Sometimes even Stephen Hawking doesn't know

Stephen Hawking, probably the world's best known physicist and mathematician, recently turned to the internet to solve a particularly difficult conundrum. He wanted to find out what people thought could make the human race survive another 100 years "in a world that is in chaos politically, socially and environmentally". After reading through about 25,000 responses on an internet forum (including "maybe we shouldn't survive: we suck" alongside "it will work out: lighten up!"), the professor formulated his own response, admitting first that he didn't know either, but adding essentially that we should put our hopes either on going into outer space, or (failing that) on genetic engineering to weed out our destructive impulses. The full text of his response is available from Guardian Unlimited.