Here’s the Intel; Stephen Hawking fears robots could wipe us out
Published: 30 June 2015 (GMT+10)

We have reported in Creation magazine that the famous physicist Stephen Hawking was concerned that tampering with the ‘God particle’ (Higgs boson) could end the world.1 Now he has issued another dire warning: mankind is doomed if artificial intelligence takes over because we won’t be able to ‘evolve’ quickly enough to deal with it.2
His pronouncement came after electronics giant Intel released new technology that actually helps him speak by predicting words he may next use. He needs the electronics machine because he is paralysed with the debilitating disorder Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or ALS (see also creation.com/hawking and creation.com/als).
Concerned at such advancements in technology, Hawking said: “Once humans develop artificial intelligence, it would take off on its own and re-design itself at an ever increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete and would be superseded.”
Such pronouncements are perhaps not surprising given that for Prof. Hawking, evolution is a fact and, therefore, that we are mere biological machines, the offspring of primordial pond scum.
Of course he also rejects the idea there is a Creator God in charge of mankind’s ultimate destiny. But it should be pointed out that it is never too late for Prof. Hawking to turn from his atheism and accept Christ, just as his first wife Jane did.3
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Further Reading
References and notes
- Hawking fears ‘God particle’ may kill us all, Creation 37(2):7, April 2015. Return to text.
- Professor Stephen Hawking warns development of artificial intelligence could mean end of human race, abc.net.au, 3 December 2014. Return to text.
- Bergman, J., Stephen Hawking: the closed mind of a dogmatic atheist, J. Creation 19(3):29–33, December 2005, creation.com/jane-hawking. Return to text.
Readers’ comments
Charles Lyell and Charles Darwin suffered from the same delusion of omniscience and dictated what was and what was not science rather than accepting what science was telling them. This disease will continue and will spread until the judgement day when all such stand in embarrassment before their Creator. They will be too ashamed to even attempt to explain their anti-scientific beliefs to Him.
They need to ask themselves, if man truly evolved from morally neutral evolutionary processes... why the consistent manifestation of a default state of evil in the hearts of men divorced from God?
Hawking's fear, in a sad irony, only proves that he actually has an unconscious grasp of that which he so vehemently denies on a conscious level.
But has he really thought about how all this could come about by the evolution of silicon into complex microchips without the intelligence of man?
Has he really thought about how easy it would be for an intelligent man in a power station miles away to cut off the power to the computer?
Is a computer with artificial intelligence able to evolve mechanisms (e.g grow arms and legs) over time which will be capable of forcing humans to build and maintain those coal/nuclear power stations to produce the electricity without which no has artificial intelligence?
One day, hopefully soon, we hope he will come to the realisation that his own intelligence came, not from inanimate primordial soup, but from the intelligent mind of the living Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, the God and Creator of this universe.
I believe that only God is creative, and will NOT allow non-creative machines to replace His authority, which is sovereign. Machines can replicate themselves, and maintain themselves, but how can they design malevolent human- destroyers? Only Satan could program in such evil and he doesn't have, nor will ever have, the authority.
It would be far more realistic for atheists to fear God, because that is a justifiable concern.
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