# Quote — Stephen W. Hawking, Brief Answers to the Big Questions

> I regard it as almost inevitable that either a nuclear confrontation or environmental catastrophe will cripple the Earth at some point in the next 1,000 years which, as geological time goes, is the mere blink of an eye. By then I hope and believe that our ingenious race will have found a way to slip the surly bonds of Earth and will therefore survive the disaster.

- Author: [Stephen W. Hawking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-w-hawking.md)
- Book: [Brief Answers to the Big Questions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-w-hawking/brief-answers-to-the-big-questions.md)
- Page: 150
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking#Brief_Answers_to_the_Big_Questions_(2018)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-w-hawking/brief-answers-to-the-big-questions/i-regard-it-as-almost

## More from this book

> It is not even clear that intelligence has any long-term survival value.

p. 84 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-w-hawking/brief-answers-to-the-big-questions/it-is-not.md)

> If you like, you can call the laws of science 'God', but it wouldn't be a personal God that you would meet and put questions to. Although, if there were such a God, I would like to ask however did he think of anything as complicated as M-theory in eleven dimensions.

p. 36 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-w-hawking/brief-answers-to-the-big-questions/if-you-like.md)

> If a superior alien civilisation sent us a text message saying, 'We'll arrive in a few decades', would we just reply, 'OK, call us when you get here, we'll leave the lights on'? Probably not, but this is more or less what has happened with AI.

p. 188 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-w-hawking/brief-answers-to-the-big-questions/if-a-superior.md)