We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet. I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach.
– Stephen Hawking, Stephen Hawking’s Universe, via Huffington Post.
Ahh, I mean, no disrespect to the smartest guy in the world or anything, but I’m pretty sure that’s precisely the vision President Bill Pullman saw in his psychic showdown with the alien in Area 51 in Independence Day, prompting his triumphant, Bill Pullman-y, “Nuke the bastards” declaration.
And clearly — and again, no disrespect — Stephen Hawking forgot that though Randy Quaid (SPOILER ALERT) died in that movie, he’s still very much alive and ready to save us from vicious extraterrestrials in the real world.
So fear not, earthlings.
Tedquarters 
Haha, I read the same article at almost exactly the same time that you did. I thought the same thing re: Independence Day. Did you ever notice how little sense the computer virus solution makes? He said they had to detonate the bomb to take the shields down for a couple of minutes…yet before the bomb detonated the shields were down and maybe I’m scaling movie time to real time incorrectly, but it certainly seemed like it was a hell of a lot longer than a few minutes.
Well, we should know better than to doubt Jeff Goldblum, but was it actually the virus plan that worked or just Randy Quaid firing the nuclear bomb up the ship’s blowhole or whatever? I don’t know if they made that clear.
Even better was the fact that apparently aliens run Mac software. Who knew?
Welcome to Earf.
And yeah, that’s exactly the thought I had when I read what Hawking wrote.
Truth be told the Independence Day crew ripped of the original V which ripped off War of the Worlds, which ripped off so other scary older story.
Then the new V ripped off the old V, badly, with even worse writing and acting, who thought that would be possible.
This is why I read your blog every day! Have a great trip and keep the reports coming.