An Argument for the Global Suicide of Humanity

Introduction In 2006 on an Internet forum called Yahoo! Answers a question was posted which read: "In a world that is in chaos politically, socially and environmentally, how can the human race sustain another 100 years?" The question was asked by prominent physicist Stephen Hawking (Hawking, 2007a). While Hawking claimed not to know 'the solution' he did suggest something of an answer (Hawking, 2007b). For Hawking the only way for the human race to survive in the future is to develop the technologies that would allow humans to colonise other planets in space beyond our own solar system. While Hawking's claim walks a path often trodden by science fiction, his suggestion is not untypical of the way humans have historically responded to social, material and environmental pressures and crises. By coupling an imagination of a new world or a better place with the production and harnessing of new technologies, humans have for a long time left old habitats and have created a home in others. The history of our species, homo sapiens, is marked by population movement aided by technological innovation: when life becomes too precarious in one habitat, members of the species take a risk and move to a new one.