The Nerds may finally have their revenge

[TheEgoist]

1/1000th change that the world will end.

Hello miniature black holes, goodbye giant sized presidential A-holes.

[01503]

Yeah, that's a bit reckless of them.

"Yes, we will do a science experiment, and there is a 0.1% chance that all of the solar system will be destroyed."

Usually I support the forwarding of technology, as dangerous as it may be to the lab/scientists, but this is a bit much.

[DavidV]

1/1000th change that the world will end.

Their logic is absurd. That number doesn't mean anything.

P.S. This is just anti-scientific sensationalism, and Reason should know better. (But I guess that's why it's a libertarian magazine.)

[TheEgoist]

Reason defended science at the end.

[D'kian]

Do recall when the first A-bombs were being developed, some scientists hypothesized they could perhaps burn the atmosphere.

Predictions of planetary doom tend to fall short.

[KevinDW78]

Or as James Randi says, 100% of all doomsday predictions have been wrong.

[TheEgoist]

Do recall when the first A-bombs were being developed, some scientists hypothesized they could perhaps burn the atmosphere.

Predictions of planetary doom tend to fall short.

I'd say there was a bigger chance of stuff happening with the atomic experiments than there is now. I think a lot of times they really were playing with fire. Theres hardly a snowball's chance in Hell of this happening.

[Marty McFly]

LMAO this reminds me of a book I read by Donald E Westlake called Humans. Story's about a scienece experiment that'll distroy planet earth

pretty freaky for me as I just read this book and now everyone's talking about that black hole. lol

It was a comedic book about God getting bored with the universe and sending an angel (Ananayel) to get people together to destroy the earth and the devil is woking aainst him to save the earth. hillarious! but weird that now we have these scientists experimenting with the black hole

you think these scientists read "Humans"?

[Qwertz]

We had a thread on LHC and the Sancho suit. I read the complaint. It is scientifically and legally without merit.

~Q

[D'kian]

LMAO this reminds me of a book I read by Donald E Westlake called Humans.

Sounds interesting. Maybe I'll look it up.

Anyway, stories of run-away experiments that destroy the world, or humanity, are very common. All the way back to Capek's R.U.R. at the very least. I suppose it doesn't help when scientists lend credence to such things.

To be sure, a major catastrophe could destroy humanity, even all life. A massive solar flare, an asteroid/comet strike, even a supernova going off nearby. But the chances of that are very remote. Eventually the Sun will epxand to a red giant and swallow the Earth. By then we'll either move the planet back (really!) or move ourselves (or rahter our descendants will move) to better, nicer climates. It's a big Universe out there.

[Soth]

You don't need to build a large hydron collider to hear people rambling about how the end of the world is coming. All you need to do is go to your local religious center. This is exactly what's going on here.

If the experiment were dangerous, the physicists wouldn't have performed it. It was the physicists themselves who first hypophosized the possibility of a black hole forming and possibly getting out of hand. They thought about it because they wanted to think about all possible dangers before performing the experiment. Then, they came to the conclusion it's not going to happen, so the experiment can be done safely (I'm just an amateur in physics, but as far as I understand in order for a black hole that can suck in the earth to be created, extra dimensions are needed beyond those that we presently know.)

THEN, and only then, hysteria lovers, religious groups, doomsday prophets, and anyone who likes his 5 minutes of media time, jumped on the wagon and started 'warning' the world about the reckless scientists performing their evil experiments. Some even claim the physicists are oblivious to the idea it could happen, and we need to tell them. These people got it backwards.

Some would say: 'how can you be 100% sure a gigantic black hole will not be created?'

Well, you could say something like that about every new technology:

Computers - How can you be sure man won't create evil AI that will take over? (Skynet vs matrix machines. Who would win you think..?)

Automobiles - How can you be sure car emissions aren't ruining earth's fragile eco system forever? Maybe we're killing off every living thing on the planet.

Industry - Same.

Radio - How can you be sure we aren't transmitting our location to evil scheming alien civilizations. (Starwars Empire is on the way. Can E.T.'s finger save us in time?)

So in the end, you gotta remove every scientific discovery man ever made if you follow this line of thinking. And of course any NEW discovery is strictly prohibited.

End of the world prophecies are a dime a dozen. Humanity never learns. You never see mobs of people chasing false prophets the day after their prophecy did not fullfill. They just forget about them and business as usuall. Pity.

[Thomas M. Miovas Jr.]

Just to be clear, this is the mentality that we are up against with all these doomsayers:

http://www.aniboom.com/video/1224/Humans!/

Perhaps I should have put it in one of the environmentalist threads, but it's the same mentality -- man is a virus and is out to destroy everything!