In a bleak prognosis, Stephen Hawking has warned that we are at the “most dangerous moment in the development of humanity”.
In a wide-ranging opinion piece, the celebrated Cambridge professor wrote that “we now have the technology to destroy the planet on which we live, but have not yet developed the ability to escape it.”
“Perhaps in a few hundred years, we will have established human colonies amid the stars, but right now we only have one planet, and we need to work together to protect it,” he said.
In the article for the Guardian, the Brief History of Time author reacted to Brexit and the election of Donald Trump in the US amid “widening economic inequality around the world”
In a rebuke to both, the physicist argued that “we need to break down, not build up, barriers within and between nations.”
“If we are to stand a chance of doing that, the world’s leaders need to acknowledge that they have failed and are failing the many,” he wrote. “With resources increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few, we are going to have to learn to share far more than at present.”
Professor Hawking added it was understandable that voters are “searching a new deal” given “people can see not just their standard of living, but their ability to earn a living at all, disappearing”.
Hawking has been released from hospital in Rome after two days of checks, according to reports.
The scientist has been in Italy to attend a scientific conference, but was taken to the Gemelli hospital on Thursday after falling ill.
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