There is absolutely ZERO possibiliby of the LHC destroying the planet. It's not a large possibility. It's not 50/50. It's not even a slim possibility. The possibility is ZERO. I'm sorry but I'm sick of hearing things like this. It's mostly the fault of the idiotic non-scientific media spreading crap that isn't true. Don't fear it simply because you don't understand it.
Well, saying that anything has a "ZERO possibility" of anything happening is incorrect. We have no proof that massive particles don't create some unknown force that could rip apart the universe. Or, via quantum mechanics, anti mater could suddenly pop up, creating a large amount of destruction. OR... etc.
What you mean is that the chances of these things happening is so close to zero, that it can be considered as zero, but it is still genuinely non-zero.
Actually. Mike is in a way right. There is a chance but its incredibly small.
Although personally, Id rather we were all destroyed by our own curiosity and pursuit of knowledge than complete ignorance of global warming.
on topic.
im sorry but i just cringe at this. Im already quite familiar with LHC and what it does. But this rap simplifies all of the concepts too much for anyway to go away with even a basic understanding. The rap would have to be several days long to even start to explain this properly. Its not in anyway educational but im sure that wasen't the intention.
And Scott Aaronson's equally likely take on the LHC, for those who haven't read it:
Better safe than sorry After reading these blog posts dealing with the possibility of the Large Hadron Collider creating a black hole of strangelet that would destroy the earth — as well as this report from the LHC Safety Assessment Group, and these websites advocating legal action against the LHC — I realized that I can remain silent about this important issue no longer.
As a concerned citizen of Planet Earth, I demand that the LHC begin operations as soon as possible, at as high energies as possible, and continue operating until such time as it is proven completely safe to turn it off.
Given our present state of knowledge, we simply cannot exclude the possibility that aliens will visit the Earth next year, and, on finding that we have not yet produced a Higgs boson, find us laughably primitive and enslave us. Or that a wormhole mouth or a chunk of antimatter will be discovered on a collision course with Earth, which can only be neutralized or deflected using new knowledge gleaned from the LHC. Yes, admittedly, the probabilities of these events might be vanishingly small, but the fact remains that they have not been conclusively ruled out. And that being the case, the Precautionary Principle dictates taking the only safe course of action: namely, turning the LHC on as soon as possible.
After all, the fate of the planet might conceivably depend on it.
The chances are very slim though I doubt you can call it zero... you know that if you lean against a wall, you could use quantum mechanics to prove that there is a chance that you'd pass through it. Why haven't we see this happen to anyone (other than on DL Hawkins in Heroes)? Its because the probability is so small that you'd have to lean against that wall for a period way longer than your natural life..
So essentially what we're trying to say is.. stop worrying. Nothing is going to happen. And if it does, as Skyride said, it'd rather be through curiosity and pursuit of knowledge than pure stupidity and ignorance of the harm we're causing our planet.
The phone has 256MB of RAM and a 1GHz processor, which do the job reasonably well, though the Anna interface will likely leave something to be desired for many smartphone users.
The most commented posts on Engadget over the past 24 hours.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
And these are the people that are about to operate something that has a slim possibility to destroy the planet? I'm not exactly encouraged...
You're kidding right?
There is absolutely ZERO possibiliby of the LHC destroying the planet. It's not a large possibility. It's not 50/50. It's not even a slim possibility. The possibility is ZERO. I'm sorry but I'm sick of hearing things like this. It's mostly the fault of the idiotic non-scientific media spreading crap that isn't true. Don't fear it simply because you don't understand it.
ZERO POSSIBILITY! I can't say that enough.
Well, saying that anything has a "ZERO possibility" of anything happening is incorrect. We have no proof that massive particles don't create some unknown force that could rip apart the universe. Or, via quantum mechanics, anti mater could suddenly pop up, creating a large amount of destruction. OR... etc.
What you mean is that the chances of these things happening is so close to zero, that it can be considered as zero, but it is still genuinely non-zero.
Thank you.
Actually. Mike is in a way right. There is a chance but its incredibly small.
Although personally, Id rather we were all destroyed by our own curiosity and pursuit of knowledge than complete ignorance of global warming.
on topic.
im sorry but i just cringe at this. Im already quite familiar with LHC and what it does. But this rap simplifies all of the concepts too much for anyway to go away with even a basic understanding. The rap would have to be several days long to even start to explain this properly. Its not in anyway educational but im sure that wasen't the intention.
And Scott Aaronson's equally likely take on the LHC, for those who haven't read it:
Better safe than sorry
After reading these blog posts dealing with the possibility of the Large Hadron Collider creating a black hole of strangelet that would destroy the earth — as well as this report from the LHC Safety Assessment Group, and these websites advocating legal action against the LHC — I realized that I can remain silent about this important issue no longer.
As a concerned citizen of Planet Earth, I demand that the LHC begin operations as soon as possible, at as high energies as possible, and continue operating until such time as it is proven completely safe to turn it off.
Given our present state of knowledge, we simply cannot exclude the possibility that aliens will visit the Earth next year, and, on finding that we have not yet produced a Higgs boson, find us laughably primitive and enslave us. Or that a wormhole mouth or a chunk of antimatter will be discovered on a collision course with Earth, which can only be neutralized or deflected using new knowledge gleaned from the LHC. Yes, admittedly, the probabilities of these events might be vanishingly small, but the fact remains that they have not been conclusively ruled out. And that being the case, the Precautionary Principle dictates taking the only safe course of action: namely, turning the LHC on as soon as possible.
After all, the fate of the planet might conceivably depend on it.
http://scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=334
The chances are very slim though I doubt you can call it zero... you know that if you lean against a wall, you could use quantum mechanics to prove that there is a chance that you'd pass through it. Why haven't we see this happen to anyone (other than on DL Hawkins in Heroes)? Its because the probability is so small that you'd have to lean against that wall for a period way longer than your natural life..
So essentially what we're trying to say is.. stop worrying. Nothing is going to happen. And if it does, as Skyride said, it'd rather be through curiosity and pursuit of knowledge than pure stupidity and ignorance of the harm we're causing our planet.