Abstract
In the spring of 2010, after completing a new series for television, Stephen Hawking expressed his concern about any attempts to make contact with ETIs (extraterrestrial intelligences). He hypothesized that direct ETI contact would result in harm to our species. In this chapter we will examine the harmful ETI hypothesis of Hawking. We will demonstrate that this hypothesis is not logically consistent with what we know about the physical universe and the evolution of life on Earth. If anything, visiting ETIs will turn out to be altruists. We will demonstrate that the harmful ETI hypothesis necessarily leads to logical inconsistencies with the physical laws of the known universe. The efforts required to travel interstellar distances necessarily force ETIs to be altruists or remain in their corner of the galaxy.
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Geller, H.A. (2014). Harmful ETI Hypothesis Denied: Visiting ETIs Likely Altruists. In: Vakoch, D. (eds) Extraterrestrial Altruism. The Frontiers Collection. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-37750-1_5
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