Down the Rabbit Hole

They’re getting ready to crank up the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) again next month following more than a year of repairs after the 4.5 billion dollar science experiment popped a cork less than a month after beginning operation in September of last year (for more on the topic see http://toomuchfuzzylogic.blogspot.com/2009/04/boson-buddies.html). Scientists from around the world are waiting anxiously 570 feet below the Swiss countryside for the resumption of atom smashing so that they can resolve their petty academic disputes over things like the origin and fate of the Universe and the fundamental composition of everything in our world.

There has been a great deal of less-than-scientific hysteria over the potentially disastrous consequences of ramming protons into each other at nearly the speed of light, with dire predictions of world-swallowing black holes and Star Trek like rips in the fabric of space-time which would presumably let something unpleasant in or something important out, but all reputable physicists (who get paid to discover stuff that can destroy the world) agree that the probability of widespread destruction is relatively small. There is still litigation pending in various jurisdictions throughout the world over the alleged safety concerns of the LHC, but anyone waiting for the planet’s various legal systems to save the Earth from destruction has probably never actually been in a courtroom.

Most of you (both of you?) reading this know that I am a big fan of science and a firm believer that humanity’s destiny does not involve sitting here in ignorance waiting for the Universe to find some creative way to obliterate us. Our fate, whatever it may be, rests in our understanding of the basis of reality and the ability to protect ourselves against the randomness of life, whether it be amoebas or asteroids. There are others who very reasonably point out that we are ourselves rather unreliable and that the power of advanced knowledge may be misused to our detriment. They point to things like atom bombs, nerve gas and Facebook as examples of how technology run amuck can destroy civilization, or even lead to our extinction.

These are certainly valid fears and our track record as a species does make one wonder if experiments like the LHC are really advisable, but for those worried about letting the Genie out of the bottle, I would argue that the Genie escaped the moment humanity attained sentience and any idea that we can be anything but curious to the point of recklessness simply denies our history and the substance of what we are. Scientific inquiry is inevitable, but fortunately literally the smartest people in the world are down in that tunnel near Geneva and they know that they can’t be praised by our progeny for centuries to come if they allow the Earth to be sucked into a closed, time-like curve, never to be seen again.

Of course, it has never been the scientists that we have had to worry about; it has been the politicians, corporations, deranged fanatics and ignorant masses that have taken scientific discovery and done really stupid things with it. Knowledge is like a stick; you can use it as a tool, burn it for warmth or whack a fellow human in the head with it, but it has no practical or moral context until we chose to employ it. Humanity will not be destroyed by scientific inquiry, but only by the ubiquitous threat of human failure. To paraphrase a great American, we have nothing to fear but us ourselves.