freecounterpoint: The End of The World is Nigh!

Monday, September 01, 2008

The End of The World is Nigh!

19 comments:

Mr roT said...: Back in Los Alamos days there was concern that the first a-test would trigger a very big one. This is recounted in Rhodes' terrific book.; 9/01/2008 9:15 PM
Tecumseh said...: I remember reading a sci-fi short story by Kurt Vonnegut (Cat's Cradle I think was the name), when some such scenario was being played out.; 9/01/2008 9:19 PM
Arelcao Akleos said...: Well, if a black hole out of Europe does suck up the local universe, I blame JJ. He was supposed to sacrifice the goats to the Gods, rather than ...er, you know.....poor goats.; 9/01/2008 9:48 PM
Tecumseh said...: Maybe they thought he's a bear?; 9/01/2008 10:25 PM
Mr roT said...: That's your buddy the Palin-hater Andrew, AI.; 9/01/2008 10:36 PM
My Frontier Thesis said...: JJ, you beat me to the punch: I thought they were worried about the first H-Bomb, too. All that hydrogen, just waiting to go up in a whoosh.; 9/01/2008 10:56 PM
Pepe le Pew said...: lemme see if i follow the logic here. 50 years ago, there was a concern about the a bomb which proved unfounded, therefore there is no reason to worry today about something pretty much entirely unrelated ?; 9/01/2008 11:09 PM
Mr roT said...: I try to beat you all the time, mft, but you run off holding your pants shut. This time I succeeded.
Pepe, actually the physical argument is identical to the one from the 40s and 50s: You apply too much energy to some innocent nucleons and you'll start a chain reaction that will involve the whole world. It's silly because we get hit with cosmic rays all the time that are equally energetic and don't blow up Mr World.; 9/01/2008 11:38 PM
Pepe le Pew said...: ...but the procedure is different so what does the first have to do with the other?; 9/02/2008 8:57 AM
My Frontier Thesis said...: Pepe, I'm certain humanity is capable of destroying itself, but so far incapable of creating a black hole. On this latter point, I hope I'm never proven wrong. On the former point, well, it's fucking amazing we've made it this far.; 9/02/2008 9:25 AM
Mr roT said...: Pepe, proceedure different doesn't matter. Physics is local so the innocent nucleons would know whether they'd gotten a hard kick of energy from LHC or from the center of the galaxy. The physics locally would be identical.; 9/02/2008 10:35 AM
Mr roT said...: I meant "wouldn't know" of course.; 9/02/2008 10:35 AM
Arelcao Akleos said...: You mean "would not know", JJ?

Anyway;
O'Neil argued "there's no evidence that microscopic black holes exist; there's no evidence that strangelets exist"

That's Planet Pepe science for you. Take a chemist to argue upon two entities not known to exist that the physicists are trying to transform us into a global strangelet which is yet also a black hole.

Gorebal and Soris are looking for a sufficiently Aristo science advisor, Le Pew, should periodic inundations not be your lifestyle of choice. You could play Lenard in their Reich with Vichy verve.; 9/02/2008 10:36 AM
Arelcao Akleos said...: Oh, ok, just saw your emendation above; 9/02/2008 10:37 AM
Pepe le Pew said...: jj i am not arguing for the validity of the concern.; 9/02/2008 12:07 PM
Mr roT said...: Sorry I didn't (and still don't) understand, Pepe.; 9/02/2008 2:08 PM
Pepe le Pew said...: The concern about the damn thing swallowing the earth might be stupid, but not because the same concern about the a-bomb the last time around was.; 9/02/2008 6:21 PM
Mr roT said...: OK, I'll never understand you on this. jj i am not arguing for the validity of the concern. sounds like you don't believe this is dangerous.; 9/02/2008 8:56 PM
Pepe le Pew said...: right i don't, or really I have no clue. But it's not because of the a-bomb not destroying the planet.; 9/03/2008 10:40 AM

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