Professor Brian Cox: Our Civilizations May Be Destroyed Soon, But Voyager 1 Still Holds On

British legendary physics professor Brian Cox (photo: x @Mark_OMOlain)

JAKARTA - British legendary physics professor Brian Cox issued a shocking warning about the future of human civilization. In a series of posts on X, Cox stated that a man-made spacecraft could soon become the only relic of our increasingly stupid civilization.

Professor Cox's comments came after NASA announced that they managed to improve the Voyager 1 probe that was launched 47 years ago. "It never stops to amaze me that the spacecraft launched in 1977 can be fixed remotely from Earth," Cox wrote.

However, not everyone shares Cox's admiration. Some users X responded with ridicule, including complaints about everyday devices closer to home, such as unconnected printers. Cox replied with satire, mentioning that "some of these responses show a level of ignorance hinting that soon our spacecraft will soon become the only relic of our increasingly stupid civilization."

Professor Cox also touched Paradox Fermi, who questioned why we have not found any evidence of space civilization despite their high probability.

"Until recently, I suspect that the answer to the Fermi Paradox can be found in biology of very rare biological systems," he said. However, I increasingly argue that the reason for the big silence is that civilization is inevitable to be destroyed by their own stupidity shortly after discovering the internet.

Voyager 1, which has been more than 15 billion miles from Earth, has been sending data from interstellar space for nearly 50 years since its launch in 1977. The aircraft is known for delivering one of the most respected astronomical images of all time Pale Blue Dot, which shows our planet as a dust spot across space.

In November, Voyager 1 experienced a disruption that made the data on its environment and the health of its own system elusive by NASA scientists. The team managed to fix some of the problems in April by instructing the aircraft to start transmitting engineering data, including information about its health and status. In the following month, two of its four scientific instruments were repaired after the team sent orders more than 15 billion miles away.

Voyager 1 is the first man-made object to leave our solar system and enter interstellar space. The identical twins, Voyager 2, are 12.6 billion miles (20 billion kilometers) away and are still functioning.

Through its sarkastic warnings and humor, Professor Cox highlighted the vulnerability of human civilization while celebrating the extraordinary achievements of human technology that has survived for nearly half a century in space.