I blame Greg Bear

[fabrisse]

It's been years since I read "The Forge of God." The nightmares still haven't gone away.

I'm up at nearly midnight even though I'm sleepy because I'm scared. CERN is trying to create a black hole tomorrow.

Really, I'm not one of those people who hears the word scientist and inserts mad in front of it. Dr. Frankenstein is not my paradigm.

I type on a computer, in a room filled with light (the lights in the Capitol were on late again tonight) because scientists and inventors have made my world better. I drink clean water because Pasteur, Lister, and Semmelweiss existed.

But the idea that the Earth can be torn apart by even a tiny black hole terrifies me.

So, since I know there are scientists and people who are way smarter than I am on my friends list, please reassure me that twenty four hours from now, this world will have beheld one more marvel in the progress of humanity's understanding. And we'll all still be here.

(Pssst, the fact that the Mayan calendar goes to 2012 just isn't enough. *G* Nor is the Torchwood podcast.)

Comments

[eanja]

Well, if it helps, the quote I liked was from the Cern scientist, who said that yes, there is approximately a 10^19 that the universe might cease to exist when they switch on CERN, but then again, there is also a 10^11 chance that one will suddenly evaporate while shaving.

More to the point, CERN is mimicking natural occurrences (albeit not under current local conditions) - if anything they do were likely to destroy the planet, we wouldn't be here to begin with, because they won't do anything the earth hasn't already blithely survived during the last 4 billion years- the equivalent of 100,000 times, based on estimates by the safety committee. Cool science, yes, but very small scale, very low power, and not anything remotely new on the galactic level.

There's an article here, depending how much you want to trust print media just now.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

Thank you. As long as Science Daily isn't the scientific equivalent of The National Enquirer, it's good.

[north-ernlights.livejournal.com]

I don't think we've spoken much. I'm North :) Hi. Lol


I'm actually excited to see how this goes. I plan on looking more into it tonight and I'm looking for any TV local listings that might have it (I'm sure the news will).

And I'm not afraid of the earth being destroyed...I have a few friends at CERN and they don't think it anything too disastrous will happen. Unfortunately, I am not knowledgeable in this particular area so I can't say what I think of it. I just know that if the earth is destroyed tomorrow...good riddance. We, as mankind, are a plague. While I think 2000 years isn't enough for us to learn from our own lessons, I don't think I'd care if the world ended tomorrow.

Sure, I haven't lived my life or seen everything I wish to see and we really have no rights to destroy the paradise that IS Earth...I just think it would be cool to see the end of mankind, even if I don't live to tell about it. Call me crazy or weird, but one of my mottos is: Born to live. Prepared to die.

It makes death easier to bear and understand for some reason when I'm in that mindset.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

PJ O'Rourke once said "Giving money and power to Congress is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenaged boys."

In that spirit, I think as a species we've been treating the planet like our parents are out of town and the house is party central. But some of us are learning and maturing.

I have hope that as a species we can clean up our act before Mom gets home and finds us with a hangover and all the dishes broken.

The first reports say, so far so good.

*crosses fingers*

[wadjet-theperv.livejournal.com]

Well, Scarborough is still here :oD

[north-ernlights.livejournal.com]

Because if all goes wrong, we'll still have approximately a month before the destruction of earth. 0.o

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

You're really "Mary Sunshine" aren't you? *G*

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

"Come gentle bombs and drop on Slough"?

It was nice to wake up this morning.

[moria923.livejournal.com]

When I was in sixth grade, there was a rumor going around that on a particular day, a major earthquake would hit, and California, or a large part of it, would fall into the ocean. I think my mom was talking to one of her sisters when she said, half-jokingly, "Well, it sure would solve a lot of problems around here." At the time, I still thought of my life as pretty good overall, and didn't really get what she was talking about.

I hadn't been aware of this CERN project until Al told me about your post. I have to say, my first reaction was, "Well, it would solve a lot of problems around here."

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

Yes, but as solutions go, it's pretty permanent.

[eanja]

Here you go:

Has the large hadron collider destroyed the world yet?

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

That made me giggle.

Thank you.

[eanja]

You're welcome. :-)

[riverfox.livejournal.com]

I just learned about this. Will listen to it later today. :)