1.4K views Mar 2010
A slow-motion montage of masked people doing stunts plays alongside audio of Stephen Hawking discussing physics, humanity's future, and the need to explore space.
0:00 My illness has made very little difference to my scientific work. 0:05 It was lucky to have chosen theoretical physics that is mainly pure thought, for which my physical disability is no handicap. 0:16 I may be mentally disabled as well, but if so, I'm too far gone to realize. 0:32 I think everyone wants to know where we came from and how the universe began. 0:40 Cosmos can help us find answers to those questions. Hopefully, when we understand how the universe began, it will give us a clue as to why it began the way it did, or even why it began at all. 1:04 You once said that the work of physics would be like mountaineering, climbing a mountain, or climbing Everest, mountaineering after Everest. 1:17 What did you mean? 1:20 I would have thought it was fairly obvious what I meant. If we ever do find a complete theory of the universe, it would be a great triumph of human reason, but it wouldn't leave much for us to do. 1:35 We need an intellectual challenge. 1:41 This is a yes or no. It would be the greatest achievement of science since Einstein's theory of relativity. 1:50 Yes. 2:00 It has taken about 4 million years for life on Earth to develop to the present stage, 2:08 but now the man-made dangers to our survival are much greater and ever increasing. 2:15 If we remain confined to planet Earth, sooner or later we will destroy ourselves. 2:22 The only long-term survival plan that works is to spread out into space. 2:29 The sooner we start, the better. 2:33 What are we not doing to prevent these disasters that we absolutely should be doing? 2:40 Not acting don't sufficient urgency about climate change. 2:44 Do you think we will survive? 2:49 Maybe. 
