Stephen Hawking Warns That Aggression Could 'Destroy Us All'

Forget doomsday asteroids, global plagues and super volcanoes. British theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking says we're facing a much more immediate threat -- and it's our own behavior.

“The human failing I would most like to correct is aggression,” Hawking told contest winner Adaeze Uyanwah, according to the Independent. “It may have had survival advantage in caveman days, to get more food, territory or a partner with whom to reproduce, but now it threatens to destroy us all.”

Uyanwah, a 24-year-old from California, won the "Guest of Honor" contest fromVisitLondon.com. The prize package included a tour of London's Science Museumwith Hawking.

While being shown around, Uyanwah asked Hawking which human shortcoming he would most like to change, and which trait he'd enhance.

Hawking chose aggression and warned that a nuclear war could end civilization and possibly the human race. We need to replace aggression with empathy, which "brings us together in a peaceful loving state,” he said.

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