Stephen Hawking: Either colonize space or face extinction

In an interview with website Big Think, Hawking said he was an ‘optimist’ but the next few hundred years had to be negotiated carefully if the human race is to survive.

He said: ‘I see great danger for the human race. There have been a number of times in the past when survival has been a question of touch and go. The Cuban missile crisis in 1963 is one of these.

‘The frequency of such occasions is likely to increase in the future. We shall need great care and judgment to negotiate them all successfully.’