Still on the fence about the likelihood of extraterrestrial life after Chaos' piece about UFOs this morning? Think the experts to whom he points are all self-serving crackpots out to sell more books?

Then maybe you'll be more inclined to listen to what world renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has to say about life on other planets. 

To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational[.]

So there you go.

But here's the thing: just because there is intelligent life out there, doesn't mean we want to meet it. Intelligent, after all, doesn'necessarily mean nice.

In that regard, Hawking suggests we look no further than our own backyard.

"We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet," Hawking said. "I imagine they might exist in massive ships ... having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach.”

The 68-year-old scientist said a visit by extraterrestrials to Earth might well be like Christopher Columbus arriving in the Americas, "which didn't turn out very well for the Native Americans."

Point taken. Maybe Independence Day was more than just another flashy Will Smith movie.

If you knew for a fact that alien life existed elsewhere in the galaxy, would you be excited to meet it or wary like Hawking?