Comments on: Why the LHC won’t destroy the Earth (still) https://lifeboat.com/blog/2011/09/why-the-lhc-wont-destroy-the-earth-still Safeguarding Humanity Tue, 04 Oct 2011 11:20:20 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.1 By: Steve Nerlich https://lifeboat.com/blog/2011/09/why-the-lhc-wont-destroy-the-earth-still#comment-92357 Tue, 04 Oct 2011 11:20:20 +0000 http://lifeboat.com/blog/?p=2120#comment-92357 Hi Otto,

Sorry I wasn’t getting the usual email prompts that this comment trail was continuing — and sorry to Robert, Mike and Anthony similarly.

I think I went into considerable detail as to why microscopic black holes are implausible in the article that started all this. http://www.universetoday.com/88480/astronomy-without-a-teles…the-earth/

Nonetheless, I will aim to write some more on this issue in the future. I appreciate your interest in my views.

Regards,

Steve

]]> By: Otto E. Rössler https://lifeboat.com/blog/2011/09/why-the-lhc-wont-destroy-the-earth-still#comment-92352 Tue, 04 Oct 2011 10:11:50 +0000 http://lifeboat.com/blog/?p=2120#comment-92352 Dear Steve:

You did not respond to my response. Your challenge, if I am right, goes in the direction that you do not think it “probable” that my results will stay.

I totally share this hope with you. But it gives me- unlike you — little comfort since even if you give me but 30 percent of being right, the 3 percent panbiocide probability that I found still remain 1 percent — and hence way too much to be tolearble. Right?

Or are you sure with a probability of more than 99 percent that I am wrong? In that case I would be maximally interested in your proof. For this is my dearest hope for 4 years.

Or did I misunderstand something regarding your position?

Allow me to say that I admire and share your astro enthusiasm.

Take care,
Otto

]]> By: Anthony L https://lifeboat.com/blog/2011/09/why-the-lhc-wont-destroy-the-earth-still#comment-90685 Sat, 10 Sep 2011 17:59:17 +0000 http://lifeboat.com/blog/?p=2120#comment-90685 Max whatsis name the subatomic theorist in the 20s

Planck sorry

Maybe Ernst said it too — about art…

]]> By: PassingByAgain https://lifeboat.com/blog/2011/09/why-the-lhc-wont-destroy-the-earth-still#comment-90648 Sat, 10 Sep 2011 10:36:55 +0000 http://lifeboat.com/blog/?p=2120#comment-90648 Max Ernst???

]]> By: Anthony L https://lifeboat.com/blog/2011/09/why-the-lhc-wont-destroy-the-earth-still#comment-90613 Sat, 10 Sep 2011 02:56:26 +0000 http://lifeboat.com/blog/?p=2120#comment-90613 Sorry, what IS probably Martin Rees’s…etc human RACE not human face.

Though saving face is what the old men are primarily concerned with.

]]> By: Anthony L https://lifeboat.com/blog/2011/09/why-the-lhc-wont-destroy-the-earth-still#comment-90612 Sat, 10 Sep 2011 02:54:13 +0000 http://lifeboat.com/blog/?p=2120#comment-90612 In what way is that prediction an answer to my posts? It is a valuable quote of what it probably Martin Rees’s thinking when he isn’t being a spineless coward unwilling to stand up for his own theoretical understanding, just because it would get him in bad odor with the great unthinking herd of fellow physicists and members of the Royal Society, fawning ignorant journalists, etc

This is not a good example to set for the young. The good example is to stand up for your ideas however misunderstood they might be and fight for them and for the future of the human face, if that is what is involved in your conclusions, as the very courageous and determined Professor Rossler does.

The good Professor of Tubingen is a very brave man who sets a fine example for all young scientists, including all those who will win the Nobel in the future, after the old men in charge have finished trying to sit on them and their revolutionary theories, having grown old and even departed from this Earth.

As Max Ernst said, science proceed funeral by funeral.

]]> By: Robert Houston https://lifeboat.com/blog/2011/09/why-the-lhc-wont-destroy-the-earth-still#comment-90520 Fri, 09 Sep 2011 04:38:50 +0000 http://lifeboat.com/blog/?p=2120#comment-90520 In answer to Anthony, Steve, and Samuel, I will repeat the final one-line verdict of astrophysicist Martin Rees on the collider strangelet scenario. This is from from his 2003 book, which he has never renounced, and which was written at the peak of his intellectual powers and of his dedication to the welfare of humanity, not just the scientists:

“We cannot be absolutely sure that strangelets couldn’t lead to a runaway disaster.” (Our Final Hour, p. 125)

]]> By: Anthony L https://lifeboat.com/blog/2011/09/why-the-lhc-wont-destroy-the-earth-still#comment-90509 Fri, 09 Sep 2011 01:17:47 +0000 http://lifeboat.com/blog/?p=2120#comment-90509 A quotation from Samuel Johnson:

“Time obliterates the fictions of opinion, and confirms the decisions of nature.

Johnson, Samuel (2004–03-01). The Works of Samuel Johnson, Volume 03 The Rambler, Volume II

]]> By: Anthony L https://lifeboat.com/blog/2011/09/why-the-lhc-wont-destroy-the-earth-still#comment-90503 Thu, 08 Sep 2011 23:13:22 +0000 http://lifeboat.com/blog/?p=2120#comment-90503 Robert, my own jolly confidence that both sides are generating a lot of intellectualized wool spinning when they theorize (backed up by CERN’s increasing pessimism that the Higgs boson is not going to pop up at the LHC) is certainly no reason for more responsible people such as yourself not to insist on outside review of a huge organization in charge of the world’s largest and most far out machine exploring levels of existence never before artificially reproduced and only dimly understood by all concerned, an organization which despite being publicly funded actively tries to evade review by misinforming the public.

My brainless What Me Worry Alfred E Neuman optimism is generated by lack of personal responsibility for the fate of the planet combined with a profound skepticism that science has yet achieved any useful understanding of these vast deeps of existence and is allied to the usual superficial knowledge of the matter acquired by reading current texts on the subject, which I have no doubt will be replaced by more informed and reliable ones as time wears on, probably well beyond my own remaining years.

But the history of science tells us that understanding will be improved and the grounds for further experimentation will be firmer for that reason. The decision as to whether to wait or proceed should be taken by responsible outsiders and not by journalists even if they are relatively well read, but by people who are well informed on the present and the potential future of understanding this realm, and have no emotional investment in saying The hell with it let’s see what happens!, as do all the physicists involved.

Unfortunately the naive public assume that whiz kid physicists have sufficient maturity and breadth of thinking that they will take the Earth into consideration in their plans, but as yet there is no indication of this. Far more influential is the group confidence induced by the self interest of the system they belong to, which dictates they have even greater thoughtless jolly optimism that even I so witlessly feel.

For one person to sing Tra la la as we approach the abyss is not immoral, but for a huge army of specialists to do the same is very much so. But then, when have any organizations in modern human society past a certain size ever demonstrated a regard for public safety and benefit which trumps the selfish concerns of each member multiplied by the total number seeking to keep their jobs?

]]> By: Otto E. Rossler https://lifeboat.com/blog/2011/09/why-the-lhc-wont-destroy-the-earth-still#comment-90383 Wed, 07 Sep 2011 10:27:49 +0000 http://lifeboat.com/blog/?p=2120#comment-90383 Thank you, dear Mike. May I sign with Otto?

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