Technology is about to destroy humanity, according to famous physicist Stephen Hawking.

While technology has paved the way for mankind's progress and development, Hawking says it will also be detrimental to the Earth's survival in the future.

Humans should take caution since science could spell new ways of how things could go wrong for the survival of humans.

According to Hawking, who turned 74 this month, the end of Earth and humankind could be a major technological disaster which is a "near certainty" in about 1,000 to 10,000 years. He also warned that the only way to escape this is for us to leave Earth,

Hawking made the alarming comments on January 7 at BBC's annual Reith Lectures, where he lectured about black hole research. He made the warnings during the Q&A portion with the audience, where he was asked how he thought the world would end.

According to the Radio Times, the world-renowned scientist said ahead of the lecture that the end of the world could be from a combination of major technological disasters such as global warming, nuclear war and/or engineered viruses.

However, the professor from the University of Cambridge also said that there is still hope as long as humans figure out a way of leaving the planet and colonizing other planets.

"Although the chance of a disaster on planet Earth in a given year may be quite low, it adds up over time, becoming a near certainty in the next thousand or ten thousand years...By that time, we should have spread out into space and to other stars, so it would not mean the end of the human race," he said.

He added that this possibility could be 100 years away, and we should still be careful about not destroying Earth.

"We are not going to stop making progress or reverse it, so we must recognise the dangers and control them," Hawking said.

"We will not establish self-sustaining colonies in space for at least the next hundred years, so we have to be very careful in this period," he added.

According to the Daily Mail, Professor Hawking and Tesla founder Elon Musk made an open letter warning that "Autonomous weapons will become the Kalashnikovs of tomorrow," which means artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming powerful enough to become a risk and the cause of humanity's downfall.

In his latest lecture, Hawking gave young scientists advice about retaining their sense of wonder about "our vast and complex" universe.

He added that it is also future scientists' responsibility to help the public understand the effects of technology to the Earth.

"It's important to ensure that these changes are heading in the right directions," he said. "In a democratic society, this means that everyone needs to have a basic understanding of science to make informed decisions about the future."

Stephen Hawking will be broadcasting his Reith Lecture on BBC Radio 4 on January 26 and February 2.