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Stephen Hawking Claims He Once Held A Party For Time Travellers

Stephen Hawking Claims He Once Held A Party For Time Travellers

The famous theoretical physicist made the claim in an interview with Ars Technica, saying that unfortunately no one came to the bash.

Chris Ogden

Chris Ogden

Professor Stephen Hawking is one of the greatest minds of our generation - scratch that, one of the greatest human beings, full stop. But his vastly superior intellect doesn't mean he doesn't have a sense of humour.

The theoretical physicist has previously been shown cracking jokes in interviews, savaging John Oliver on Last Week Tonight, and even having a Duff with Homer in one of his four appearances on The Simpsons.

WATCH STEPHEN HAWKING ENTER THE THUG LIFE HALL OF FAME BELOW:

Keeping his fun-loving reputation in mind, it probably won't come as a surprise to you that Hawking claims to have once held a party for time travellers.

Speaking with several journalists at Seattle Science Festival, Hawking explained that although he waited patiently for guests to arrive, no one ended up coming to the bash. D'aww.

There was a reason for that though, as Hawking eventually admitted that waiting until it was over to send the invites probably didn't help.

"I have experimental evidence that time travel is not possible," Hawking said in 2012, in a Q&A written up by Ars Technica.

"I gave a party for time-travellers, but I didn't send out the invitations until after the party. I sat there a long time, but no one came."

PA

Hawking has mentioned the party in previous interviews, using it as an argument to prove his belief that travelling back in time simply isn't possible. There goes the plot of every Terminator film then.

However, in the Ars Technica write-up, Hawking said that Einstein's theory of relativity suggested time travel is possible - but it's equally likely trying it would destroy space-time itself.

"Einstein's general theory of relativity seems to offer the possibility that we could warp space-time so much that we could travel back in time," Hawking said.

"However, it is likely that warping would trigger a bolt of radiation that would destroy the spaceship and maybe the space-time itself."

The wide-ranging Q&A Hawking had with journalists also covered the possibility of alien life, and what the chances are aliens will pay us a visit.

Hawking shot that suggestion down too, saying we'll probably have no need to lay the welcome mats out - or build the HMS Thunder Child - any time soon.

"I'm discounting claims that UFOs contain aliens. Why would they appear only to cranks and weirdos?" Hawking asked.

"Do I believe that there is some government conspiracy to conceal the evidence and keep for themselves the advanced technology the aliens have? If that were the case, they aren't making much use of it."

PA

Hawking concluded that as we haven't picked up their TV quiz shows yet, all the evidence suggests that other intelligent life is probably quite far away.

While we make our best efforts to find it - such as through Hawking's Breakthough Initiatives programme - he said that we might need to accept that we're all totally alone in the universe - at least for the foreseeable future.

"It is true that we advertise our presence by our broadcast," Hawking said. "But given that we haven't been visited for four billion years, it isn't likely that aliens will come any time soon."

The truth is, though, who needs aliens when we have humans as impressive as Hawking?

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Science, Entertainment, Celebrity, time travel, Stephen Hawking