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This story was sent in by a long-time reader about how the Large Hadron Collider (17-mile long, underground circle used to collide particles… and end worlds) will:
- Create miniature black holes
- Have a “totally minuscule” chance of annihilating the planet
So yea… we totally dodged that bullet. Let’s all shake hands on that one and just go ahead and fire that puppy up. I’ll bring the hot dogs and buns if someone else can grab the hazmat suites and possibly tickets on the Apollo We’reFucked to a new planet that we haven’t discovered yet as man-kinds last hope of special-survival.
The best part of the article was this part:
The Lifeboat Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to safeguarding humanity from what it considers threats to our existence
awww… what the hell, I want to be part of some clandestine group that protects humanity against doomsday scenarios. They are even collecting donations for building a nanoshield. This is X-Files shit… sign me up!
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November 21st, 2007 at 8:35 pm
The Lifeboat Foundation is anything but clandestine. Saving humanity from the shadows only happens in comic books and movies.
We currently have 451 members on our Scientific Advisory Board. Among that number are several Nobel Prize winners, numerous best selling authors and many hundreds of prominent philosophers, economists, biologists, nanotechnologists, AI researchers, educators, policy experts, engineers, lawyers, ethicists, futurists, neuroscientists, physicists, space experts, and other top thinkers to help humanity survive existential risks and possible misuse of increasingly powerful technologies, including genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and robotics/AI, as we move towards a technological singularity.
We’re always looking for good people. Why not check us out?
Matt McGuirl
Lifeboat Foundation
http://www.lifeboat.com
November 21st, 2007 at 8:48 pm
Matt,
I really appreciate you taking the time to reply and post some more info about The Lifeboat Foundation. I’ve gone from mildly-interested-but-made-blog-joke to genuinely interested in the foundation, what it’s about, the type of work it does and most of all the problems you guys take a look at and discuss.
That’s the part I think would be fascinating… because of the expertise you all bring to the table, the angles you can look at the same problem from has got to bubble some amazing scenarios to the surface that most folks wouldn’t ever likely see.
August 8th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
i don’t think they should turn it on cause it could destroy the world.
September 4th, 2008 at 2:34 am
The problem with using something like a ‘Nano-shield’ against a blackhole, is that the black hole will basically eat the Nano’s, the current deployment of Nano technology is not advanced enough to cope with having a molecular degregration over a sustained period of time, think of it like a candy floss machine, when you put the stick in, even if you dont move it, it will soon take get covered in candy.
If a black hole is produced by this machine, its not going to be a ’supermassive’ black hole, its not going to be a case of turn it on, destroy world.
Black holes are considered to be fundamental in the way that galaxies are created, the Lucasian Professor of mathematics at Cambridge was quoted as saying
“some time ago I discovered that black holes are not that black after all. They give off what has been called ‘Hawking radiation’. Because of this emission black holes will lose mass and eventually evaporates completely. The Hawking radiation seemed to be random and featureless so it appeared that all information about what fell into a black hole was lost.”
now while we have a way to go in understanding these things, i think that maybe we should start the project……however i suggest that we start it in either France or North America, just to be on the safe side
September 4th, 2008 at 9:31 am
Hah, Anon excellent followup. I do think this is why most North American’s don’t care about ti, is because it’s all the way over on the other side of the earth.
I wonder what kind of response the French and Swiss have to turning this on… they seem more science-driven than most of America, so I wonder if there is more of a curiosity than fear?
September 6th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
I’m well scared I’m only 14 why turn it on? Why do we need to find out about the earth before the big bang? Some things are left to be unknown. We don’t need to risk mankind for another big bang theory. Fuck the boffins. I say they shouldn’t turn it on.
September 6th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
I’m actually still confused as to what this machine will tell us… is it going to help us understand fusion or something better?
Just to research how the universe was formed sounds sort of uninteresting to me, unless there is some amazing side-effect of knowing how it was form that helps us with scientific advancements?
I imagine there has to be, otherwise those countries wouldn’t have funded those billions to build it just because it would help us fill in text books a bit better… but that’s just my guess.
September 7th, 2008 at 6:24 am
I personally think that it would be quite interesting to know more about how the universe was formed. However, thats not really the point here. There is a chance this thing could kill us all, so it seems simple to me- dont turn it on.
Something mildly interesting is not worth ending up dead for. We have enough problems with meteorites and global warming without entering a machine that creates black holes into the equation.
September 7th, 2008 at 6:36 am
The only reason I’m not on the “don’t turn it on!” bandwagon is because I feel like that was the ultra-hyped, over-simplified sound-byte that the media got out of an interview with some folks over at LHC and that’s not getting passed around… given that a huge group of some of the smartest people in the world are all completely OK with this being turned on, given that they’ve been working on it or related technology probably for 20 years, gives me more hope in what it *will* do versus it destroying us.
I’m just not convinced it’s so irrevocably bad, if it were, the science community would be fighting this themselves without the help of us and I doubt the governments would have sunk billions into it without having significant proof that it wasn’t going to destroy those countries/the world.
Honestly I think we’ll all be fine, it’s a fascinating device, nothing bad is gonna happen and fingers crossed that it helps us discover something cool for the next 100-years worth of inventions. The microwave was really cool and all, but I wouldn’t mind those flying cars we’ve been promised
September 7th, 2008 at 10:09 am
DONT DO IT, if you do you are the ones that will die first so to be honest i dont give a crap about that cause you people desvire to die for putting everyones life at risk. And what are you going to find out, you will find some shitty thing out you probly already know and then you will DIE yes DIE! And you dont even care that you are like right next to it.
Go Die, Anyway i’ve made up my mind if this machine does creat a black hole and im going to be sucked to death im going to kill myself in a much better way then that. Goodday!
September 7th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
flick the beast on i tell you!!! my missus has got a super massive black hole and its never hurt me!!!
whats the worst that can happen??? we all get sucked off!!!
i say let it rip!!!
if we all die and the sea rises up into the sky and all the mountains start falling and time starts going all dodgey, i for one will stand there saluting the good work that we have done in the name of science, good work boffins….
September 8th, 2008 at 12:49 am
i dont wnat to die aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
September 8th, 2008 at 6:47 am
where to start. Do we flip the switch and open up a potential new level of understanding of the universe. MMM I can see the benefits from a human endeavour approach but then couldn’t the amount of time and resource ploughed into this have sorted out some of the other global problems facing us at the moment.
Great we finally find out what makes the next level of matter tick, when whack a large chunk of that baryonic matter (asteroid) decides to put that newly gained knowledge back into pandora’s box because we didn’t build a big friggin laser to blast it out of its orbit.
I’ve recently went to switzerland its a nice place very attractive scenery, it’ll be even more so gravitationally speaking if it does end up with a few mini black holes dotted about.
Clip clop is that the sound of 16 hooves in the distance well we’ll find out on wednesday.
September 9th, 2008 at 11:27 am
This machine should not be activated. The people who want to activate this project of theirs must only care for their research if they are willing to risk the lives of every human being on earth, including this earth!
Nature is a beautiful thing, and so are human beings. Nothing should harm any of it, not even the Big Bang theory should make any of us want to. It’s terrifying, knowing you could die because of some people wanting to find out something! Say they did find it out and they were amazed by what they found, but then the Black Holes consumed our wonderful planet, and we all died? Then their research would have been for nothing. It’s ridiculous and needs to be stopped. I for one, am against this project. I may only be young, but I understand it all, and even though I would like to know about the Big Bang, I’m not the type who’s up for killing mankind!
September 9th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
wow. cool, could be interesting,given my kids something to worry about, thanks gits.
September 9th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Its not going to destroy the world most articles i have read on this have metioned something along the lines of the minature black holes being created, being to un stable to last longer than a second
September 9th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Guys, Wired has an interesting article about LHC, give it a read if you are really concerned about this (doesn’t sound like anything too terrible).
September 10th, 2008 at 12:14 am
END OF THE WORLD 14 MINS AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
September 10th, 2008 at 8:03 am
Well it fired up, and we are all still here:
http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/
So *now* everyone can get back to relaxing and in a few years when the scientific discoveries from LHC help to improve our world 10 fold, you can look back and go: “Maybe I should relax more”
=/
September 10th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
This World is surely going to end at some point, who says the tym is not NOW! Scientists can explode the entire universe for all i care if thats got to be their most significant achievement before the world ends, or rather before they end the world. All in the quest for greatness!!!
September 11th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
This was a subjusct that interested me, I never knew this kind of science was in existance! It’s very good to gee that nobody was killed by the “deathly” black hole. To be honest I was scared at first, but now I’m pretty sure that the Swiss won’t blow us up. (this centry at least) So thanks for this post, it gave me some insight on the big story.
September 11th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
i am also scared i nearly cryed
September 11th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
they just turned it on the black hole is being generated as we speak it will take aprox 1 or 2 months for it to be completely generated to full mass around the holiday season there should be a full grown black hole.
September 11th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
You guys can watch the system live online here: http://www.lhc-live.com/
So for anyone waiting for the world to end, you can keep an eye on it for us and let us know when the cameras black out
September 13th, 2008 at 11:53 am
That “camera” footage was clearly edited. If someone had the right software and enough time, they could produce that kind of video.
October 17th, 2008 at 11:15 am
For anyone who thinks this will destroy the planet, you really need to educate yourself. A blackhole is only a memory of the curvature of space from a dense area, it’s not a vortex. As time passes it will evaporate and disappear completely. Scientists have already made blackholes, but they only lasted microseconds before they evaporated. They are simpky trying to extend the time period.
December 9th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
the possibilities of a miniature structure such as a mollicule in the form of a black is possible to destroy our solar system im not going to say it will but i highly suggest that we should not try and play god in this and just leave it be because if we do destroy the solar system there is no going back it’s simmilar to losing your virginity once you do it there’s no going back so why should we end the life on earth, which could last hundreds, thousands, even millions of years from now, to try something that might not even give us any new knowlagde past what we already know.
February 18th, 2009 at 9:36 am
Do you have an RSS feed?
August 12th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
yeah if they create a black hole the freekin lifeboat association’s
“NANO-SHIELD’ isnt gonna do SH!T “NANO-SHIELD” VS. mass of highly compacted matter that science has no idea how it truly works—-WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WILL WIN
REPENT SINNERS!
August 26th, 2009 at 2:46 am
This machine has many goals. But the basic principal is to colide subatomic particles at a force of twice the speed of light, to create gravatons. Its expected that these will enter other dimentions. Now before you start shouting a swearing and panicing “omg its gonna ripp into another dimension” dont forget that if these dimentions exist, that means the were already there beyond what we can see, therefore will only be moving from place to another that exists.
However since we can’t see these dimentions and the subatomic particles that are aparently there(there is no known device that PROVES they exist as far as im aware) – there certainly isnt a device that allows us to see them.
however im not convinced the scientists really have a clue what they are doing. Pretty much everything we learned was through taking a leap into the unknown, just going for it and seeing what happens after the event. I dont think this is any different.
However so many forces collide together with greater energy and speeds in our atmosphere, its even been suggested that millions of blackholes are created every second before disapearing up their own arse into nothingness.
i think there are concerns that there maybe unexpected danger, but i seriously dont think that colliding particles on a lesser scale then what actualy happens naturally is gonna do much. otherwise we would all have died anyway.
aren’t blackholes suppose to suck up time and space and shit, so would time slow down or something and we wouldnt notice? who knows.
but i doubt we are all doomed.