I know what's causing the uneasiness: The start up date — Sept. 10th. The 7th anniversary of 9/11 is the next day. Numerologists unite!

Well, things are already so far behind schedule – they've been 'scheduled' to start up for a couple of years, I don't expect the new date to go off without a hitch. They kept taking delivery of shoddy parts – you just can't build one of these machines on the cheap, you'd think they would have learned that long ago…

The prospect of micro/mini holes is exciting for the possibility of exploring M-theory, which would unite the five strongest string/superstring theories as differing topological aspects of a multi-dimensional "membrane" in which all realities of lesser dimensionality are embedded. Including our 4-D reality. CERN has a nice article about Lisa Randall's ideas in its July Courier.

Actually, believing that we can somehow manage to obliterate our entire sub-reality is pretty arrogant, even if the probability does appear in the equations. A more interesting question is whether a universal phase change somehow eliminates the dimensions as well. Is there distance, relativity of movement and time in a universe that is completely stable? Could it be that our experiential dimensions of length, breadth, volume and time (measured as distance at c) are mere effects of material instability and not separately existent at all?

…and would that mean that further dimensionalities we might discover by studying micro/mini holes are also mere effects of what inhabits the landscape? We instinctually believe that the universe – these dimensions of spacetime in which matter and energy interact – exists in some more fundamental way than do the transitory forms that inhabit it. Our instinct could be wrong. We evolved here, react to our instincts without thought. Our consciousness brought us to this door, and if Penrose is right exists beyond the door as well.

If everything we know goes away when the door gets opened, it might just be a metamorphosis of sorts. We've been knocking for awhile now, even though it's just a few humans doing that knocking. If LHC gets the response it's looking for, we can be pretty confident whoever/whatever exists on the other side knows we're coming. §;o)

For someone who isn't worried, you're instilling some fear in me.

LOL!!! Don't Panic, Bilbo. While those naked holes aren't very pretty, it would not be the first time one has shown up in these environs. They don't last long, even when they're a lot bigger than any that the LHC could ever create. So they're not likely to swallow the earth, they're not likely to change very many people's timeline, and they're not likely to turn any of the target-tenders into toddlers (or mummies).

All any of us have here is a leasehold. When it's over it's over, it doesn't matter if we get to die in our own time, or someone decides our time for us all at once (something I came to terms with during the Cuban Missile Crisis). Even if we were very careful, we're still living on a cosmic billiard table. The only human question that would sadly go extinct if we go extinct is "where does evolution go from here?", and that's not all that interesting a question anyway. When there's nobody home, nobody cares.

Joy: The mini-micro holes are far more interesting, particularly in light of parsing from Tevatron that suggests a twin system was created. I can't wait for one of those beasties to show up naked, I suspect the whippersnappers will finally learn something useful. About time, that is.

Wish I understood what you were talking about. It sounds like those naked beasties aren't very pretty. For someone who isn't worried, you're instilling some fear in me.

Have there been any calculations on the probability of any of the worst scenarios occurring?

The original concerns were raised by theorists on a "non-zero" possibility that something like a strangelet could assemble from a quark-gluon plasma. Strangelets can't exist in our universe (these dimensions), because our universe is dynamically 'unstable'. A particle of all-strange quarks would (theoretically) be completely stable. The concern was that if it were to manifest in these dimensions, it would cause a universal phase change to all-stable matter. Stability cannot support life.

So I'm sure the "non-zero" probability was calculated (but I don't have it, you'd have to go looking for what was submitted at Brookhaven), and dismissed because it was so improbable. Which of course really doesn't mean much on the sub-sub atomic level of things, since it doesn't work like a lottery.

I'm not worried. If they do it and "the worst" happens, we'd never know it, never see it coming. Who would be left to care? The mini-micro holes are far more interesting, particularly in light of parsing from Tevatron that suggests a twin system was created. I can't wait for one of those beasties to show up naked, I suspect the whippersnappers will finally learn something useful. About time, that is.

Have there been any calculations on the probability of any of the worst scenarios occurring?

You brought up the issues of scary technology and a Great Depression-it just made me think of Great Uncle Johnny.

This thread just reminded me of him.

In what way, Aag? Are you saying the existence of the LHC means you should put your money in freezer bags? That smashing protons together at ~14 TeV is going to infect PCs the world over with a virus? That concerns raised by theoretical physicists in regards to what might be created means Great Depression v 2.0 is here?

Sorry, but the tin foil of your hat is messing with my ability to read your mind. §;o)

My wife had a great uncle who was sure there was going to be another Great Depression and all the banks would fail. He kept his life savings in cash hidden in his house-it was, of course, all stolen. He also wouldn't allow a computer in the house because he didn't want to catch a virus from it. This thread just reminded me of him.

…alter the false vacuum state and/or otherwise bring an immediate end to all things….

I hate it when that happens.