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

Human greed has been around since time began. Cavemen would fight each other to get something somebody else had. It's impossible to stop greed, some people will also want more.

It is cørruption that drives this inequality. Governments handing contracts and selling public services off to party donors and politicians taking bribes (which these days come in the form of directorships or EU lobbying jobs when they leave politics); and energy corporations (with the help of ex-politicians and lords) bribing dictators in places like Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan to get cheap oil contracts instead of paying a fair price to the country's government.

Unfortunately human failings and greed would not alter even if wealth were to be spread more evenly. There will always be those who do not wish to work, but want the same as others and once they have the same as others, they want more than others. There will always be those who work and object to paying out for those who either cannot or will not and those who consider that "what is mine is mine and what is yours we'll share".

Just read this after reading the story of the 'pool party' shooting. Stephen Hawking has a point, let's just hope all the greedy, stupid people wipe themselves out and our species can become better, more decent human beings. Have so much respect for Prof. Hawking, long may he continue to inspire us.

Everyone one wants more children, how many ask can I afford any more. The Government should not pay for more than one, make people pay every penny from birth costs to schooling and health care. There is a concerted effort at the moment to take over countries by the high birth rates of certain sections of the population. And they are if low income and costing us dearly in the UK.

No Stephen, money and other material matters had little to do with the Brexit vote. It was to do with preserving what is dear to them at a time when people felt powerless due to the European dictatorship. It was nothing to do with greed or envy.

I bet he is wealthy.

Change starts from the top. Perhaps those in power and with influence could start it all off by setting us a better example.

Greed could be the end of civilisation. Not the greed of the majority of the population, but the greed of those who already have millions/billions. The greedy, grasping, controlling people who want more,more,more. More money, more power more recognition. Most of us just want enough to live comfortably.

In the scheme of things if greed is the undoing of the human race the universe will without doubt carry on as normal without us. One of the only meaningful things about us as a species is that we 'tend towards' independent consciousness (rare glimpses in the DM articles and comments I'll admit) - my point is we should seek to widen that faculty and seek a better way to live together in all our differences (yes its possible but we don't tend to get a brain instruction manual when we're born)

im no stephen hawking but whats gonna end mankind is MANKIND'' OR MOTHER NATURE ''

Greed is a bad human trait.

"he did not see money as an end in itself."No and very few do! People want money for what it brings, security, nice home, comforts, material goods, power and even love.

Boils down to the sense of entitlment, people seem to expect and demand the entitlement to have and entitlement to express ones feelings regardless who gets hurt or screwed over in the way.

I promise to be a humanitarian when I am wealthy. But for now my focus is on getting through the month until my next pay day trying to pay all my bills and be able to eat on all those days. Yes that's tight Mr H, people work AND are struggling to buy food for the month. To the hairy armpit brigade I'm considered rich because I've got clean water and my home isn't being bombed yeah?

You do not need a degree in physics or any other subject to come to the conclusion that the human race will eventually vanish. Just like other species before us they will inhabit the planet for so long and then it's good night from me and it's good night from him.

Who benefits from having the world population grow to 10 BILLION people by 2050? It is not the human beings It is not the nature It is not the animals It is not the marine life It is not the societies It is not the value of a life It is not .... The list is long! The only thing that benefits from population growth is the economical model created by a few powerful and very rich families. This model has a fundamental error built into it, it need a continuous exponential growth to work. This means that by the year 20000 we will need to occupy every planet in our solar system to prevent our current financial model from collapsing! The best thing every man and women can do for themselves and everybody else is to stop contributing to population growth, meaning 1 woman and 1 man has only 1 child.

Greed and Political correctness*, thats what will end the world and almost has already

You wait until China starts calling its debtors in. Then we've had it.

The naked ape is inherently greedy it cannot stop itself. It also seems as there is no brake on breeding it is possible it may starve itself into extinction no bad thing for the rest of life on the planet. The planet is in no danger when man becomes just another extinct species the planet will keep going for a few more billion years.