Hawking On Aggression

Stephen Hawking recently said one of the major threats to the long term survival of humanity is human aggression.  He has also said that technologically advanced aliens are likely to be aggressive.  He seems to be given to making big statements.

Why the media give those statements play is an interesting question.  Hawking is a remarkable man and a brilliant physicist, but that doesn't mean he necessarily has insight into the human capacity to adjust over millenia, let alone into alien psychology.  Of course, journalists are hungry for headlines, and they tend to see scientists-- Hawking, Einstein, Sagan-- as objective, informed sources even when they talk about subjects outside their areas of expertise.