Stephen Hawking warns that human aggression 'threatens to destroy us all'

Tuesday, February 24, 2015, 12:22 AM - If you were asked what human shortcoming you would most like to alter, what would be your answer?

When Stephen Hawking, perhaps the most brilliant mind of our age, was asked just this question last week, he named one shortcoming of humanity that he considers the most dangerous.

"The human failing I would most like to correct is aggression," he told 24 year old Adaeze Uyanwah, from Palmdale, California - London's Official Guest of Honour - according to the Daily Mail. She posed the question to him as he toured the London Science Museum with her, an honour she won as part of a VisitLondon.com contest.

Hawking went on to say that aggression may have been advantageous for us in the past, for our survival, "but now it threatens to destroy us all."

The ultimate expression of human aggression, according to Hawking? Nuclear war.

"A major nuclear war would be the end of civilization, and maybe the end of the human race," he told Uyanwah.

Professor Hawking wasn't just naming problems without having a solution, though.

"The quality I would most like to magnify is empathy," he said, according to the Daily Mail. "It brings us together in a peaceful, loving state."

How can we build empathy?

Science and technology can help with this, actually, specifically the space program.

The astronauts of Apollo 8 - the first crewed mission to reach the Moon, orbit it, and return - felt this, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders said "We came all this way to explore the moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth."

'Earthrise', taken by the Apollo 8 astronauts, in Dec. 1968, as their spacecraft rounded the far side of the Moon

Edgar Mitchell, who held the same job during the Apollo 14 mission, said "We went to the moon as technicians; we returned as humanitarians."

More recently, Canada's Chris Hadfield inspired feelings of a 'borderless Earth' when he tweeted images from his vantage point aboard the International Space Station.

Professor Hawking takes this even further though. He has made the point before that humanity must leave the Earth to ensure its survival, and, according to the Daily Mail, he reiterated this to Uyanwah.

"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," he said "as it could prevent the disappearance of humanity by colonizing other planets."

Despite Hawking's sobering words, Uyanwah was thrilled with her museum escort.

"It's incredible to think that decades from now, when my grandchildren are learning Stephen Hawking's theories in science class, I'll be able to tell them I had a personal meeting with him and heard his views first hand," she said. "It's something I'll never forget."

Sources: Daily Mail | VisitLondon.com | NBC | NASA | @Cmdr_Hadfield