The End of The World

[ArenaBoy]

You know, before we even consider the thought of colonizing other planets; we need to clean our shit up here. There's a certain Calvin and Hobbes comic that stated that well.

[MMATM]

You might have a point if they intended to fire the collider once then dismantle it. But each particle they fire through it is 1 play. How many particles per second can it fire?

I believe the "1 in 50 million" odds were quoted to represent the chance of the first firing causing the end of the world. Every subsequent firing would have the same or approximately the same outcome. So if the first firing doesn't cause the world to end, then neither will the second, third, fourth, or nth firing.

It's like playing the lottery with the same number every day, and once the winning number has been chosen on day 1 it will always be the same winning number every day for the rest of time. So if you win (or blow up the world, as the case may be) the first time, you'll win forever (or be dead) but if you lose the first time (no 'splodey) then you will lose (or not die in horrible quantum death) forever.

[rahmota]

This doesnt scare me in the slightest. Like MMATM said the odds are for the first time the flip the switch not each and everytime they do it. So if the first time they run the beast we all die in a momentary flicker of quantum reversing then oh well. I read somewhere there are similar odds that according to quantum math that all the atoms in your body could phase out at the same time anyhow.

Not to mention I'm more worried about the odds of me getting from one side of the street to the other without getting run over by the nut job in the lexus, I'm more interested in the odds of that boeing goign over loosing a wing or something. I'm a lot more concerned about a lot more immediately deadly thigns than to worry about some theoretical potential death.

I mean I read that some of the scientists that worked on the first atomic bomb where a bit concerned that when they set it off they where goign to set fire to the atmosphere and kill us all as there was a slight chance of it. But it didnt set fire to the earth, the old sovun Tsar bomba 50 megaton blast didnt do it. So worrying about this is not on my day planner lets just say.

Besides which there are a lot more probable TEOTWAWKI causes available to be scared of. Some of them human made too.

Whats even more interesting is that how would we know if something like that did occur? Would we get blown into another universe or quantum state where the only difference was the result of a coin flip was the opposite of what it would have been in the old universe? Just thinking you know.