Stephen Hawking’s final years were marked by urgent warnings about humanity’s precarious future. The celebrated physicist calculated we have approximately six centuries before Earth becomes unsustainable for human life, a timeline that shocked many when he first presented it at the 2017 Tencent WE Summit. His analysis pointed to exponential population growth – doubling every 40 years – combined with skyrocketing energy demands as the primary drivers of this impending crisis.
What makes Hawking’s prediction particularly alarming is how multiple threats converge. Climate change, artificial intelligence risks, and global health crises compound the basic problems of resource depletion and environmental degradation. While NASA continues monitoring Earth’s vital signs, Hawking’s prognosis suggests we’re in a race against time to develop sustainable solutions before reaching what he called the “untenable” phase of human civilization.
