Possible doomsday date: May 2008?

[r3vbr]

As with the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), people both inside and outside of the physics community have voiced concern that the LHC might trigger one of several theoretical disasters capable of destroying the Earth or even our entire Universe. These include:

Creation of a stable black hole[8]
Creation of strange matter that is more stable than ordinary matter
Creation of magnetic monopoles that could catalyze proton decay
Triggering a transition into a different quantum mechanical vacuum (see False vacuum)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider


So, very little probability, but is switching on the machine +EV in the long-run?

[kerowo]

Man, and I just go over a bad case of catalyzed proton decay, that [censored] stings.

[CASINOCASINO]

Id say the most likely candidate for doomsday in our generation is 2012 4th quarter.

[WuTank]

why?

[wazz]

Very arrogant for humanity to believe it could change the nature of nature.

I'm setting the over/under on the end of the world at 18th of august 2029. Any takers, PM me.

[T50_Omaha8]

I'll take the over side of any doomsday wager. I'll give anybody whatever odds they want.

CASINOCASINO -- Does this have to do with the Mayans, by any chance?

[CORed]

As I recall, when they did the first fission bomb test during th Manhattan Project, there was some concern that it would set off a nuclear chain reaction in the atmosphere and destroy the planet. I doubt that a particle accelerator can cause anything that hasn't already happened many times in supernovas and other natural high energy. I am willing to bet any amount up to $20,000,000,000,000,000,000 that neither the world or the universe ends in May of next year. How to collect if I lose this bet is left as an exercise.

[KUJustin]

Looks like a non-issue, but I really liked this sentence from the article:

If black holes are produced, they are expected to evaporate almost immediately via Hawking radiation and thus be harmless, although the existence of Hawking radiation is currently unconfirmed.

[ALawPoker]

[ QUOTE ]
Very arrogant for humanity to believe it could change the nature of nature.

[/ QUOTE ]

Define "nature." I know I can buy a Bic lighter and then change the nature of the grass in my backyard. Maybe you're being arrogant to assume this planet or universe is so very important that it requires something special to break it.

As I see it, we are a part of nature, and anything we recognize is something we have some ability to change.

[hasugopher]

[ QUOTE ]
I'll take the over side of any doomsday wager. I'll give anybody whatever odds they want.

CASINOCASINO -- Does this have to do with the Mayans, by any chance?

[/ QUOTE ]
ok, I'll take the under, let me know how much money you're putting up.

[hasugopher]

lol oh wait, nevermind /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Arnold Day]

[ QUOTE ]
As I recall, when they did the first fission bomb test during th Manhattan Project, there was some concern that it would set off a nuclear chain reaction in the atmosphere and destroy the planet. I doubt that a particle accelerator can cause anything that hasn't already happened many times in supernovas and other natural high energy. I am willing to bet any amount up to $20,000,000,000,000,000,000 that neither the world or the universe ends in May of next year. How to collect if I lose this bet is left as an exercise.

[/ QUOTE ]

People don't live in supernovas. I don't think anybody is saying we can destroy the whole universe, just Earth. Though it is a long shot.

[JuntMonkey]

In any of these scenarios is it possible that we'd retain consciousness and be trapped in a void for all eternity or something like that, or would we just die instantly?

[rosso87]

as long as we could all retain consciousness and figure out some way to play poker still for all eternity, i see that as a brag.

[m_the0ry]

There was a document released by CERN addressing each one of these issues and no scientist could find any reason to believe any hazard would occur. Not only that, but the max collision of the LHC Is about 14 TeV if I remember correctly, and cosmic particle collisions with Earth's atmosphere (stray muons, neutrinos etc) have up to 3 times this energy. If a particle collision could possibly cause any of these catastrophes, it would have happened before humanity even existed in our distant upper atmosphere.

[FortunaMaximus]

I am become death, the destroyer of worlds. Oppenheimer.

Yeah. Weren't there sidebets at Los Alamos? I seem to remember reading that somewhere.

lol @ 2012. Popul Vuh and Xibalba?


[ QUOTE ]
Very arrogant for humanity to believe it could change the nature of nature.

[/ QUOTE ]

Feedback processes aside, I don't see anything stopping h. sapiens from doing whatever it likes to the fullest of its ability.

Remarkable though, the willingness to make mistakes and take gambles that can unleash such force from the Universe.