Stephen Hawking: Aggression will destroy humanity unless we apply empathy

HE is living proof that anything in life is possible. But is famed physicist and futurist Stephen Hawking losing hope in humanity?

IS physicist and futurist Stephen Hawking losing hope? Unchecked aggression, he says, ‘threatens to destroy us all’.

It was a throwaway line.

Hawking was on a tour of London’s Science Museum.

With him was the winner of an international contest to meet the famed theoretical physicist, a 24-year-old teacher from California.

She asked Hawking this question:

What human shortcoming would you change?

Empathy needed ... Stephen Hawking at the EE British Academy Film Awards at The Royal Opera House in London, England. Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images

“The human failing I would most like to correct is aggression,” Hawking replied.

“It may have had survival advantage in caveman days, to get more food, territory or partner with whom to reproduce, but now it threatens to destroy us all.”

RELATED: Hawking warns of ‘runaway’ Higgs boson

Unlike recent comments where he has warned about runaway artificial intelligence, Hawking focused on a more long-term fear: Nuclear weapons.

“A major nuclear war would be the end of civilisation, and maybe the end of the human race.”

His solution?

we are all doomed. even if we stay away from black holes ―Stephen Hawking

— Stephen Hawking (@stephenhawking_) December 10, 2011

Empathy.

“The quality I would most like to magnify is empathy,” he said. “It brings us together in a peaceful, loving state.”

The celebrity scientist also reiterated his belief that the future of the human race depended on space travel.

MORE: Artificial intelligence ‘risk to humanity’- Hawking

The professor added that human space exploration was “life insurance” for the human race and must continue.

“Sending humans to the moon changed the future of the human race in ways that we don’t yet understand,” he said.

On the red carpet ... Stephen Hawking and a guest attend the EE British Academy Film Awards at The Royal Opera House in London, England. Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images

“It hasn’t solved any of our immediate problems on planet Earth, but it has given us new perspectives on them and caused us to look both outward and inward.

“I believe that the long term future of the human race must be space and that it represents an important life insurance for our future survival, as it could prevent the disappearance of humanity by colonising other planets.”

Yesterday, British actor Eddie Redmayne won an Oscar for his portrayal of the acclaimed physicist and futurist.

The Theory of Everything tells Hawking’s life story from his early years as a astrophysics student at Cambridge university as he develops his theory of relativity, all while experiencing the early symptoms of motor neurone disease.