From Alex Berezow at ACSH:
#3. Stephen Hawking continues to be wrong about almost everything. Stephen Hawking apparently has decided to spend the remainder of his career as a doomsday prophet. Artificial intelligence. Climate change. Asteroids. Epidemics. Overpopulation. Electricity consumption. In Dr. Hawking’s opinion, any one of these could wipe humanity off the face of the Earth, and hence, we should prepare to leave Earth within 100 years. He’s wrong on all counts. More.
One reason we can tell that Hawking is not a prophet is that he is not being ridiculed and persecuted. Serious prophets, of course, usually are persecuted because people don’t want to hear what they sense is true but don’t want to face. And that is what most needs hearing.
See also: A tale from the decline of science journalism: Facts don’t matter