Stephen Hawking's chilling apocalypse prediction - Earth could turn into a 'giant ball of fire' because of...

Stephen Hawking once predicted the end of the world, presenting a scenario where humans will ultimately be responsible for Earth becoming a barren land. Now his chilling words are returning to haunt people, since that appears to be unfolding right in front of our eyes at this very moment. Having warned of a dire situation where uncontrolled population growth and rising energy consumption could cause an apocalypse, with Earth turning into a "giant ball of fire". Speaking at the Tencent WE Summit in 2017, Hawking raised concerns over the manifold growth in technology, and that if it continues to grow, humans might be staring at the face of extermination. Hawking said that he does not see scientific or technological developments slowing down or stopping in the future. He predicted that "the present exponential growth cannot continue for the next millennium."

“By the year 2600, the world’s population would be standing shoulder to shoulder, and the electricity consumption would make the Earth glow red-hot. This is untenable”, he said. Hawking flagged the population growth and claimed that if humans continued to multiply at the current rate, they would create a scenario where a disaster, such as a nuclear war, would wipe them out. Other factors that could destroy Earth include pandemics, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), and even aliens, as per Hawking.

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The threat of nuclear war is very real

Notably, the current global geopolitical situation has created a scary world where nuclear war has become a likelihood. Russia has stated that a nuclear attack is a possibility as it fights Ukraine. Meanwhile, Israel has also been involved in several skirmishes with Hamas and Iran. The risk of aliens attacking Earth might seem far-fetched, but Hawking said at the time that the UFOs carrying aliens may be hovering over Earth. “Of course, it is possible that UFOs really do contain aliens, as many people believe, and the government is hushing it up. I couldn't possibly comment!” he said.

Artificial Intelligence is rising to become a very real threat to the world. Experts have flagged how Artificial Generative Intelligence (AGI) could threaten the existence of humanity. Some even say billionaires are building doomsday bunkers before unleashing AGI on the world. Besides this, climate change, greenhouse gases and emissions are staring us in the face, as global temperatures continue to rise.