There's a couple of problems with this situation. One is the prevalence of groupthink amongst our leading lights. All the people involved talk to other people who are involved and they all develop a common outlook on the situation. Anyone who disagrees is likely to be excommunicated. Just ask Halton Arp. Another is that the odds of something bad happening are on the order of "monkeys flying out of my butt", which is to say, not too likely. Of course, "anything can happen", but "monkeys flying out of my butt"? Not in this matrix.
Lastly there is the question of infinitesimal odds versus infinite disaster. I read a story some time ago about how someone was calculating the odds of a disaster happening when they held an air show in San Francisco. The odds were very low, but if a military jet did crash into downtown, the disaster would be enormous. So the odds were put aside, and the airshow was moved or changed or something.
Maybe this is why we haven't heard from any space aliens. Every other extra-solar society that reached this point of scientific advancement built a machine that inadvertently destroyed their civilization. Or maybe this is what happened to the planet that used to exist between Mars and Jupiter, you know, where the asteroid belt is now. Or for that matter, maybe this is what happened on Mars and Venus. Or maybe monkeys will fly out of my butt.
It's just the nature of people to dance along the edge.
The sound on this video is pretty sad, at least compared to my memory. It's the only one I found. Her voice and the 12 string are stunning on the original.
Update December 2016 replaced missing picture.
LHCConcerns.com will pay $500.00 US to the best proposal that can reasonably prove 5% or less Risk of Planetary destruction from Micro Black Holes.
ReplyDeleteThe contest will conclude in a vote by site visitors on all reasonable proofs received, all proofs will be published and the contest will end not sooner than May 20th. (LHCConcerns will make the final call on best proposal that reasonably proves 5% or lower risk from micro black holes being created by the Large Hadron Collider).
You may prove that ANY ONE of the following or provide any other reasonable Proof or method to prevent Micro Black Holes from being created by the Large Hadron Collider or prove that they are harmless!
1. The Large Hadron Collider will not make micro black holes.
2. Micro black holes created will be sent safely into space.
3. Micro black holes will evaporate.
4. Micro black holes will take more than [500 million] years to accrete the Earth. (Very Generous, but if you can only prove a lesser time frame, then the prize will be reduced proportionately...)
5. Any form of cosmic ray argument that proves 5% risk or lower.
6. Find a way to make the Large Hadron Collider safe from creating micro black holes (we already requested different speed collissions or different mass collisions, LSAG told us it was not possible, they already thought of it).
It is harder than it looks, the LHC Safety Assessment Group (LSAG) could not produce a safety report... (CERN and LSAG are still using the 1999 RHIC safety report that does not even address what might happen if micro black holes were created, because they did not know that it was possible at that time. We are also being extremely generous on the 500 million years, since life on Earth might be possible for billions of years.)
JTankers
LHCConcerns.com