungs!!
Sorry, I was mistaken that was Donald Trump.
Wait, does this mean I can stop panicking about gObaL wArMing!?!@
He's more of a SJW version of a propagandist. Only the infirm can be great in their minds.
The strong and not as disadvantaged are only evil, because that is the only possible explanation for their position.
Nuubee - I agree on all your points Ill add one on aliens: if aliens exist outside our 3D in 4D then they would see all universe(s) and know where all life is already. If such wanted us dead we would be very, very quickly.
And the Mayans thought they were the masters of their universe, until the old world explorers arrived. How long did it take for them to become extinct -- less than a century.
Just what we need now...
Stay tuned on Earth business.
Progressive Socialist horse shit - The British invented this crap.
Automation of farming killed the agri based economy and transformed into a manufacturing one, assembly line automation is killing that economic foundation and another will take it's place. The only thing killing the middle class is government intervention and wealth redistribution machinations.
You see his cameo in the UN sustainable development video?
edit: found it: www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-09-29/un-just-unleashed-global-goals-elites-...
I don't give a fuck that he's crippled and in a wheelchair, or that he is hell-of smart... none of that really matters when you're a sell-out.
You said it Skateboarder
I was once eating at a pub in Cambridge when he and his wife rolled in and sat at the tbale next to us. I tried hard not to stare and mostly succeeded.
My theory is that his brain is finally self-destructing and that is why the drool is starting to leak all over the place without getting wiped up. For almost all of this look at me I am smart bullshit is now nothing more than the sociological and intellectual equivalent of drool.
Socialism has killed more people in peace time than all world wars combined, and this "genius" fuckhead comes to this conclusion. Not very scientific of him. Of course, this is the same fuck head who cheated on a woman who took care of him for decades.
Oh, and lest we forget, almost NOTHING in quantum physics has actually been validated by the scientific method. It's all super advanced theorycraft based upon what they need to solve their mathematical equations which they have arrogantly presumed are entirely accurate.
They are hitting the wall of what they can explain after they threw Tesla et al. under the bus. Sure they want to call it "dark energy" and all that. Science can not make any more big leaps until they reveal what they do not want us to know.
"The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine." -Tesla
I honestly think this is what happened Post-WWII. One theory of science for the little people, and other for the 'controllers'. A perfect example would be hypnosis, and mind control. This is pooh-poohed as nonsense, officially, and behind the scenes it is utilized to a massive extent.
Basically, the intelligence agencies 'classified' everything. There is an interesting story about a young man named George Scherf and another man, named Nikola Tesla, who accused the boy of conducting industrial espionage... That boy, Scherf, was later known to the world as... George HW Bush. Founding member of the CIA. As told by Otto Skorzeny, any way.
Thanks for posting that Herd. Although I have read much of Teslas history and researched much of his work, this story I was not aware of. I love finding new things like this. Thank you very much.
"Dark energy" is what was called a "fudge factor" back in the day.
I predict all of Hawking's work will be proven to be pure bullshit eventually.
Considering the MIC has killed far more in the name of Capitalisim in recent years. Or do you ignore all those countries that Free Market Merica bombs into freedom and starved its people with 'humanitarian blockades'? I'd also argue that it is greed that has killed more people than anything, but c'est la vie
But the United States doesn't have a free market capitalist system. In a free market capitalist system there could be no Military-Industrial Complex because individuals will always be more interested in obtaining goods for themselves rather than paying for bombs to blow up people whom they have never met.
Remember that the establishment of a central bank is a communist ideal and not a capitalist one and the the overlap of the century of total war and the century of central banking is no accident.
Actually you're right: the most fundamental observation in particle physics, i.e. that matter doesn't exist before being observed (see the double slit experiment), is admitedly and utterly unexplained. They call it "the Copenhaguen interpretation of quantum mecanics"; particles are wave (i.e. probability) functions, that "collapse" upon observation. This way, the math more or less works out. But they leave it to philosophers/theologians to explain how the fuck that's possible.
Or, as one asked some time ago, "does the tree that falls in the forest make noise if there in no counsciousness of it?". Maybe it doesn't fall, as it doesn't exist.
Study Perception in Experimental Psychology and you will find that when we focus on objects our eyes saccade. The Optic Nerve encodes infomation to the brain, but it cannot stop the flow of information and make the Optic Nerve fixate on one position because as soon as it does the eyes saccade, and the brain cannot remain fixated, or control the reflexivity of the Optic Nerve.
"Hence, being a talented physicist does not predispose to litteracy in economics."
In an equivalent scientific observation, SPELLING does not predispose to LITERACY on internet blogs. WOW! It appears that things are tough all over!
Being a believer in an ideology dosen"t make it right either Jefferson, looked at from a physicist point of view, his observation makes a lot of sense! Poor old Steve for a guy trapped in side himself he sure does generate a lot of hostility, the next guy down says he is a 'Bad' man?
Right. It's like he just saw Wall-e or the Matrix for the first time.
Hawking "Aliens may wipe us all out"
Was Hawking statement taken out of content: "[Illegal] Aliens [and Radical militant Immigants] will wipe us all out"
Well for the most part. Hawking has had a poor track record, including Cosomology and Physics. Alien threat is likely nil. Ie War of the Worlds - any extra-terriestials will lack the immune system to defend from Earth evolved dieases. Aliens would need to completely sterialize the entire planet which would be impossible since microbes exist in underground water and even in rocks a mile deep.
Unfortunately it does not appear that the Universe is setup to promote intelligent life. The Earth appears to be a very, very rare situation. Life likely takes at least a billion years or more to develop complex life capable of developing integellence. Our solar system happens to be located in a very stable location has been devoid of extra-stellar interaction (ie no localized novas, passing stars, dust clouds, etc) that would distrupt life on our planet. At the worst, every few 100M years a big asteroid collides with Earth.
Hawking: The "Pop" Scientist, carefully ensconced in the mythological world of Post-Newtonian, non-realistic, ignoring Quantum Reality, politically infused, showmanship spotlight.
The cutting edge work is all being done in the Quantum arena, ever so carefully ignored by the mainstream for it requires no monolithic governmental sponsored behemoths (like CERN) and is so far removed from governmental supervision .... consciousness, time and reality itself.
Nope, kinda hard to apply reality to AGW, etc.
Steveie boy, stick with your popular crank "science". BTW, ever felt like practicing what you preach and un-loading all those millions you got for the less fortunate?
Didn't think so.
See, being greedy is a capitalist phenomenon. I knew you'd not get it. Guess you're blind, too.
Stick your string theory with your hypocritical pronouncements.
Wake up Stephen...the reptilian aliens are ALREADY here!!
I imagine he'd taste like veal to them too. :O
Hawkings is an atheist. Atheists live in constant fear over imaginary things.
Atheist until his death bed.
Written about Nietsche, but applies to all: Blind Guardian - Punishment Divine
"I hear angels sing, hear angels sing, hear angels sing, hear angels sing...
From far beyond I hear them sing - it's true, it's true, we don't exist..."
I'm an atheist because the existence of an invisible man who flys in the sky forever is implausible to me. Does that make me bad person?
The universe is a big place, your knowlage of it is small.
Does that mean that I should believe in things which are implausible? It is implausible that there are fairies living under your garden wall. Does the fact that, "The universe is a big place, your knowledge of it is small," compel you to believe in the existence of those fairies despite their implausibility?
Your problem is you are still butt-hurt over santa and the easterbunny being frauds.
like most atheists, you think god lives on a cloud, has a beard, is white and wears a robe.
This feeds your implausibility argument.
Why do you have to use phrases like "butthurt" to promote God? I haven't used any questionable language with you, I have no desire to insult you or force you to change your beliefs and as I tell many decent Christian individuals whom I meet in person, I respect those whose values include "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
When I told that to the fellow who gave me a free yard cross last month he said "You're a Christian and don't know it" and smiled. We had a good conversation and he never said anything about my butt.
Billy, you have never seen anything that would make you suspect or be even slightly open to the possibility of a soul? I only ask this because with you it surprises me a little. You obviously have a strong analytical mind but being a poet your right brain is highly active as well. Regardless of the debate over the lateralization of brain function etc, I have usually found that artistically talented people will admit to have seeing something or experiencing something somewhere if you prod them long enough. Of course some will say that this is do to an overactive imagination or various other explanations but regardless of what the cause is it I would still be surprised that you haven't experienced something somewhere that made you go hmmmmm....
I've had, have and will continue to have what within the confines of the English language would best be described as spiritual experiences. I can appreciate such experiences but lacking real empirical evidence for the existence of unseen things (which would be a contradiction in terms) I can make no rational claim to another that any spirit exists.
Due to its unverifiable nature the spirit can only be seen as subjective. When I interact with others in the real world I can only do so by objective measures.
Not to be rude, but were you, by chance, fiddled by a priest when you were younger?
Merely curious. ;)
Assuming you were speaking to me as the nesting is a bit weird:
No, we had a priest who was a very good family friend. He didn't condemn my mother for having a child out of wedlock. He visited us often and took an interest in me personally. He baptized me and years later when he had become pastor at another church he visited our parish and celebrated mass with our priest when it came time for my first communion. He was a good soul. His name was Father Ford.
Now go ahead and make another joke.
Sorry, second coming.
He should get together with Krugman.
A couple of weeks ago he was concerned about AI. He was wrong about that.
https://thinkpatriot.wordpress.com/2015/10/11/the-wrong-question-as-usual/
"Capitalist Greed" is what fueled this country's massive wealth growth, everyone benefited. Capitalism is the solution, not the problem.
Three gov't disninformation traitors disagree with you.
Bull Shit, what exactly have we gained from all this innovation and increased "production", more and more mouths to feed, more and more things to buy and more and more shit to throw away. The only thing technology does is fix the problems it created in the first place.
You DON'T need a new car, you need community, and unless you get that, you will eternally be in a cycle of growth and retraction. we are headed for one hell of a fall...and even your capitalistic god won't be able to save you.
Did you type that from your capitalist phone or a PC?
Nope, from his (made in Socialist China) iPhone.
Oh you mean that phone that was designed in California?
You DON'T need a new car, you need community, and unless you get that, you will eternally be in a cycle of growth and retraction. we are headed for one hell of a fall...and even your capitalistic god won't be able to save you
But the kind of "growth" you're talking about is a result of the need for the central bank to contniually expand credit. The central bank is a communist institution.
The Ten Planks of the
Communist Manifesto
1848 by Karl Heinrich Marx
5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
Hawkings too crumpled up to realize we don't have capitalism currently.
This should get enteresting. *popcorn*
Yeah, it should get interesting too. ;->
Where is this mythological capitalistic economy? I'd like to visit it some day.
Agreed. For example Income tax is part of this capitalistic system. If you believe in the current system of income tax you are essentially a communist. You believe that the harder you work the more should hand over to society. You believe that a good proportion of your work and skills should belong to society.
The only true capitalist system would be one where you pay no such taxes, but instead you pay rent to society for any land you want to use. The more that society has invested in that land in terms of communications links, roads, public utilities, policing, fire dept, housing,etc the more rent you should pay. You pay for the benefits you get from that land. But after the rent has been paid you keep everything, no matter how hard you work and increase your skills.
But unfortunately today the 0.1% have taken possession of most of the land and are pocketing the rent collected from businesses (most businesses do not own their premises - they rent it from the 0.1%) before it gets anywhere near your paypacket. Most of you are slaves to the 0.1% without even realising it.
"But unfortunately today the 0.1% have taken possession of most of the land and are pocketing the rent collected from businesses"
umm...i think that's pretty much what Hawking is referring to - except he's also talking about the future means of productivity - machines. And the fact if the 0.1% not only owns the land, but also collects the rents (as landlords and the gov't via taxes), AND own nearly all the means of productivity in the future - the machines (which will replace nearly EVERY job humans do today) - then what will we have?
also - you might be better served substituting the word 'cronyism' for capitalism, then you will have a better idea of what we should ALL be afraid of...the fact that capitalism DOES NOT exist, never did truly exist and what we really have is cronyism and the fact that those who benefit the most from the cronyism are greedy motherfuckers. i think Hawking's fear is valid & warranted. His solution may not be well thought through...but then again everyone seems to be great (especially here on ZH) and pointing out what's fucking up the world (cronyism, communism, socialism, egalitarianism, etc..) but don't seem so gifted at figure out how to fix it...other than posting non-sense like 'long guillotines' or 'get out the pitchforks'. What comes AFTER?
And, perhaps the real reason economists want real scientists to stop playing in their sandbox is because they'll be found out to be the frauds they truly are.
and, perhaps, we'd all be better served at NOT having the knee-jerk reaction that any criticism of capitalism, means you either embrace communism or socialism. I don't embrace either communism or socialism, but so far, capitalism hasn't done a very good job at preventing cronyism. It may be the best system, but it seems that capitalism is just as vulnerable to corruption and distortion.
f you believe in the current system of income tax you are essentially a communist.
The Ten Planks of the
Communist Manifesto
1848 by Karl Heinrich Marx
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
South Dakota
How does he differentiate between greed of capitalists, socialists, and communists?
Stevie's greed is purer than the others and socialist/Progressive greed fools people into thinking Altruism is an Temporally Attainable State, via the State.
(God, if you care, please destroy all these kind....)
Thomas Sowell famously posits:
“I have never understood why it is "greed" to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else's money.”Greedy is word used by envious people in order to designate their marks.
once there is no longer scarcity in the world, nobody will have reason to worry about wealth redistribution. Of course, it’s also not going to happen anytime soon and probably never will.
Modern manufacturing and technology should have wiped out scarcity long ago. With existing technology (with perhaps the exception of fossill fuel consumption, though their are political machination there) their is no reason for the diffrence between the worlds richest man and it's poorest to be more than some unnneded trinkets and a house with a view. Thank the banksters who saw the coming technological wave as a threat to the class system and their power for the continued plights of humanity.
If there is intelligent life out there you can bet the US will find a way to piss them off one way or the other.
He best be careful what he talks about. It's not like he can run and hide or anything... Just step on his feeding tube could cause program error,error,error burp, error...
you mean, like, um - banksters ?
didn't Jefferson warn us over 200 years ago ?
Semperfi - isn't it amazing how smart and forward thinking our founding fathers were?! Nothing that's happened in politics - or is happening - would be new to them. They would be amazed there has not been another revolution yet as even they predicted the likelihood of having to fight, periodically, to assert and maintain freedoms and liberties from the natural growth of government.
I think when he says capitalist he means j...
cronyism
I'm more worried about unintelligent life on this planet than intelligent on another
What of value has this guy ever produced? I mean besides unproven blackhole theories.
Really. His 'discoveries' are literally void-space. Even if they existed, they don't exist. Hard to get more nothing than that.
Hawking is indeed a brilliant physicist, but it seems his imagination is running away with him in his old age, and he probably never understood economics in the first place.
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
In recent decades we've had many brilliant scientists on the government dole working on theories, many of which are unverifiable via experiment, that have no known practical applications. Their end product is articles in journals read by other scientists, and suck-up pop articles in the likes of Scientific American. So they drain society's resources in order to prove how smart they are.
Nearly all the technology we enjoy today is actually the result of science done in the early 20th century and before, in an era before we had so much violent ("government") intervention.
Don't get me wrong--I'm all for research, even if it's risky and doesn't serve an immediate need. But funding for such projects should be voluntary and not violently coerced. This means the producers of wealth, the capitalists, will decide how much is appropriate at a given time. And this would likely mean we would have fewer string theorists and more pragmatic research.
But funding for such projects should be voluntary and not violently coerced
yep - i'm sure Hawking is all gangsta when going around to collect his funding...ridin' up in his Escalade, choppers in both hands...
I love the folks that talk about 'pragmatic' research. How the fuck do you know whether String Theory research is pragmatic or not?
I mean I'm sure some people thought Louis Pasteur might have spent his time better. Most of the computer and consumer and medical electronic technology we enjoy today is a result of research having to do with going to the moon as well as military research.
People thought Tesla was a crank and yet the global power AC grid would not exist were it not for him. He also had this wildly fucked up idea of transmitting electricity wirelessly. Guess what - it's becoming reality. He died a poor, poor, man.
You wouldn't be able to post at ZH were it not for some dude at CERN having created something called Hypertext.
There are any number of research projects going on - in all fields of science - many of which are dead ends. And some are just bullshit which got funding because of someone knowing someone in power. However, some of which may prove to be extremely beneficial to mankind...
Could the way we fund such projects be better? Sure...but I'm sure the corruption in reseach funding is not SOLELY the scientists' fault.
Computer tech was largely developed to help with ICBM guidance systems. The 'voyage of men to the Moon' was just a cover to get thousands of scientists to work for the military industrial complex, who would not otherwise have done so.
Mind you, I do think the US (and USSR) sent unmanned probes to the Moon. Not disputing that, and the role that played in technological advance.
Just saying the NEED was for ICBM guidance systems. Miniaturization and automation, to give us the drone warfare the MIC has become so reliant on in the 21st century.
" How the fuck do you know whether String Theory research is pragmatic or not? "
Never claimed to. But the fact of the matter is that it has yet to yield fruit, and yet innocent people are being forced to pay for it. Again, the question is not whether some field of research should be pursued, but whether some people should point guns at others to fund it.
"You wouldn't be able to post at ZH were it not for some dude at CERN having created something called Hypertext."
That is one gigantic logical leap. Just because something happened with violent (what most call "government") funding doesn't mean it couldn't and wouldn't have happened without violence.
"Could the way we fund such projects be better? Sure...but I'm sure the corruption in reseach funding is not SOLELY the scientists' fault. "
Never said it was. It is the fault of everyone who believes in this mystical "authority" wherein certain people have to right to forcefully take wealth away from the innocent.
There's one thing that innocent people pay for not only indirectly through taxes, but directly with their lives. It's called war. War that is brought upon us often by folks claiming to be "capitalists" (falsely) - bankers, financiers, rentiers, the MIC.
I'd be curious to know what %-age of my tax dollars (all taken violently under the threat of violence if I disobey) go to war making vs string theory research. My guess is that the latter is a pittance in comparison.
But if what gets your goat is ultimately the idea of paying taxes - then I'm curious to know what you have in mind? And I don't mean that sarcastically. And who gets to decide what's worth funding?
"yep - i'm sure Hawking is all gangsta when going around to collect his funding...ridin' up in his Escalade, choppers in both hands..."
If you don't associate government taxation with violence, then you are disconnected from reality.
See above.
That fucking idiot is still alive?
appearantly, nobody in this generation (especially at GOOG, AAPL, FB, TSLA) watched the terminator
Sure they did. Then they went out and elected it as governor.
Okay, I,m not this guy's biggest fan. But that aside, he has a point here. The future world of profit driven corporate power has one big missing piece in their equations of profit. That is the demand side, the customer, the clod who needs to make a living and join the consumer class, to join the customer base. When the drive for the cheapest labor, and the least labor per unit produced reaches it's final development, the worker will almost cease to exist. So corporate the CEO with the lowest unit cost, who you gonna sell to?
Anyone schooled in history knows the stagnant economic models that existed before Middle Class people arrived to drive consumtion and expanison. Without the vibrant earnings of middle class people, demand dies. Serfs don't buy shit! History proves that much!
The system has a flaw. Dogmatic worship of the lowest labor costs possible has a flaw. It ends the consumer, your customers. I see small businessmen all around me, who hated the labor movement, and the mine, mill and factory workers who made up 70% of our population. When I grew old enough to put two and two together I confronted some of these labor hating shop owners, lawyers, accountents, store owners etc. I asked them WHO did business with them, and where did the shop owners customer base, those who brought real money in the door, where did THEY come from. "Ah, from the workers in the mines, mills, railroads, ships, factories. All those greedy little workers who earned too much, who the business class hated. That's right fuckers, they are your customers. When a big mine or mill closed, and they did. You know what happened to our small business class? They went bankrupt. When labor was broken, and jobs sent to China, as these business people wanted and voted for, they lost all their paying customers.
It is simple logic. But greed and stupidity warps men's minds, when they see themselves as superior, as better than their customers, they end up bankrupt.
Lots of downvotes, but people just can't face the fact that capitalism is an absurd and nihilistic economy stemming from liberal ideology. Disagree? Well, start with the basics. Liberalism: the idea that governments that intervene the least are the best form of government, and in its place there are social contracts between equal citizens and their representatives. Capitalism: the idea that economies that intervene the least are the best form of economy, and in place of intervention there are economic contracts between workers and their employers, consumers and producers.
But, of course, it is largely ideological and works nothing like that. Citizens are never equal to the government, and the ideology of consumers and producers conveniently leaves out the fact that the producers are the consumers! In between this absurd circle the capitalists act as another tier of bankers, skimming off material and slivers of gold, just like the money-changers before them did.
Unfortunately, Hawking is simply joining the choir because economics is often a convenient political scapegoat when there are deeper problems. The state, science, military, culture, and bureaucracy are bigger problems facing humans today. But that does not mean capitalism is not part of the problem, and certainly not a utopian system we should return to, as it was the governmental system of economics when transferring from monarchy to democracy while attempting to keep the power systems hidden. That is all capitalism really is, a hidden in plain sight governmental and bureaucratic system, a religion based on work and skimming money from others used as a scapegoat so that the state can continue doing what it has always done: dominate people and territory for its own progression.
Yes, I disagree. Let's start with the basics.
Capitalism is an economic system in which individuals invest some portion of today's profit in order to be more productive tomorrow. If a fisherman trades some of his fish for a bigger net he has engaged in capitalism.
You can say that the fisherman's increased productivity is a nihilistic endeavor but when this endeavor fills his childrens' bellies and buys his wife a new frock he'll laugh in your face.
Agree. I'd simplify it down to a very simple root: The human brain operates in certain (often flawed) ways that most people are unaware of. Capitalism as a system doesn't match the way the human brain operates precisely - there are subtle variations in our human nature that just don't match. These are the flaws that allow corrupt factions to twist the system and allows the onset and domination of corruption in capitalism. For example, propaganda. It works and nothing in the existing systems is very effective to curtail it.
It is a pity that most people don't realize this. The most productive conversation would be about how to structure governance systems around human nature and help correct the failings of the human brain, but without offending the sensibilitites of the masses. The US Constitution was better than other systems because it did a better job of this than previous systems. However, with the advent of modern technology and advanced understanding of the sciences of human nature, corruption has enjoyed a huge increase in efficacy over the last 150 years. Until the species addresses this problem directly, that trend will continue.
This isn't about socialism vs. capitalism or any other such horseshit. Those are naive arguments perpetuated with Bernaysian propaganda. "Democrat or a Republican?" "Hillary or Trump?" "Climate Change!" "Feminism!" "Vegetarianism!" So much irrelevant bullshit. Stop arguing about emotional distractions and start addressing the science of how and why corruption flourishes in large groups of people. Find ways to structure systems that naturally prevent it through structural compatibilty with innate human behavior. Once you find a way, implement it, outperform the existing systems and your new system will prevail out of the chaos because it works better for everyone.
+100 - Capitalism may be the most effective/efficient way of creating capital wealth, increasing productivity, etc...but it certainly seems that it's extremely vulnerable to corruption. What we have today is in NO WAY capitalism. We have cronyism.
I agree that a CONSTRUCTIVE criticism of capitalism is not only warranted, but does not also mean that you can only otherwise want socialism or communism.
Capitalism is an economic system in which an individual invests some portion of today's profit in order to increase productivity tomorrow.A farmer who takes the time to repair his plow engages in capitalism.
A free market is a political system in which the individual has a right to engage in economic transactions as he sees fit just as he has a right to speak or worship as he sees fit.
A free market can only be corrupted by making it less free. For example, when socialistic or fascistic policies are forced on a populace and individuals can no longer engage in free economic activity then free market capitalism will be corrupted. But that is not the fault of capitalism or freedom. That is the fault of those who promote non-voluntary systems like socialism and fascism which are advanced not through reason and free choice but by compulsion at the point of a gun.
WHat human endeavor is not vulnerable to corruption? Ersatz indeed....
If humans are involved, there is necessarily the threat of corruption simply because human brains are not 100.0% rational. Therefore, they're vulnerable to corruption.
There are, however, ways to structure decisionmaking systems such that the efficacy of corruption is greatly reduced so as to be substantially eliminated at the scales we see in governance systems today.
I sympathize with Hawking, but greed is unfortunately part of what makes us human.
In an ideal world where we could tap into an infinite amount of energy, we would all be royalty with a bevy of robots to fullfill our every desire, and machines able to create any material thing we we might want to have. In that sense, we could all have things in equal measure.
Unfortunately, like in Wall-E, progress would stagnate. Also unfortunately, humans are all too susceptible to the psychopathic lure of power, and in particular controlling others. So things would not only stagnate, but likely stagnate into an Orwellian nightmare where the most vicious psychopaths run the show (err, what we are close to having now).
Capitalism itself starts to run amok when the average person can no longer expect any improvement in their life for whatever reason (e.g. job oursourcing, scarecity of natural resource, etc).
The only real way out as I see it is *almost* infinite availability of energy, along with a culture that kicks people off the planet and encourages, or even forces them to go explore the Universe and innovate... even so, most humans would probably still seek out the safety, relative comfort and familiarity of the Orwellian nightmare.
I am thinking of father Ted.....dressing as Stephen Hawking....
I am thinking of father Ted.....dressing as Stephen Hawking....
Fuck him what does he know. Know it all. /scarc
I heard Stephen Hawking has the most largest, most unbelievable "Bunga-Bunga Parties". s/
Most useful thing one could do with Dr. Hawking is to drop him into a black hole and see if it emits any Zeldovich-Starobinsky radiation.
Hawking needs a little help putting his words together.
- Let me paraphrase.
- Greed is Conspiracy, Racketeering, Anti-Trust, Sedition, Treason, not recognizing the privileges you have over 90% of the population, not caring about what it is like to live as a commoner, Corruption, Cronyism, Money & Gifts in Politics, No Term Limits for Congress, No limit on the Number of Lobbyists or how many years they can operate, Money As Free Speech, Revolving Doors to Industry from Government, Financial Conflicts of Interest, Accounting Control Fraud, and Fake Financial Reporting and Financial Ratings.
- Greed is Globalism.
- Greed is off-shoring jobs to people with no worker rights or those that work for slave labor wages or conditions
- Greed = US Congress
Machines can't generate wealth. Only human action can generate wealth. Sure, humans can generate machines that expedite wealth generation, but those same machines are also often used to destory wealth. Depends on the humans in charge of the machines. Fuck this guy who's dependent on machines.
Consciousness creates values.
I'm pretty sure that's what he's saying - who owns the machines and gets to determine who benefits from the wealth they extract.
He forgot to prepend illegal in front aliens. Already happening Stephen.
Capitalist greed? What the fuck Steve? Capitalism allows bad businesses to actually fail!
Fascist greed, maybe...
Sad, I thought this guy was smarter.
See you fell into the same trap as everybody else thinking he was smart because he talks like a robot.
and Capitalist Weed has been pretty good for Washington and Colorado
Maybe someone speaks for him?
Wikipedia snippets:
Harry Jennings and his disabled friend Herbert Everest, both mechanical engineers, invented the first lightweight, steel, collapsible wheelchair in 1933. Everest had broken his back in a mining accident.
The two saw the business potential of the invention and went on to become the first mass-manufacturers of wheelchairs: Everest and Jennings.
Notice the key words "business potential".
An electric-powered wheelchair is a wheelchair that is moved via the means of an electric motor and navigational controls, usually a small joystick mounted on the armrest, rather than manual power. For users who cannot manage a manual joystick, headswitches, chin-operated joysticks, sip-and-puff or other specialist controls may allow independent operation of the wheelchair.
Standard Disclaimer: Because such technological advances always spring out of socialism and/or communism... Face facts, if it weren't for capitalism, Hawking would most likely be dead already.
"“catastrophic vacuum decay” — a quantum bubble that expands at the speed of light and wipes out the universe."
I wonder if that will hurt ???
Ok say it....
An intergalactic fart.
a supernova?
Satanistic greed.
= Zionism
"There is also no reason to worry about employment while at least vestiges of a free market exist: as long as there remain unsatisfied human wants and as long as there are more resources than people, everybody will find work."
Someone has failed to notice the armies of marketing and advertising people trying to manufacture wants for products that people neither want or need.
When advertising and marketing are no longer required, wants and production will be in equilibrium.
To me, like the monetairy system, the fact that owning the means of production enables one to skim of more and more wealth is basicaly amoral.
Must be my european social democratic upbringing.
I guess my garden is immoral (assuming you meant "wrong" and not "something that is neither right or wrong").
Maybe it is the wrong assumption, but based on advances in tech, we should expect to see further advances, for better or worse, in ever compressing time frames.
Let's say its 1970. Would any of us have imagined the technology we see around us today? But I suppose somebody pretty smart could have reasonably speculated the future rate of technological acheivement, and may have been pretty close in his forecast. And/or a pretty smart person might be able to make reasonably accurate guesses about in what areas technological advances are most likely to impact going forward.
My crazy guess is one key area is defintely robotics. Also, along those lines, android tech. Some day we'll be walking down the street and you wont be able to tell the difference between a human and an android, with the exception that maybe the android is better dressed, better looking and smarter <wink> - unless they are programmed not to be 'obvious'.
Now, imagine robots and highly developed androids doing pretty much all the low level labor work.
That's a lot of unemployed ppl.
The biggest threat to humanity is lack of knowledge about about the one true God.
Evolutionary dogma has billions ignorant to the truth about human origins. The earth is young just as the bible asserts and there is excellent evidence to boot!
http://theyoungearth.wordpress.com/2015/10/13/t-Rex-soft-tissue-found-in...
Bravo! You must be a real Murican. Now eat a burger and grow your manboobs.
Plus it is flat.
he used an unfortunate term, which brings out the anti-socialist reactionaries. the robotic worker is a human legacy, and is owned by the thing it emulates. your DNA has been copyrighted by your ancestors, unless we are going to deny the process of evolution, which is nature developing solutions through trial and error. and redistribution is an unfortunate term, there was never a plan to distribute the wealth in the first place, or perhaps someone would post a copy. capitalism exploits the resource, human mostly, and socialism seeks to distribute the wealth, you need them both. its difficult to communicate the problem without using certain loaded keywords.
and most extra terrestrials would probably avoid communication with us, i mean what do you think? if you were smart enough to fly here from another galaxy would you want to stop on earth? nah keep going.
" anti socialist reactionaries" ? Oh that is real good.
"capitalism exploits" Figured this would follow...geez......
"socialism seeks to distribute the wealth" You mean steal other peoples wealth.
Damn dude kinda outed yourself a little bit huh? No problem, there is a socialist utopia waiting for you in Venezuela. Hurry on down there and enjoy! Bet they would love some moar distribution of their wealth.
Grimaldus
He used the wrong definition of capitalism. Still, I understand what he's getting at. Ordinary people are in the process of being enslaved.
Maybe we should talk about the things that people can agree upon on how to live together. VAt this point in time, it would be clearer than iusing words like capitalism and socialism.
The fucking fear mongering is reaching a crescendo. Pretty soon people will fatigue and start laughing at it. That's when people start waking up and thinking again.
The Stephen Hawking Fraud
Hawking is a hoax.
Look into his speech software on his own website. Look at the patents of the manufacturer. Hint: transmission of text via wireless to speech synthesis.
Hawking is a veg-trapped man being paraded around as the king of physics by MIT fratboy jokester shysters.
20 Best Sellers my ass. That’s the hoax folks. Millions in book sales.
Wake up. It’s rampant. This country is a big fat game of musical chairs and the hoaxes are all stepchildren of War of the Worlds.
http://www.nasamoonhoax.com/the-stephen-hawking-fraud/
Holy Jesus Monkeyballs... so he's pretty much the same thing as the robot from Rocky IV, without the special effects.
Sure fooled me all these years.
Thanks for the link to that site. Learn something new every day...
Intuitively, I had suspected this for some time now. They dust him off, and parade him around at opportune times to have him "speak for them". Some how it lends them credibility.
Hahah holy shit!