Professor Stephen Hawking, no stranger to doom-laden prophecies, has said mankind’s hope of survival may lie in a new form of world government - so long as it’s not headed by Jeremy Corbyn.
In an interview with The Times, the physicist argued the future of humanity faces existential challenges from threats such as climate change and artificial intelligence.
He said: “We need to be quicker to identify such threats and act before they get out of control. This might mean some form of world government.
“But that might become a tyranny. All this may sound a bit doom-laden but I am an optimist. I think the human race will rise to meet these challenges.”
But as to who should lead this global government, Hawking was unequivocal about the Labour leader’s chances.
“I regard Corbyn as a disaster,” he said.
“His heart is in the right place and many of his policies are sound but he has allowed himself to be portrayed as a left-wing extremist.
“I think he should step down for the sake of the party.”
Hawking added that he would vote for him but to do so would probably be futile.
Hawking has often been pessimistic about humanity’s future. Last year he warned we could be wiped out in the next 1,000 years, unless we colonise another planet.
In the afterword of Julian Guthrie’s book titled ‘How to Make a Spaceship: A Band of Renegades, an Epic Race, and the Birth of Private Spaceflight’, Hawking wrote: “I believe that life on Earth is at an ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as a sudden nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus, or other dangers.
“I think the human race has no future if it doesn’t go to space.”
In the wide-ranging interview with The Times Hawking covered a range of topics including the Nobel Prize that has so far eluded him.
He said: “I might get a Nobel prize for my discovery that black holes are not completely black but I won’t hold my breath for it.
“The rules require the effect be confirmed by observations. This is difficult for stellar mass black holes, because the temperature is only a millionth of a degree.
“I’m now studying whether one might detect Hawking radiation in primordial gravitational waves.”