Reaching for the stars, finally - will the young ones among us get pics of Alpha C.?

[AFTT47]

Although I have the utmost respect for the brilliant Steven Hawking, I can't help but wonder if his later years (and the pure hell it must have been to live all those years with his physical limitations) have dulled his intellect. The first thing that made me wonder was his paper about it not being wise to advertise our presense to possible aliens. Just about any layman could point out that we can't hide. Even with our current technology, it would be possible to build a space telescope with a shield blocking the glare of the parent star to get a spectroscopic image of our planet's atmosphere from many light years away. For an alien race capable of coming here and threatening us, it would be trivial. The spectroscopic data would indicate not only the certainty of life but of technological activity producing hydrocarbons.

Steven Hawking has accomplished great things in his life - things I could only dream of accomplishing. The same can be said of another great man: the late Arthur C Clark. But in their later years, both men got a little "out there." Clarke insisted photographs of Mars showed extensive forestation. He had willingness to believe in ghosts.

Occam's Razor points to both of these great men losing it at the latter point of their lives. Mental degradation is a sad fact of old age.

I might be totally wrong and I accept that possibility but I want to put it out there that Hawking maybe shouldn't be taken at face value these days.