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Concern Over Creating Black Holes
Maria Williams writes to tell us about worry surrounding the impending startup of CERN's Large Hadron Collider. Some fear that the device, in creating mini black holes, could jeopardize Life As We Know It. While the tiny black holes should evaporate quickly — throwing off so-called Hawking radiation that can be detected — CERN software developer Ran Livneh reminds us that "Any physicist will tell you that there is no way to prove that generated black holes will decay." The LHC site assures us there's nothing to worry about. The flap is reminiscent of the time the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider went live. The worry then was that "negative strangelets" could gobble up the world.
Nothing for you to see here. Please move along.
It's already begun!
m-
You catch enchiladas by picking them up behind the head and holding them underwater until they don't kick anymore -VeGas
As long as Gordon Freeman is there to watch over the experiment, I think we'll all be okay. Maybe.
I hear the Vortigaunts are our allies.
The worry then was that "negative strangelets" could gobble up the world.
You see, the problem is that we could all get sucked off before we know what's going on.
Summation 2
Seems to me that the only real problem with blowing this sort of thing off by saying "this is just like last time when we tried something that had a small chance of destroying the world and it worked out okay then" is that you really only have to be wrong once.
"Oh shit! Yeah, our bad -- man, are our faces red. Sorry about that, everybody."
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Well, it beats being hit by a bus....
Standing at the pearly gates it would be a great converstation starter... "oh yeah? I was killed by a black hole...."
....Hard On Collider? I think I'd prefer an earth swallowing black hole.
The black holes would only eat up Kurt Vonnegut. However, the efect would be the same as if they ate up the whole world, since it's all a figment of his imagination.
Bruce Perens.
Watch out if you let the Technocore help. Can we farcast off of Old Earth yet?
(see "Old Earth": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_Cantos)
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
Of course there's a way. Empirical research, just like they're doing. First you make a black hole, then you see if it expands until it destroys all life on earth. Simple, straight forwards, effective.
This is the reason that the Earth entry was changed from "Harmless" to "Mostly harmless".
Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. - Mark Twain
...Yet
The smallest word obviously being tiny :)
What will happen?
We'll all die. Simultaneously. Noone will feel anything.
What's the big problem aside from the end of the earth?
"Has anyone seen my car keys? I set them right next to the collider."
This reminds when I read Brian Greene's Elegant Universe, he mentioned that there was a possibilty of creating another Universe when (if it were possible) smashing together Superstrings. Something like that, I'm not sure where I put the book.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
before the big asteroid or comet comes. Or the sun goes red giant. Or the sun shoots off enough matter to defeat the ozone and expose us all to radiation. (Yes, I have heard this one.) Oh, or Yellowstone goes all explosion on us and brings about a second ice age or something. (There was a Docu-drama on this one.) Oh, or maybe the moon can be partially destroyed and threaten to crash into earth. (Reference to a ABC Family comedy or in some ways to Cowboy Bebop). Oh, or nuclear winter. I am sure I forgot some.
But better us then nature!
"Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb."
On November 3rd, 2004, civil war was narrowly averted when Kerry supporters realized that only 0.03% of them owned a gun.
Dark Reflection
working in a small cubicle, doing nothing that will ever even change the world, while these guys are working on a project that could destroy the world! I'm so jealous... I've made bad choices.
...that the world won't end as a result of this experiment. Any takers?
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
Oh god, oh god, we're all going to die?
"Condoleezza" - two Es, two Zs, just remember "very EZ".
Ahhh, so that's what happened to her teeth...
... I for one welcome our Large Hadron Overlords ...
Self-referential Sigs are cool on /. these days...
54
Of course there will be a headline the next day, granted the earth remains.
"Earth NOT Destroyed"
What, you think reporters aren't complete idiots?
Every black hole in existence in the universe is a result of some fairly advanced civilization reaching a point where each eventually says "Hey, let's build a Large Hadron Collider and see what happens".
The rest, as they say, is astronomical history....
For the black-hole-fearing crowd... RIAA/MPAA morphed into a black hole a long time ago.
So... That's a yes, right?
Exactly. And here's me thinking all the negative strangelets just hung out on MySpace.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."