The end of the world, or a chance to meet old friends?
Sep 8th, 2008 by handolio
Unless you’ve been beyond the event horizon of late, you’ll know that on Wednesday this week the Swiss will be flicking the on switch on the Large Hadron Collider, with a small chance that they’ll precipitate the formation of a black hole that will snuff us all out of existence.
I’m optimistic. I read a short story once about a sophisticated yet fallible race that nuked themselves in a big war. It documented the agonising journey of a dying survivor as he instinctively dragged himself to the sea; the symbolism being that he was giving his body to the possibility of renewed life. It ended with him expiring as he looked up at the stars, which were “yet to form themselves into the familiar constellations” or something like that.
Anyway, the point is we bounced back from that one, so we’ll be alright this time. In the meantime I’ll finally get to visit Nick in Australia. In fact, I’ll be able to revisit all my old friends and renew my acquaintance with anywhere I’ve ever been, all without leaving the flat. All at the same instant.
Anyone properly worried about the LHC has a bit longer to sweat it out, anyway. It won’t be operating at its highest energy levels until some time after its official 21 October opening - you could go for a late summer break in the sun.
Or wait another couple of weeks for it to come to you.
Now that’s what I call ambient intimacy… Great post.
Cheers Antony.
The BBC has an article about mankind’s fascination with the end of the world. Love this from their boxout:
“Cern says any black holes will evaporate quickly and harmlessly”
This BBC article does a pretty good job of explaining what the LHC is actually going to do.
A couple of cool LHC webcams.
we are all going to die have fun see u up there