Comment Re:Lots of speculation. (Score 1) 314
"Likewise the formation and evaporation of micro-black-holes is not very well theorised" and from the other poster "what if in reality it's going to grow exponentially"
* Also what happens if two or more black holes are created that can then collide with each other?
* Can one black hole like particle influence the decay of another black hole particle?.
* Could 3 or 4 acting together grow exponentially more easily than one on its own?
* Also how would micro-black-hole particle groups behave in other collisions with other non-black holes like particles?
We have current theories that tell us what to expect, but we won't know for sure until we try it. But is it even to dangerous to try it?
Also its extremely unlikely for multiple black hole like particles to (almost) ever collide in space or in a planet or in its upper atmosphere, but due to the grouping of collisions in the LHC its very possible and it certainly cannot be ruled out or even prevented. Therefore we cannot use the single collision in the upper atmosphere idea as a guide to assume multiple collisions are safe.
Ultimately scientific discovery is a process of trial and error. We think we know what we are doing and our theories work very well so we really do think we know precisely what we are doing, but ultimately for us to make any discovery, it can result in showing us something we didn't expect. So there is an element of trial and error leading to a discovery. (Its partly what makes it so interesting).
The process of discovery is vital to science to find more evidence to support or disprove our current theories, but the almost unique problem we are faced with the LHC and the possibility of creating black hole like particles, is that for the first time, the process of discovery of finding something bad has potentially globally horrific results.
It comes down to a problem of deciding the risk/reward ratio of doing any experiment. It would be nice to say with almost all experiments in the history of science, there have never been any global scale hazardous repercussions to consider of them going wrong, (although thats obviously not entirely true). But in the case of the LHC the almost unique risks are on such a huge scale, we have almost never encountered anything like this before, so its very hard to imagine and easy to dismiss, as its way beyond the norm of what we usually have to consider.
I don't have answers, just ever more questions. But I very much think its a very important philosophical question we are all faced with. Is there ever going to be an experiment that is too dangerous for us all to try and will we even know before we attempt to try it?
Also with such huge prizes of world glory of Nobel prizes (and so on) combined with the ever present endless fascination of whats possible and seeking that new discovery, I very much suspect there will always be some people who want to push and gamble for such huge prizes whatever the potential risks. But then almost no one in science really wants to hold back discoveries. (We are like a bunch of discovery junkies, always wanting that next fix of another discovery). But then who will say no, its too dangerous around so many of us who want to say yes, go for it?
* Also what happens if two or more black holes are created that can then collide with each other?
* Can one black hole like particle influence the decay of another black hole particle?.
* Could 3 or 4 acting together grow exponentially more easily than one on its own?
* Also how would micro-black-hole particle groups behave in other collisions with other non-black holes like particles?
We have current theories that tell us what to expect, but we won't know for sure until we try it. But is it even to dangerous to try it?
Also its extremely unlikely for multiple black hole like particles to (almost) ever collide in space or in a planet or in its upper atmosphere, but due to the grouping of collisions in the LHC its very possible and it certainly cannot be ruled out or even prevented. Therefore we cannot use the single collision in the upper atmosphere idea as a guide to assume multiple collisions are safe.
Ultimately scientific discovery is a process of trial and error. We think we know what we are doing and our theories work very well so we really do think we know precisely what we are doing, but ultimately for us to make any discovery, it can result in showing us something we didn't expect. So there is an element of trial and error leading to a discovery. (Its partly what makes it so interesting).
The process of discovery is vital to science to find more evidence to support or disprove our current theories, but the almost unique problem we are faced with the LHC and the possibility of creating black hole like particles, is that for the first time, the process of discovery of finding something bad has potentially globally horrific results.
It comes down to a problem of deciding the risk/reward ratio of doing any experiment. It would be nice to say with almost all experiments in the history of science, there have never been any global scale hazardous repercussions to consider of them going wrong, (although thats obviously not entirely true). But in the case of the LHC the almost unique risks are on such a huge scale, we have almost never encountered anything like this before, so its very hard to imagine and easy to dismiss, as its way beyond the norm of what we usually have to consider.
I don't have answers, just ever more questions. But I very much think its a very important philosophical question we are all faced with. Is there ever going to be an experiment that is too dangerous for us all to try and will we even know before we attempt to try it?
Also with such huge prizes of world glory of Nobel prizes (and so on) combined with the ever present endless fascination of whats possible and seeking that new discovery, I very much suspect there will always be some people who want to push and gamble for such huge prizes whatever the potential risks. But then almost no one in science really wants to hold back discoveries. (We are like a bunch of discovery junkies, always wanting that next fix of another discovery). But then who will say no, its too dangerous around so many of us who want to say yes, go for it?