Will greed doom us all? Stephen Hawking warns our current view of wealth could ultimately cause the human race to perish

    Stephen Hawking wrote about his concerns over unequal divide of wealth
    He believes it has driven envy and isolationism that led to the Brexit vote
    He warns if not tackled, he was pessimistic about our species' future
[CN]

史蒂芬霍金写下了他对财富分化不均忧心忡忡。他认为这种财富不均滋生了嫉妒和隔阂，导致了英国退欧的投票运动。他警告说，如果处理不当，我们人类未来不容乐观。

Professor Stephen Hawking (pictured) has warned the sense of inequality that drove the Brexit vote was driven by the way wealth is viewed and shared in many parts of the world. He said that unless this was addressed, it could have dire consequences for our species in the long-term[CN]

史蒂芬·霍金教授（如图）警告，这是这种不平等感诱发了英国退欧的投票运动。这种不平等感是世界许多国家的对待和分享财富的方式造成的。他还说，除非这种方式得到处理，不然长远来看将会对我们人类产生灾难性的影响。

Professor Hawking believes the vote to leave the European Union in Britain was driven by 'envy and isolationism' that sprang from the unequal sharing of wealth (vote leave sign pictured)[CN]

史蒂芬·霍金教授认为英国投票离开欧盟是由“嫉妒和孤立主义”驱动的，而这种主义又是由财富分化不均引起的。（如图投票退出欧盟图）

Professor Hawking originally made his name though his ground-breaking theories about black holes but has recently strayed into talking about politics[CN]

史蒂芬·霍金教授因提出破天荒的黑洞理论享誉世界，最近却进而谈论政治。

He is better known for wrestling with the mysterious forces that shape our universe and the existential threat posed by technology.[CN]

人们更耳熟能详的是他努力攻克了塑造宇宙的神秘力量和现代技术存在的威胁两大难题。

But physicist Stephen Hawking now fears greed could be the undoing of the human race.[CN]

但物理学家史蒂芬·霍金现在担心贪婪会毁了人类。

The University of Cambridge professor has warned that the unequal divide of wealth between individuals and countries is one of the most divisive issues of our time.[CN]

这位剑桥大学的教授警告说，国家和个人在财富上的分化不均，是我们这个时代最易引起纷争的问题之一。

He claims envy and isolationism is being bred by the way money is currently shared and this may have contributed to the result of the European Union Brexit referendum result in Britain.

Prior to the vote, Professor Hawking had campaigned against leaving the EU due to the impact he believes it will have on access to funding for British scientists.

But writing for the Guardian, Professor Hawking said the Brexit result was driving by a sense of inequality among those that voted to leave the EU.

He added that humanity needs to collaborate and change our assumptions of wealth and possessions if it is to tackle challenges like climate change, disease, food production and overpopulation. 

Professor Hawking said: 'If we fail then the forces that contributed to Brexit, the envy and isolationism not just in the UK but around the world that spring from not sharing, of cultures driven by a narrow definition of wealth and a failure to divide it more fairly, both within nations and across national borders, will strengthen.

'If that were to happen, I would not be optimistic about the long-term outlook for our species.'

Professor Hawking initially found fame after battling motor neuron disease to develop ground-breaking theories about black holes.

More recently, however, he has started making predictions that technologies such as artificial intelligence could ultimately doom the human race if not developed with care.

He has also strayed into the realms of politics, joining dozens of other scientists to warn against leaving the European Union.

Recently he also said he struggled to understand the popularity of US Presidential candidate Donald Trump.

But his piece in the Guardian perhaps goes some way towards examining why voters are being drawn to candidates and campaigns that shake up the Status Quo.

Professor Hawking said he believed that wealth, and the way we understand and share it, is playing a crucial role in votes like the decision to leave the EU.

He echoed the words used by British Prime Minister Theresa May in her first week in office when she said: 'We need to reform the economy to allow more people to share in the country's prosperity.'

Professor Hawking said that while he understood that money was important – and in his case had allowed him access to medical treatment and care that had allowed him to live for so long with his disease – he did not see money as an end in itself.

He said questions about the value of possessions and ownership was leading to people to develop new ideas termed 'cathedral projects'

He describes these as being the modern equivalent of building grand churches to 'bridge heaven and Earth', where ideas are started by one generation for future generations to take up.

Professor Hawking said: 'I hope and believe that people will brace more of this cathedral thinking for the future, as they have done in the past because we are in perilous times.

'Our planet and the human race face multiple challenges.'