Neil DeGrasse Tyson Disagrees with Stephen Hawking's Warning of Hostile Aliens

Sanjay Gupta interviewed Neil DeGrasse Tyson on Monday, April 26 following the original airing of "Into The Universe" with Stephen Hawking" on the Discovery Channel on April 25. Dr. Gupta used the word "evil" in recapping Stephen Hawking's speculations that alien species might be hostile. Tyson disagrees with Hawking.

"Into The Universe with Stephen Hawking" is a Discovery Channel series that premiered on April 25, 2010. It's packed with stunning graphics, astronomy and physics as well as thought experiments based on the current understanding of the universe. Among other topics Stephen Hawking discusses life in the universe. Hawking shows that virtually endless possibilities exist with various examples of potential life forms including water-based, nitrogen-based, even pure energy-based life. Hawking suggests that advertising our presence in the universe might not be a good idea since we have no way of knowing that other civilizations would be friendly to us.

Surprisingly, that one aspect of the two episodes of "Into The Universe with Stephen Hawking" that aired on the 25th seems to have caught the imagination of journalists. Several times before and after the airing the idea that Hawking believes in aliens, news anchors found themselves discussing this belief.

In the CNN interview Neil Degrasse Tyson, Director of the Hayden Planetarium, admits to Sanjay Gupta, "No one knows how an alien will behave." Tyson goes on to say that Hawking's suggestion that aliens might be unfriendly is a reflection of human history. He said, "Any suspicion that they will be evil is more a reflection of our fear about how we would treat an alien species if we found them than any actual knowledge about how an alien would treat us." And thus he seems to dismiss the very idea that aliens might be hostile, or at least unfriendly.

Hawking did not describe the aliens as evil. He used an example of a species willing to exploit whatever resources they might find to power their civilization, making an unstated but obvious comparison to humanity. Hawking's aliens were not necessarily any more evil than a human is when destroying an anthill to grow a garden or digging up a patch of grassy ground to lay the foundation for a new family room addition to a home. Such aliens would be just as destructive to the human race without evil intent.

While Neil DeGrasse Tyson's dismissal of Hawking's unfriendly aliens is really more criticism of the thought process that brought the topic to the table, he offers no alternative and no evidence that aliens will be friendly or abide by some Star Trek-like "Prime Directive." Tyson said, "Who are we to extrapolate what we are to them?" Perhaps that should include our optimism as well as our pessimism.

"Aliens." Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking. Discovery Channel, April 25, 2010.
http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/stephen-hawking/
"Will Aliens Be Hostile?" AC 360. CNN. April 26, 2010.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2010/04/27/ac.gupta.tyson.aliens.cnn?iref=allsearch