Steven Hawking

I agree with Hawking's contemporaries who said he was stepping outside the box of his usual frame of reference. But still, Hawking was just bringing to the public forum the idea that exploring space will most likely be the next step. Although, Hawking's time schedual seems rushed, his theory is perfectly valid. To me, the human race going to live outside of Earth always just seemed a natural progression. The Earth is beautiful and resiliant, but we're killing it faster than it can regenerate - neccesity will dictate when we venture out. The most interesting thing Hawking alluded to is the fact that once Earth creates enough of a civilization on Moon/Mars or wherever, like the early colonies in America, at a certiain point in time they will depend on the homeland but will eventually become independant and this independance will help to insure human beings' ultimate proliferation.