Stephen Hawking: Humans have less than 1,000 years left on Earth

Stephen Hawking believes humanity has less than 1,000 years left on Earth and must embark on more space exploration to help mankind ‘escape beyond out fragile planet’.

The 71-year-old revealed his fears while speaking at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles this week.

‘We must continue to go into space for humanity. We won’t survive another 1,000 years without escaping our fragile planet,’ he said.

‘Spreading out into space will have an even greater effect. It will completely change the future of the human race and maybe determine whether we have any future at all.’

It comes as Nasa’s planetary science budget, which would be central to finding another Earth, was cut by $300 million this year to fund other projects.

Professor Hawking, who has been in a wheelchair since being diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease 50 years ago, also toured a stem cell laboratory focused on trying to slow the progression of the illness.

Professor Hawking is famous for bringing his concepts to the masses through his best-selling books, including A Brief History Of Time.

He has spent his career decoding the universe, constructing theory and research on black holes and the origin of matter.

He also reiterated his belief at the conference in why humanity exists, referring to M-theory, a unifying physics and mathematics theory which includes the suggestion that there are higher dimensions in space-time.

‘To understand the universe at the deepest level, we have to understand why is there something rather than nothing,’ he said.

‘If you understand how the universe operates, you control it in a way.’

http://metro.co.uk/2013/04/13/stephen-hawking-humans-have-less-than-1000-years-left-on-earth-3614602/