The statistic i heard regarding the chance of this happening is somewhre in the range of winning the lottery.
20 times in a row.
So pretty much its not going to happen. The human race has a much better chance of being wiped out by a meteorite, volcanic upheaval, alien invasion, nuclear war, disease, or even a nearby galactic event then being killed of by a strangelet.
The thing is how can you give something like this a statistic? They DONT KNOW what can happen because it has not been done before!!??!!
It's "possible" in almost the same way it's "possible" that you could spontaneously disappear in a shower of subatomic particles at any moment.
Don't cross the streams.
SiliconStew on
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
The statistic i heard regarding the chance of this happening is somewhre in the range of winning the lottery.
20 times in a row.
So pretty much its not going to happen. The human race has a much better chance of being wiped out by a meteorite, volcanic upheaval, alien invasion, nuclear war, disease, or even a nearby galactic event then being killed of by a strangelet.
The thing is how can you give something like this a statistic? They DONT KNOW what can happen because it has not been done before!!??!!
It's "possible" in almost the same way it's "possible" that you could spontaneously disappear in a shower of subatomic particles at any moment.
I tried looking on Youtube for it but could not find anything
Let me put it this way.
I am more concerned about the Ghostbusters traveling back in time and apprehending Jesus as he ascended to heaven than I am about the Large Hadron Collider killing us all.
Guys, when they set off the first atom bomb they were afraid they might set the atmosphere on fire and kill us all, but they did it anyways and look at that we're all still around.
There's always someone who's certain that some experiment or another is going to kill everyone.
Pheezer on
IT'S GOT ME REACHING IN MY POCKET IT'S GOT ME FORKING OVER CASH
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
There's always someone who's certain that some experiment or another is going to kill everyone.
That's... that's not remotely reassuring. Because one of these days we'll say "look, we had fearmongers lambasting the atom bomb, the fusion power plant, the nanotech crapthing and a device powered by Jack Thompson's demented ramblings- so, despite the naysayers, I feel Project Annhilation of All Life holds no threat to any of us."
Anyway, these scientist types are too honest- and thus stupid in a strangely limited way. If someone asks what the downside of your experiment is, you don't fucking own up and say that there's a minuscule chance that it'll end reality. You tell them that the only waste product is fluffy bunnies and that the worst-case scenario involves the foreman stubbing his toe.
Unless we've had thousands of potentially world-ending experiments, just that no one bothered telling us...
Anyway, these scientist types are too honest- and thus stupid in a strangely limited way. If someone asks what the downside of your experiment is, you don't fucking own up and say that there's a minuscule chance that it'll end reality. You tell them that the only waste product is fluffy bunnies and that the worst-case scenario involves the foreman stubbing his toe.
Brilliant. That's just what we need, scientists lying to us.
Hey, I just think the End would be far more interesting if it was a complete surprise, you know?
Seriously, if the minds behind it honestly thought there was any kind of risk to humanity/the planet/the universe, they wouldn't do it.
And so I don't get why in the interviews I've seen, when they're being asked questions by people who clearly don't have the same grasp of theoretical physics that they do, that they creep around the point and basically say things like "well it maybe possibly could probably do that. Stop poking me with that microphone".
Guys, when they set off the first atom bomb they were afraid they might set the atmosphere on fire and kill us all, but they did it anyways and look at that we're all still around.
There's always someone who's certain that some experiment or another is going to kill everyone.
I think someone should mention the nuke destroying the whole world thing a few more times for good measure.
Hmm. Hadn't thought about it like that- some people still think a nuke (or two) is destined to destroy the whole world.
On the other hand, I'm betting the Hadronthingymajig will be yesterday's news following, uh, the day afterwards. Except to the people trying to research things through it, but who cares about them when we're not extinct, eh?
Guys, when they set off the first atom bomb they were afraid they might set the atmosphere on fire and kill us all, but they did it anyways and look at that we're all still around.
There's always someone who's certain that some experiment or another is going to kill everyone.
Well where not ALL still around. I mean...ya know. They use bombs to kill people.
My secret shame is that I actually watched that "Black Hole" movie on SciFi.
Are you refering to the Disney one with Ernest Borgnine and Maximilian, the kickass robot with those helicopter blade hands of doom? Because that movie ranks very high on my "So fucking horrible it's actually stupidly funny/entertaining" scale. It's right up there with The Karate Kid.
My secret shame is that I actually watched that "Black Hole" movie on SciFi.
Are you refering to the Disney one with Ernest Borgnine and Maximilian, the kickass robot with those helicopter blade hands of doom? Because that movie ranks very high on my "So fucking horrible it's actually stupidly funny/entertaining" scale. It's right up there with The Karate Kid.
I wish. No, I'm talking about a Made-for-SciFi atrocity that involved an invisible electricity monster rampaging through St. Louis.
The statistic i heard regarding the chance of this happening is somewhre in the range of winning the lottery.
20 times in a row.
So pretty much its not going to happen. The human race has a much better chance of being wiped out by a meteorite, volcanic upheaval, alien invasion, nuclear war, disease, or even a nearby galactic event then being killed of by a strangelet.
The thing is how can you give something like this a statistic? They DONT KNOW what can happen because it has not been done before!!??!!
It's "possible" in almost the same way it's "possible" that you could spontaneously disappear in a shower of subatomic particles at any moment.
My secret shame is that I actually watched that "Black Hole" movie on SciFi.
Are you refering to the Disney one with Ernest Borgnine and Maximilian, the kickass robot with those helicopter blade hands of doom? Because that movie ranks very high on my "So fucking horrible it's actually stupidly funny/entertaining" scale. It's right up there with The Karate Kid.
You are SOOO wrong. That movie has a cult following.
I also enjoy the fact that one of the Wikipedia searches that redirects to the original page is a search for the Large HARDON Collider. Sounds like a good film.
I was going to suggest that as a name for a gay bar.
I also enjoy the fact that one of the Wikipedia searches that redirects to the original page is a search for the Large HARDON Collider. Sounds like a good film.
I was going to suggest that as a name for a gay bar.
I would imagine that a hardon collision would be an uncomfortable situation at best.
I also enjoy the fact that one of the Wikipedia searches that redirects to the original page is a search for the Large HARDON Collider. Sounds like a good film.
I was going to suggest that as a name for a gay bar.
I would imagine that a hardon collision would be an uncomfortable situation at best.
My secret shame is that I actually watched that "Black Hole" movie on SciFi.
Are you refering to the Disney one with Ernest Borgnine and Maximilian, the kickass robot with those helicopter blade hands of doom? Because that movie ranks very high on my "So fucking horrible it's actually stupidly funny/entertaining" scale. It's right up there with The Karate Kid.
Okay, I went back 1 page, and realized that this thread had been heavily assaulted in an ungentlemanly fashion by very bad things.
Rescue attempt:
Anybody read Lisa Randall's Warped Passages? She is one of the first female bigwigs in the field, and her theories are garnering attention: namely, that an extra dimension might be infinitely large and that we live in a three dimensional pocket within a general higher dimensional universe. Her number-crunching suggestes that gravity is a much stronger force outside of our "pocket."
One of my biggest hopes for the LHC is that we get one of these two outcomes:
1: My BIGGEST hope is that we find evidence for higher/extra dimensions
2: At the very least, direct detection of gravitational waves
NexusSix on
REASON - Version 1.0B7 Gatling type 3 mm hypervelocity railgun system
Ng Security Industries, Inc.
PRERELEASE VERSION-NOT FOR FIELD USE - DO NOT TEST IN A POPULATED AREA
-ULTIMA RATIO REGUM-
I haven't been paying much attention to this, but has the universe been destroyed yet? If not, is there a date set for it so I can plan ahead?
Not yet. Maybe tomorrow.
You guys totally suck.
NexusSix on
REASON - Version 1.0B7 Gatling type 3 mm hypervelocity railgun system
Ng Security Industries, Inc.
PRERELEASE VERSION-NOT FOR FIELD USE - DO NOT TEST IN A POPULATED AREA
-ULTIMA RATIO REGUM-
I think this whole situation (including this thread) proves that perhaps scientists shouldn't be in charge of anything like this (ie - potential doomsday device). Because honestly, I'm positive every scientist I know (and I know alot) would have the exact same reaction after reading this.
Okay, I went back 1 page, and realized that this thread had been heavily assaulted in an ungentlemanly fashion by very bad things.
Rescue attempt:
Anybody read Lisa Randall's Warped Passages? She is one of the first female bigwigs in the field, and her theories are garnering attention: namely, that an extra dimension might be infinitely large and that we live in a three dimensional pocket within a general higher dimensional universe. Her number-crunching suggestes that gravity is a much stronger force outside of our "pocket."
One of my biggest hopes for the LHC is that we get one of these two outcomes:
1: My BIGGEST hope is that we find evidence for higher/extra dimensions
2: At the very least, direct detection of gravitational waves
pfft. as if that is ever going to happen in our lifetime.
seriously, i'll be very impressed if they prove that it's a tangible force and we haven't been pretending we know what we're talking about all these years.
Xenocide Geek on
i wanted love, i needed love
most of all, most of all
someone said true love was dead
but i'm bound to fall
bound to fall for you
oh what can i do
Several well educated scientists and lots of people in the atomic development programs back in the 40's thought there was a chance (small, but at the time considered very real) that an atomic detonation would ignite our atmosphere.
Yeah, we set it off anyway.
There's no stopping mankind in our violent struggle to use things we don't fully understand.
I still like the Asimov story about some pan-galactic empire that only made contact with civilizations once they'd harnessed nuclear fission. The clerk dude gets told they've found signs from Earth that this has happened. Clerk dude says "Fine, send a ship to their space station and invite them to join." Messenger replies that they had actually set it off on the face of their planet. Clerk dude crosses Earth's name off the list and nobody objects.
It's kinda sad that some of the most memory science fiction stories for me are the ones how we're totally fucking ourselves over.
Several well educated scientists and lots of people in the atomic development programs back in the 40's thought there was a chance (small, but at the time considered very real) that an atomic detonation would ignite our atmosphere.
Yeah, we set it off anyway.
There's no stopping mankind in our violent struggle to use things we don't fully understand.
This is everyone's favorite story because it makes them feel smarter then all those guys with degrees and complicated mathematics who always have all the answers but you sure showed them!
The real story is that the possibility was considered and estimate calculations showed that there was a very small chance they might come near the conditions required to trigger that event. These calculations were in error, and did not show it would happen anyway - they showed that it might be possible. I'm looking up the specifics right now.
EDIT: From Wikipedia
Teller also raised the speculative possibility that an atomic bomb might "ignite" the atmosphere, due to a hypothetical fusion reaction of nitrogen nuclei. Bethe calculated, according to Serber, that it could not happen. In his book The Road from Los Alamos, Bethe says a refutation was written by Konopinski, C. Marvin, and Teller as report LA-602, showing that ignition of the atmosphere was impossible, not just unlikely.[3] In Serber's account, Oppenheimer unfortunately mentioned it to Arthur Compton, who "didn't have enough sense to shut up about it. It somehow got into a document that went to Washington" which led to the question "never [being] laid to rest".
No scientist would have detonated the atomic bomb if there was a serious possibility of destroying the planet as opposed to "well, we have the hypothetical fusion process which could happen if this unlikely set of conditions happens". Nitrogen fusion people - even the stars themselves have difficulty doing it, not to mention oh my god how the hell would you keep enough plasma mass together in the center of an atomic blast which is doing exactly the opposite thing - blowing everything apart. It's actually the reason mean free path is so important in the first place when you're building the bomb.
Several well educated scientists and lots of people in the atomic development programs back in the 40's thought there was a chance (small, but at the time considered very real) that an atomic detonation would ignite our atmosphere.
Yeah, we set it off anyway.
There's no stopping mankind in our violent struggle to use things we don't fully understand.
This is everyone's favorite story because it makes them feel smarter then all those guys with degrees and complicated mathematics who always have all the answers but you sure showed them!
The real story is that the possibility was considered and estimate calculations showed that there was a very small chance they might come near the conditions required to trigger that event. These calculations were in error, and did not show it would happen anyway - they showed that it might be possible. I'm looking up the specifics right now.
EDIT: From Wikipedia
Teller also raised the speculative possibility that an atomic bomb might "ignite" the atmosphere, due to a hypothetical fusion reaction of nitrogen nuclei. Bethe calculated, according to Serber, that it could not happen. In his book The Road from Los Alamos, Bethe says a refutation was written by Konopinski, C. Marvin, and Teller as report LA-602, showing that ignition of the atmosphere was impossible, not just unlikely.[3] In Serber's account, Oppenheimer unfortunately mentioned it to Arthur Compton, who "didn't have enough sense to shut up about it. It somehow got into a document that went to Washington" which led to the question "never [being] laid to rest".
No scientist would have detonated the atomic bomb if there was a serious possibility of destroying the planet as opposed to "well, we have the hypothetical fusion process which could happen if this unlikely set of conditions happens". Nitrogen fusion people - even the stars themselves have difficulty doing it, not to mention oh my god how the hell would you keep enough plasma mass together in the center of an atomic blast which is doing exactly the opposite thing - blowing everything apart. It's actually the reason mean free path is so important in the first place when you're building the bomb.
My point was that someone somewhere who had just as little understanding of the physics behind it as I do decided it would be better to test a bomb, relying on the calculations of others. Even against warnings that though incorrect, could have had extreme consequences.
If you have two groups of people, all educated and arguing about what might happen, and someone in the middle with no background forced to choose between the two positions. I believe the side they pick wont be based on who is right, but who presents the arguement their best.
We develope things all the time that can kill us. Im just saying it's not surprising we pick advancement over safety. It takes big risk to advance technology as quickly as we have over the last 400 years. Not that I think this is any sort of risk at all.
does anybody honestly care if a stable black hole is created?
it's not like you'll even realize it or something. there will never be a moment of "oh shit, a black hole".
plus, i can't be the only one that's curious what's beyond the event horizon of a black hole, can i? if we create one on earth, we can just avoid the whole nasty stretching business, and get right down to the lack of physics and what not!
Xenocide Geek on
i wanted love, i needed love
most of all, most of all
someone said true love was dead
but i'm bound to fall
bound to fall for you
oh what can i do
does anybody honestly care if a stable black hole is created?
it's not like you'll even realize it or something. there will never be a moment of "oh shit, a black hole".
plus, i can't be the only one that's curious what's beyond the event horizon of a black hole, can i? if we create one on earth, we can just avoid the whole nasty stretching business, and get right down to the lack of physics and what not!
Several well educated scientists and lots of people in the atomic development programs back in the 40's thought there was a chance (small, but at the time considered very real) that an atomic detonation would ignite our atmosphere.
Yeah, we set it off anyway.
There's no stopping mankind in our violent struggle to use things we don't fully understand.
This is everyone's favorite story because it makes them feel smarter then all those guys with degrees and complicated mathematics who always have all the answers but you sure showed them!
The real story is that the possibility was considered and estimate calculations showed that there was a very small chance they might come near the conditions required to trigger that event. These calculations were in error, and did not show it would happen anyway - they showed that it might be possible. I'm looking up the specifics right now.
EDIT: From Wikipedia
Teller also raised the speculative possibility that an atomic bomb might "ignite" the atmosphere, due to a hypothetical fusion reaction of nitrogen nuclei. Bethe calculated, according to Serber, that it could not happen. In his book The Road from Los Alamos, Bethe says a refutation was written by Konopinski, C. Marvin, and Teller as report LA-602, showing that ignition of the atmosphere was impossible, not just unlikely.[3] In Serber's account, Oppenheimer unfortunately mentioned it to Arthur Compton, who "didn't have enough sense to shut up about it. It somehow got into a document that went to Washington" which led to the question "never [being] laid to rest".
No scientist would have detonated the atomic bomb if there was a serious possibility of destroying the planet as opposed to "well, we have the hypothetical fusion process which could happen if this unlikely set of conditions happens". Nitrogen fusion people - even the stars themselves have difficulty doing it, not to mention oh my god how the hell would you keep enough plasma mass together in the center of an atomic blast which is doing exactly the opposite thing - blowing everything apart. It's actually the reason mean free path is so important in the first place when you're building the bomb.
My point was that someone somewhere who had just as little understanding of the physics behind it as I do decided it would be better to test a bomb, relying on the calculations of others. Even against warnings that though incorrect, could have had extreme consequences.
If you have two groups of people, all educated and arguing about what might happen, and someone in the middle with no background forced to choose between the two positions. I believe the side they pick wont be based on who is right, but who presents the arguement their best.
We develope things all the time that can kill us. Im just saying it's not surprising we pick advancement over safety. It takes big risk to advance technology as quickly as we have over the last 400 years. Not that I think this is any sort of risk at all.
You see all those parts where someone refuted the position, showed why the position didn't work and as such when those in charge were informed they had a viable weapon and said they were going to test it everyone agreed? Apparently not.
You just want your story about how "oh lols we'll totally kill ourselves because of 'dem scientists - always ignitin' atmospheres"
EDIT: To clarify, Arthur Compton == this thread. He just wouldn't shut up because damned if blowing up the Earth ain't a sexy thing to tell everyone rather then "well it'll be big...but not that big".
Posts
Don't cross the streams.
I am disapointed in you all.
I tried looking on Youtube for it but could not find anything
has the world ended?
man I have a really nice evening planned too.
Let me put it this way.
I am more concerned about the Ghostbusters traveling back in time and apprehending Jesus as he ascended to heaven than I am about the Large Hadron Collider killing us all.
There's always someone who's certain that some experiment or another is going to kill everyone.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
That's... that's not remotely reassuring. Because one of these days we'll say "look, we had fearmongers lambasting the atom bomb, the fusion power plant, the nanotech crapthing and a device powered by Jack Thompson's demented ramblings- so, despite the naysayers, I feel Project Annhilation of All Life holds no threat to any of us."
Anyway, these scientist types are too honest- and thus stupid in a strangely limited way. If someone asks what the downside of your experiment is, you don't fucking own up and say that there's a minuscule chance that it'll end reality. You tell them that the only waste product is fluffy bunnies and that the worst-case scenario involves the foreman stubbing his toe.
Unless we've had thousands of potentially world-ending experiments, just that no one bothered telling us...
Brilliant. That's just what we need, scientists lying to us.
Seriously, if the minds behind it honestly thought there was any kind of risk to humanity/the planet/the universe, they wouldn't do it.
And so I don't get why in the interviews I've seen, when they're being asked questions by people who clearly don't have the same grasp of theoretical physics that they do, that they creep around the point and basically say things like "well it maybe possibly could probably do that. Stop poking me with that microphone".
I think someone should mention the nuke destroying the whole world thing a few more times for good measure.
On the other hand, I'm betting the Hadronthingymajig will be yesterday's news following, uh, the day afterwards. Except to the people trying to research things through it, but who cares about them when we're not extinct, eh?
Well where not ALL still around. I mean...ya know. They use bombs to kill people.
Are you refering to the Disney one with Ernest Borgnine and Maximilian, the kickass robot with those helicopter blade hands of doom? Because that movie ranks very high on my "So fucking horrible it's actually stupidly funny/entertaining" scale. It's right up there with The Karate Kid.
I've never been sure how they got my email address, but that was an awesome coincidence.
Should I tell them about this so they can ram a ship into it?
I wish. No, I'm talking about a Made-for-SciFi atrocity that involved an invisible electricity monster rampaging through St. Louis.
omg.....awesome.
There's no shame in watching a bad movie, only in liking it.
THAT BLACK HOLE Movie is FUCKING GOLD
You are SOOO wrong. That movie has a cult following.
Does said "cult following" ride a short bus to the annual con? Are they made to hold hands at all times?
I was going to suggest that as a name for a gay bar.
I would imagine that a hardon collision would be an uncomfortable situation at best.
Depends on what it collides with.
I... I read the book.
Rescue attempt:
Anybody read Lisa Randall's Warped Passages? She is one of the first female bigwigs in the field, and her theories are garnering attention: namely, that an extra dimension might be infinitely large and that we live in a three dimensional pocket within a general higher dimensional universe. Her number-crunching suggestes that gravity is a much stronger force outside of our "pocket."
One of my biggest hopes for the LHC is that we get one of these two outcomes:
1: My BIGGEST hope is that we find evidence for higher/extra dimensions
2: At the very least, direct detection of gravitational waves
Ng Security Industries, Inc.
PRERELEASE VERSION-NOT FOR FIELD USE - DO NOT TEST IN A POPULATED AREA
-ULTIMA RATIO REGUM-
Not yet. Maybe tomorrow.
You guys totally suck.
Ng Security Industries, Inc.
PRERELEASE VERSION-NOT FOR FIELD USE - DO NOT TEST IN A POPULATED AREA
-ULTIMA RATIO REGUM-
"Cool."
pfft. as if that is ever going to happen in our lifetime.
seriously, i'll be very impressed if they prove that it's a tangible force and we haven't been pretending we know what we're talking about all these years.
most of all, most of all
someone said true love was dead
but i'm bound to fall
bound to fall for you
oh what can i do
Yeah, we set it off anyway.
There's no stopping mankind in our violent struggle to use things we don't fully understand.
It's kinda sad that some of the most memory science fiction stories for me are the ones how we're totally fucking ourselves over.
The real story is that the possibility was considered and estimate calculations showed that there was a very small chance they might come near the conditions required to trigger that event. These calculations were in error, and did not show it would happen anyway - they showed that it might be possible. I'm looking up the specifics right now.
EDIT: From Wikipedia
No scientist would have detonated the atomic bomb if there was a serious possibility of destroying the planet as opposed to "well, we have the hypothetical fusion process which could happen if this unlikely set of conditions happens". Nitrogen fusion people - even the stars themselves have difficulty doing it, not to mention oh my god how the hell would you keep enough plasma mass together in the center of an atomic blast which is doing exactly the opposite thing - blowing everything apart. It's actually the reason mean free path is so important in the first place when you're building the bomb.
My point was that someone somewhere who had just as little understanding of the physics behind it as I do decided it would be better to test a bomb, relying on the calculations of others. Even against warnings that though incorrect, could have had extreme consequences.
If you have two groups of people, all educated and arguing about what might happen, and someone in the middle with no background forced to choose between the two positions. I believe the side they pick wont be based on who is right, but who presents the arguement their best.
We develope things all the time that can kill us. Im just saying it's not surprising we pick advancement over safety. It takes big risk to advance technology as quickly as we have over the last 400 years. Not that I think this is any sort of risk at all.
it's not like you'll even realize it or something. there will never be a moment of "oh shit, a black hole".
plus, i can't be the only one that's curious what's beyond the event horizon of a black hole, can i? if we create one on earth, we can just avoid the whole nasty stretching business, and get right down to the lack of physics and what not!
most of all, most of all
someone said true love was dead
but i'm bound to fall
bound to fall for you
oh what can i do
No, you'll still die a horrible, horrible death.
You just want your story about how "oh lols we'll totally kill ourselves because of 'dem scientists - always ignitin' atmospheres"
EDIT: To clarify, Arthur Compton == this thread. He just wouldn't shut up because damned if blowing up the Earth ain't a sexy thing to tell everyone rather then "well it'll be big...but not that big".