Distaste for the Illogical

As far as current events go, there’s more than enough to have fun with. One issue that sits close to my heart is the Large Hadron Collider, or the LHC. Almost everyone’s heard of it by now, and I find it completely fascinating. Scientists and theoretical physicists (not the least of whom include Stephen Hawking) have been buzzing about all of the wonderous things that this device will be able to accomplish, including blowing up the entire planet.

As a man, when I hear that an experimental scientific machine can do something of that magnitude, I can only think of one thing to say;

“Cool!”

In all honesty, I think our world could use a massive explosion or two (preferably it would happen where ever Howard Stern tapes his radio show, but I’ll get into that later). Is it going to happen? Absolutely not. Just because a 14-mile-long piece of machinery was built for the sole purpose of smashing subatomic particles together to try and explain complex principles, like the behaviors of anti-matter or the properties of subatomic interraction with string theory, doesn’t mean that we’re all going to die.

Assuming a notion that ignorant about something this advanced is the reason why we’re all blogging in our bathrobes, meanwhile qualified technicians are wearing garbs a bit more distinguished and worrying about it for us.

I like to think that listening to someone who isn’t a quantum physicist tell you that the LHC will kill us all is rather unfounded; it’s kind of like a missionary telling a native that if he doesn’t repent and convert, God will strike him with a lightning bolt.

As far as I understand it, the Collider will provide us with several opportunities to find truths about one or two theories that have boggled scientists for years. They include;

• Finding out if antimatter can be contained or possibly used for clean energy
• Discovering if subatomic particles can be weightless
• Proving or refuting both the String Theory and the Theory of Relativity, possibly further confirming the possibility of time travel

Here is a list of what other people claim can happen, all of which have been dismissed with a condescending smirk from folks who happen to be wearing lab coats;

• Black holes could be spontaneously created all over the world, possibly even under your house
• Nuclear explosions could happen for some reason
• Antimatter could be created so quickly that everything we know could be annihilated
• The whole world could blow up

They were supposed to have turned on the collider today in Geneva. Here’s a website that will keep you updated on all of the ridiculous things that might have happened while you weren’t looking;

http://hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com/

Another website, one which gets more in depth about the arguments both for and against the LHC blowing up the world is here;

 http://discovermagazine.com/2008/sep/10-heres-how-the-lhc-could-blow-up-the-world

Here is the last website I’ll bother you with, showing what the paranoia is about the Large Hadron Collider. Cracked.com is a good website, so it earned its right to stay.

http://www.cracked.com/article_16583_5-scientific-experiments-most-likely-end-world.html

I’d like to hear what you think.

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