In a few weeks, somewhere in Europe, scientists will fire up the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. I am not well versed in their theory, so must apologise if my attempt to describe this complex area is imprecise in any way. However, I am concerned that they may well destroy everything - life, the universe, the whole kit and kaboodle, in their search to understand more about the origins of life. Essentially they may kill that which they seek to unveil.
The plan is to collide particles at super high speed so that they reveal something about the origin of the universe. Well, however lacking the term is, we now understand our world to have originated in a 'big bang', so perhaps we ought to pause before recreating it? Not according to the experts, who claim that the odds of a disaster are ''one million to one''. That would be reassuring, but let's consider that 'disaster', in their terms, does not mean just that I will die, or that you will, but that all life we know will be destroyed ,indeed erased forever. If history has spawned monsters comfortable in killing thousands or millions of their fellows in pursuit of a cause then how much more evil are those prepared to wager everything in pursuit of knowledge?
Moreover, their trial in November 'failed', but they are desperate to crack on with experiment, so will begin in earnest on plan in a few weeks - all dissenting scientific voices have been silenced as 'doom-sayers'.
Why do we seek this knowledge anyway? What will we gain? Why does it matter if we know more about the elusive Higgs Boson particle? Or rather, does it matter sufficiently to gambles life entirely?
We are likely to create black holes - but the optimists say that they will be tiny and expect that they 'will not grow', citing that fact that they have not created any truly dangerous ones yet because their machines have not been powerful enough. Now they have a more powerful machine, at their own request, but fail to join their previous failure to destroy life, underpowered machines, with their new toys - overpowered machines.
It may be facile to quote popular literature, but a character in 'Jurassic Park' opined "Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should." Perhaps we should pause and re-consider before the engines fire up?
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3 comments:
Unfortunately, WE can pause and reconsider all we want, but the fools will continue their games of Russian Roulette all the while.
--Louise
have you not considered that the creation of a black hole whether intended or not may create a shift in time dimensions possibly catapulting us into new understanding of our own beings or even allowing time travel to our past or future or other worlds. If mankind is to live its dreams surely this is just the kind of forward thinking research however risky that we must undertake. The unfortunate possible loss of all that mankind has known seems a small price to pay for such infinite possibilities. Let us not worry about remote chances but rather boldly roll the dice of fate.
McIntosh, my old pal,
You draw everything together in your remark 'if mankind is to live its dreams' (although I suspect your tongue was in the general area of your cheek). I feel CERN is a logical conclusion of the sort of industrial, optimistic atheism which arose from the Western Enlightenment. Essentially, we desire 'progress' and yet (bereft of a personal perception of the divine) only conceive of progress in economic terms. Such a desire involves, indeed, requires ever faster acceleration (I believe) towards our doom. The dice of fate are not ours to roll. We both have a concern to those who will follow - can we, or should we, relieve them of life?
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