astro physicist stephen hawking says it s possible, and issues a warning for all of us. stop trying to contact other life forms now, just in case they re out there and they re hostile. they are likely to be more advanced that us. hawking joins us, answering our questions, sounding the alarm. and believer dan aykroyd is here too. i don t belief they re a mass threat, but they re breaking the law. larry: aliens from out of space real threat to human life? next on larry king live. larry: good evening. you can say that this show tonight is out of this world. john smithson is executive producer of end of the universe with stephen hawking. stephen hawk willing join us later. warns that contact with extraterrestrial life might not go so well. watch. so if aliens ever visit us, i think the outcome would be much as when christopher columbus first landed in america. which didn t turn out very well for the native americans. larry: john, you re producing the show. do you
and it is really the ultimate story. larry: let me get a break and come right back. fascinating. larry: we ll get a break and come right back with john smithson and ben bowie. stephen hawking is coming up. but first, how would we respond if alien life landed on earth? stay with us. when i grow up, i want to fix up old houses. [ woman ] when i grow up, i want to take him on his first flight. i want to run a marathon. i m going to work with kids. i m going to own my own restaurant. when i grow up, i m going to start a band. [ female announcer ] at aarp we believe you re never done growing. thanks, mom. i just want to get my car back. [ female announcer ] together we can discover the best of what s next at aarp.org. as having to decide to go for it?
on august 16th, 1977, a radio telescope in ohio picked up a signal that became famous. the signal was a steady source of radio waves, just the kind an alien race might send because it stands out from the radio static that fills the universe. a computer recorded the signal as six letters and numbers. astronomer jerry ermin saw the letters and wrote one word in the margin. larry: this is a remarkable, remarkable entertaining feature that will air on discovery sunday. john smithson and ben bowie are the executive producers of end of the universe with stephen hawking. this would be an opinion, ben. do you think we would be hostile or not hostile to another
i m not a scientist. my job is to make tv programs. what blew my mind is the huge scale of the universe. i ll never look at the night sky the same way again. just during the three years we ve been making this show, someone told me the other day 300 billion stars have been born. 300 billion stars have died. these are just awesome figures. and what we re doing next really is just literally what we re doing next on sunday night is the ultimate story on the discovery channel, the ultimate story of how it all began 14.7 billion years ago, and how it might all end. and it is really the ultimate story. larry: let me get a break and come right back. fascinating. larry: we ll get a break and come right back with john smithson and ben bowie. stephen hawking is coming up. but first, how would we respond if alien life landed on earth? stay with us. you know, when i grow up,
larry: john well, ben, you first. the tendency has been to kind of dismiss this, until mr. hawking arrived, as kind of kooky, right? maybe it s been overstated slightly from what he actually says in the film. what he says in the film is that if intelligent aliens exist that s a big if and that s were to meet us, that s another big if, then we might be wise to treat them with caution. it s not stephen saying as far as i know in any way, stephen is not saying aliens are coming, we ve got to hide under the bed. he is not trying to frighten anyone. he is just saying if you follow the argument logically, then he thinks that we would be wise to be to exercise caution when dealing with aliens. larry: so what do we do with this, john, other than entertain and inform us? what s the next step? well, what we re trying to do with this you know, what is just so amazing about this subject, it just blew my mind.