Why does the press lap up anything that Stephen Hawking says?

He is a brilliant physicist so I would definitely listen to his opinion in that specialist area. But he is not an expert on climate change, artificial intelligence or global extinction events. There are experts in those other areas that are worth listening to but just because Mr Hawking says something in those areas does not mean it is gold dust. If you want to know the possible dangers of AI then talk to Andrew Ng but Stephen Hawking is not your man. Would be listen to Kim Kardashian's opinion on climate change? I hope not as she is not qualified in that area, being well known does not mean you have expertise. Just an opinion and that opinion might be no better than the general public.

/RantOver

It's obvious that for our survival we need to become interplanetary species. It's only matter of time (doesn't matter if it' 200 years or 2000 years, it will happen eventually) until meteor (or other similar event) will hit earth and only primitive life will probably survive. There is a lot more of random natural extinction events that could eliminate human beings (meteors, super viruses etc.). Additionally we create our own problems that could threaten our existence (global warming) and how many more that we don't even know (our knowledge is limited) we created?

Getting on Mars is our best bet for now, as human race. If we can colonize Mars, this will double our chances of survival.

Al Bielek told us that years ago :D