Is the Large Hadron Collider being sabotaged from the future?

// added October 15, 2009 // 145 comments //
Image...
Vierotchka
What if all the Large Hadron Collider's recent woes are more than bad luck and technical problems? Two noted physicists speculate that the future may be pushing back on the LHC to avert the disaster of observing the Higgs boson.

The quest to observe the Higgs boson has certainly been plagued by its share of troubles, from the cancellation of the Superconducting Supercollider in 1993 to the Large Hadron Collider's streak of technical troubles. In fact, the projects have suffered such bad luck that Holger Bech Nielsen of the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen and Masao Ninomiya of the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics in Kyoto wonder if it isn't bad luck at all, but future influences rippling back to sabotage them. In papers like "Test of Effect From Future in Large Hadron Collider: a Proposal" and "Search for Future Influence From LHC," they put forth the notion that observing the Higgs boson would be such an abhorrent event that the future is actually trying to prevent it from happening.

(more at link)
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145 comments // Is the Large Hadron Collider being sabotaged from the future?

  • Gravity_Man
  • PressCore
    • 0
      PressCore  
    • Wow. Vierotchka, that premis sounds like something out of Star Trek Enterprise. But after watching the Science channel's 4 part series documentary on Time ( Lifetime, Daytime, Earth time, Cosmic time)which Dr.Michio Kaku narrated, I'm not so sure it's so far fetched at all. On my part, I believe in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's theory of proof. He explained it through his alter ego Serlock Holmes. Paraphrased it goes something like: In discovering the truth to solve a mystery, when you have eliminated all other theories previously considered plausable that didn't account for all the elements in a case, then whatever theory remains which does account for all the elements, however implausable it might seem, must be the truth which solves it. Ok Jerry, put some more apple peals in the flux capacitor so we can rev the DeLorean up to 84 mph, cause we're going back to the future !

    • 5 months ago
  • JuliusBC
    • 0
      JuliusBC  
    • "No good wine is served before it's time," perhaps applies here. Based on our inability to take care of what we already have, maybe some things are not yet meant to be. The Hadron Collider may very well fall into this category due to what it could bring based on its success.

    • 5 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • No, Tikbalang, actually what happened was they came back and changed the Future so other timelines would be spun off that live. We are still on schedule to die 12-21-2012. Sorry. Next!

      Oh, while you're waiting to die you might find this suitable reading => http://tinyurl.com/SpecialYears2012

      ** We who are about to die salute you!

    • 5 months ago
  • Tikbalang
    • 0
      Tikbalang  
    • But if the Hadron was successful in changing the past then there would have been no need to send someone back to change the past.
      So if no one was sent back to change the past, then ...
      Round and round we go.
      Time travel. Impossible.

    • 5 months ago
  • Vierotchka
  • PressCore
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • Tikbalang:

      What's the link PressCore man uh person? Einstein is dying from his own conclusions, trapped by his own statement => his "awareness" made a bomb, but he wanted peaceful energy that he couldn't figure out because of his "pre-existing awareness".

      He must have been greatly saddened by his realization.

      I was not shackled by carrying his awareness so I did design the peaceful energy he could not. It has been online for 4 years this coming November 10. Interestingly PressCore, I could add a little trick the exact opposite of what made the atom bomb work and my energy-producing "dry waterwheel" & "circular railgun" system will produce an anti-gravity (gravity overcoming actually) upward force.

      So when the industrialists and whoever else is involved decided to stop my engine they also stop their own entry into real fast space travel. Checkmate.

    • 5 months ago
  • PressCore
    • 0
      PressCore  
    • Tikbalang:

      @ Gravityman. I'm a man. One of Einstein's quotes that I've blogged explains his great sadness that his scientific discoveries were first used for destructive purposes. A man named Alfred Nobel expressed the same remorse when his invention of dynamite was also used for military purposes. Which is why he created the Nobel Peace Prize out of his financial gain. Both Nobel and Einstein were very advanced, ethical men of Peace. All the Einstein quotes I've blogged are consistent with that inoffensive purpose. Einstein mentioned he'd rather have his hands burned
      rather than to have contributed to the A bomb, and added he'd preferred to have become a watch maker instead. His idea that a problem can't be solved with the same level of awareness that created it stems from
      the notion that one's vision is enabled by mental brightness. In 0 light noone can progress safely very far or fast.That's all. It implies also that he realized his
      intelligence level was limited by the light his brain generated. And that it would take a much higher IQ than his to fathom and correct the problems caused by the less intelligent, including even him. As for your reference to chess, it's off base. I've been a student of Journalism since there were wheat ears on Lincoln cents. Following a man as enlightened as Albert Einstein has taught me to be open minded. From open mindedness you get continuous renewal, not endgame.

    • 5 months ago
  • Vierotchka
    • 0
      Vierotchka  
    • Image...
    • “Possiblility” of Time Travel Now Supported by Stephen Hawking, and Supported by Einstein’s Calculations

      Because of new work done by theoretical physicists during the past five years, Steven Hawking (among others)–a previous skeptic of the possibility of time travel–now views it as “theoretically possible.”

      According to Michio Kaku, specialist in Superstring Theory, Einstein wrote in his memoirs that he was disturbed by the fact that his own equations allowed for time travel. Then, in 1963, Roy Kerr, a New Zealand mathemetician, found an interesting new solution to Einstein’s equations that showed a black hole not collapsing entirely under gravity, but instead, collapsing down to a spinning ring held open by centrifugal force. These wormholes apparently connect to both different regions of space and time, and would permit someone to pass through the ring into an alternate universe. So these holes could be used as time machines.

      Right now there are two major problems preventing us from using these wormholes. Firstly, Michio Kaku says a time machine needs to have “fabulous amounts” of energy. It would have to harness the energy of a star, or its equivalent. Secondly, mathematicians and string theorists are as yet unable to determine the stability of wormholes, because we don’t know if they might fall apart before the traveler finished passing through them.

      Read the PBS interview with Michio Kaku, Professor of Theoretical Physics, and specialist in Superstring Theory, at the City University of New York, which contains short and clear explanations aimed at the layperson:

      http://www.pbs.org/wnet/hawking/mysteries/html/kaku1-1.html

    • 5 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • That's why you don't want to mess with us, and also a good reason not to refer to us as "you people". Some here get really upset when they hear that, and sometimes, there is talk of war.

      And that was how they were BEFORE the asteroid went whizzing by last night about hmm, 20.25 hours ago to be precise, traveling at a knuckle-breaking speed over 18,000 mph. And they really hate it when the nun smacks their knuckles, boy do they get ticked off.

    • 5 months ago
  • Malekkai
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • Your title must not have evoked a question in people's mind... because it comes right out and tells "the particle traveled through Time" so people seeing it must've felt like there wasn't any room for discussion left it had already been decided, so they kept moving through time to the next article.

      Also, your picture was on the straight horizontal and lacked the definition & colors this post had. Several of my first attempts at posts also failed to evoke discussion. I guess the title ~being in the form of a question~ has to be oops the Decider, followed by second contact, the picture. Bing, Bang, Boom or No Boom, you chose to use "Time Travel" which is somewhat overworked already to a point most people have already decided it's either possible or impossible this article opened the subject with a different angle of attack sabotage from the Future. Very effective.

      So effective in fact that while we were all here commenting no one noticed a rogue asteroid whizzed past Earth yesterday 10/16 coming inside the Moon's orbit, an extremely NEAR HIT TO PLANET DIRT the crack NASA Team only saw coming THURSDAY, too late to warn anybody they were about to die.

      The same crack NASA team that fizzled a Moon impact plume stated it would miss us => http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33346941/ns/technology_and_science-space/

      inside the Moon's orbit, an extremely NEAR HIT TO PLANET DIRT.
      inside the Moon's orbit, an extremely NEAR HIT TO PLANET DIRT.
      inside the Moon's orbit, an extremely NEAR HIT TO PLANET DIRT.

      Thursday, one day's notice. While we were all tooling merrily along in our Internet au to mo beel. Beep beep, beep beep, the car went beep beep beep. hehehehehe

    • 5 months ago
  • EmperorThan
  • CiiMONSTR
  • remanns
    • 0
      remanns  
    • "The saladin- bbar Show" ---(whew)----that'l make ya keep your day job!

      (-----personally,...I just thin that these H.Collider physicist guys have a sense of humor,.....and when harassed about results,.....well,...they resort to it. HEY, ...tis the Halloween season,.......................)!

    • 5 months ago
  • Mr_Ben
    • 0
      Mr_Ben  
    • 126 comments!!! This story has certainly sparked a great debate. It reminds of that old joke How many Colliders does it take to find a Higgs Boson?

    • 5 months ago
  • royulery
    • 0
      royulery  
    • all it would take to knock out this juggernat is for someone to sneeze the next valley over.

      i'm trying to remember a scifi series about 6+ years ago about a giant insect ship and a real y gal named zeb. the show has the ship come to earth and a robot head describes earth as being in a industrial phase that most planets don't survive because they try to find the weight of the higgs-bozon and are destroyed in the process. yea i remembered all that but not the name of the show.

    • 5 months ago
  • hammywill
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • royulery:

      The Lexx had a dead guy who was living, and he wasn't
      too big on "petty bureaucrats". Lots of comedy and
      great music. The redhead had lips to die for.
      That crazy show probably ran into a boson & imploded then exploded and disintegrated.

    • 5 months ago
  • royulery
    • 0
      royulery  
    • saladin, bbar i learned a lot thanks. i'm glad i wasn't here for the shoot out, 'cause i wouldv'e joined in and made myself the fool. i thought i knew logic. i bow to my betters.

    • 5 months ago
  • hunzedog
  • lionchild
    • 0
      lionchild  
    • Whoa.. well I think there I'd more to it then the "future making inffluences" but in the world of science, I guess anything is possible :p

    • 5 months ago
  • Ragan
    • 0
      Ragan  
    • What ever the outcome is, the future is another frontiier that must be investigated and without the help of an ignorant religious public. Of course some scientists are willing to stir up skeptism and problems to cover up their inability to pewrceive or search for necessary answers. Even some biologists disbelieve the Darwin Theory of evolution when it is so obvious. Vicious animals are making it difficult for our species to change or morph from monkeys to interlligent humans. The earth is faced with myriad of problems; Earthquakes, Volcano's, Hurricanes, Tornado's, Tsunami's, forrest fires, floods, asteroids from outer space, war, humans killing each other. It is a chance we strive to overlook every day to stay alive. Thesse are not on our minds but they should be and science it trying to become informed so that people may rest easy and enjoy whatever is left on this earth. The future is there to be explored, so stop misusing it.

    • 5 months ago
  • zoloftkid
    • 0
      zoloftkid  
    • This is some of the most speculative stupidity that has ever been referred to as science. and really? News? Yea, this and that stupid MRI music. And, OMG, look pot has been found to, like, help some disease. This and most of the things that pass for science and news on this site are incredibly disappointing. FoxNews is a better source of information.

    • 5 months ago
  • JulianCommongold
  • SeasickPirate
    • 0
      SeasickPirate  
    • No one knows what will happen – even the simple scientists studying this!

      It's like in the 1950's when NASA was ready to send man to the moon, but didn't know just what we would find. What did they do? They sent the dog Kojak first with video taped messages from earth stating our purpose a claiming peace. That way if space creatures felt threatened and had ray guns, science was only sacrificing one dog's life instead of a crew of humans and possible mankind itself.

    • 5 months ago
  • larrysnotes
  • asherp
    • 0
      asherp  
    • This idea that the chances are low that there would be a a super-semetric partner to the higgs boson created is stupid.

      There is simply no way to quantify that data. We have no clue what the risks actually are, because we've never done anything like this before.

      What is comes down to is that scientists REALLY WANT to do this, and others think it's a bad idea.

    • 5 months ago
  • jac1992
    • 0
      jac1992  
    • Yes!Time travel! Its the only logical conclusion. It cant be faulty workmanship, or human error, it has to be time travel

    • 5 months ago
  • Agent_Alpha
    • 0
      Agent_Alpha  
    • Image...
    • I think we all know what happened, it was a Troubled Rebel Princess:
      "Authorities are shocked and baffled over the theft of a particle accelerator magnet."

    • 5 months ago
  • FishaHouse777
    • 0
      FishaHouse777  
    • Time does only travel in one direction, making time travel of the future impossible and travel to the past theoretically possible.
      BUT, that doesn't mean that it is or has happened and it also leaves a very big question unanswered. Why would future energies or people want to stop the collider, what is so devastating about it and if observing the Higgs boson is so terrible then why are we doing so? Curiosity killed the physicist per se?

    • 5 months ago
  • Vierotchka
  • Vierotchka
  • neonbunny
  • larrysnotes
  • eta
  • Maitereya
  • michail77
    • 0
      michail77  
    • Every time something about space exploration or science comes up people always say "What about the poor".

      Why waste our abilities to explore the universe of which we are all a part of?

      I don't mean to sound insensitive, but there will always be poor. We shouldn't let exploration and knowledge be held down by lower elements of society.

      If anything, knowledge and exploration can be the key to lift society and improve the world.

      There are plenty of people born poor that worked hard and have gone on to be scientists, engineers and astronauts.

      Who knows, perhaps a method of clean, renewable energy will be discovered. That's significantly more likely outcome than all this gloom and doom junk.

    • 5 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
  • MizPiz
    • 0
      MizPiz  
    • Their guess on the time paradoxes make no sense. How could altering the past in a negative light be any different than altering it in a positive one? And what kind of future is this? As far as I know there are only three ways that it can fall into:

      1) Back to the Future: You can go back in time and if you alter the past, it will change the future (be it greater than or equal to the change)

      2) Terminator: When you go back in time and change the past, it will not effect your future, but it will create an alternate future (which there are an infinite amount).

      3) Futurama: It is impossible to alter the past when you go back in time because you being there is part of the past.

    • 5 months ago
  • Elrick_The_Bass_Gnome
  • bbar
  • Elrick_The_Bass_Gnome
  • remanns
  • juanvsshark
  • Hunnter
    • 0
      Hunnter  
    • juanvsshark:

      Oh, it'll come at some point.

      Maybe even on-site shots too!
      That will certainly get LHC a lot of attention, even if it causes people to crap their pants.

      But still, i doubt The Bay will get a movie out by November... actually, maybe he will...

    • 5 months ago
  • thornman
  • Lewis_Steele
  • Gravity_Man
  • flyingkick
    • 0
      flyingkick  
    • Don't you think time travelers trying to save the future from destruction would do more than just create set-backs for the project?
      It would make more sense if they just flat out destroyed the device or at least made sure the project died, rather than just slowing it down.

    • 5 months ago
  • Hunnter
    • 0
      Hunnter  
    • flyingkick:

      Nobody sabotaged anything, the particles existence sent "shockwaves" back through time and done it, in theory.

      But if it were a person, destroying the thing outright wouldn't be a good idea either, someone would build a bigger one.
      Making them waste lots of money and time fixing mistakes will eventually frustrate them and cause them to stop, and potentially put off others in attempting to build one.
      If not, rinse and repeat and i doubt a 3rd attempt will be attempted.

    • 5 months ago
  • flyingkick
  • lookatmypix
    • 0
      lookatmypix  
    • What if on that day when the LHC failed in reality worked and created an astonishing discovery?
      Now they are only trying to sabotage it to hide this.

      How many of you think that if anything big like time travel or a portal to a new dimension would be discovered is actually going to be publicized?

    • 5 months ago
  • onechance
  • thewarnerla
  • lookatmypix
    • 0
      lookatmypix  
    • I am fascinated by this theory.
      It could be that they are not trying to avoid a massive explosion, instead they somehow do not want us to discover time travel or parallel and new dimensions.

      The irony would be that after all these attempts the day when this is actually going to work is December 21st 2012 :)

    • 5 months ago
  • Sam_the_Wizer
    • 0
      Sam_the_Wizer  
    • Perhaps the LHC is not going to recreate a state similar to the big bang, but is going to create THE big bang itself. Maybe the point when they turn it on is the time when the universe begins/began and time is just one big loop. It can't happen yet, because it already has happened, and it happens at a very specific point in time. Maybe everything that is happening has happened again and again back into forever.

    • 5 months ago
  • SeasickPirate
  • remanns
  • retro_Syl
  • TasteHi
  • Mr_Ben
    • 0
      Mr_Ben  
    • It's a particle accelerator trying to recreate conditions just after the big bang. My guess is it will solve some mysteries such as whether the Higgs Boson really exists only to unveil more, which will mean having to build a bigger one, just like last time.

    • 5 months ago
  • DEM46
  • Maitereya
    • 0
      Maitereya  
    • maybe if they observe the boson it will remain the way they observed it forever. like observing a particle or wave, it depends on the observer.

    • 5 months ago
  • remanns
  • sidewaysclyde
  • littleredmachine
  • royulery
    • 0
      royulery  
    • if it is resistance from the future, it is probably not intelligent. this could be part of the reaction to an impossible test that takes place in the far future and effects the past, long before the actual test occurs. in other words; the test can not take place because chance is effected by the test in the near future,to the past (our present), from the far future.
      fundamental laws are being challenged and the fabric of nature may be pushing back.

    • 5 months ago
  • escarondito
    • 0
      escarondito  
    • It's well known that I am not a religous man. However, besides human sabotage, what if this is god making sure that man does not harbor the same power of a god. Meaning, perhaps we have become so powerful as a race that in learning how the big bang happened, we fully realize dark mass and obtain the ability to create universes. And then some If we are created in god's image. perhaps god was merely humans from the past who created an LHC and learned how to create us? hahaha aponder on that bitches

    • 5 months ago
  • LozRiva
  • lookatmypix
  • LozRiva
  • remanns
    • 0
      remanns  
    • Since it would not be relevant to the subjective perceptual reality of those functioning in the "future" timeline,...what would be their motivation for action? This has always been the problematic issue with "future instigators and agents",...why would they care; some sort of abstract "at least we made things better somewhen else"?

    • 5 months ago
  • retro_Syl
  • ArtBarbour
    • 0
      ArtBarbour  
    • Has anyone ever tried to do a similar experiment? Isn't it a massive device? I mean, you have to figure there is going to be some hiccups along the way. The future intervening theory is extremely interesting though. I think it is somewhat plausible.

    • 5 months ago
  • Solarlife
    • 0
      Solarlife  
    • CERN siusse LHC collider, ...Internet
      here scientists developed the Internet, first in use by scientists, today for everyone.

      The LHC project is more a NASA moon landing program. No easy problem-solution gameboy philosophy.

      Get Thrilled, Big Bang or not, inside underground view
      of the LHC collider http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xKDrXCkVFw - 10.000 views

    • 5 months ago
  • NumLock
    • NumLock [removed]  
    • This comment is in violation of Current's Community Guidelines and has been removed.
  • crashbangnoises
  • boywhocould
  • bombastinator
  • tome_erau
    • 0
      tome_erau  
    • This is dumb. Just because hes a physicist doesnt make him immune to spouting bullshit. The fact that he didnt publish it should be reason enough to dismiss this.

      There is no actual science here though so there really is nothing to discuss or disprove.

    • 5 months ago
  • retro_Syl
  • Sam_the_Wizer
  • Hunnter
    • 0
      Hunnter  
    • tome_erau:

      There is absolutely nothing stupid about it at all.
      Just because you don't understand it, doesn't mean it is bullshit.

      Time travel is not a stupid thing in science either, just to let you know.
      And there are no equations out there that outlaw time travel.

    • 5 months ago
  • SDLN
  • S3th
    • 0
      S3th  
    • tome_erau:

      Not well said tome.

      Please define what REAL science is for us so we can all see the light like you have.

      Because something isn't published does nothing to detract or add to it's credence. Or perhaps you think HUSTLER is a masterpiece of scientific revelations?

    • 5 months ago
  • Saladin
    • 0
      Saladin  
    • tome_erau:

      You know, it would help if you understand how the process of science works before spouting inane bullshit S3.

      If something isn't published, it means that it has retracted itself from the critique of the scientific community. No one's been able to look at his data to see if he made mistakes or has gaps in his research.

      It's sort of like saying you've made the best film ever when you haven't released it yet. No one is just going to take your word for it, they need to see it.

    • 5 months ago
  • tome_erau
    • 0
      tome_erau  
    • tome_erau:

      @ S3th:

      When I say published I mean published in an established scientific journal.

      Also, I define "real science" as any theory that can be proven or disproven by experiment or mathmatical proof. (as a side note i don't concider "string theory" science for the same reason)

    • 5 months ago
  • bbar
    • 0
      bbar  
    • tome_erau:

      "Also, I define "real science" as any theory that can be proven or disproven by experiment or mathmatical proof. (as a side note i don't concider "string theory" science for the same reason)."

      Oh, now you're willing to let a mathematical proof represent the "real" universe? In other words, a priori is just as good as a posteriori knowledge??

      Ha sorry, I had to:)

      ---

      Note: Oh shit, I wasn't reading. I thought that post was from saladin. Sorry. But I still think there are a handful of people, like saladin and myself, who would disagree with that definition of science.

    • 5 months ago
  • tome_erau
    • 0
      tome_erau  
    • tome_erau:

      There's definetly some flexibility on what can be defined as science. My point is blaming a series of unfortunate events on intervention from the future in an e-mail never falls under that definition.

    • 5 months ago
  • Theekshani
    • 0
      Theekshani  
    • tome_erau:

      "Or perhaps you think HUSTLER is a masterpiece of scientific revelations?"

      I can't believe no one LOLed at S3's interpretation of "published". Come on guys, loosen up! This is the funniest thing I've heard all day!

    • 5 months ago
  • bbar
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  
    • To see such raw pure energy unharnessed could well be cataclysmic. Is fate then stepping in to keep that energy and perhaps even universal knowledge from being known? Or is it a higher power intervening? Or, is that pure energy the higher power so many seem to think does not exist? Would science and religion finally have to face just how similar they really are? Food for thought.

    • 5 months ago
  • bailey78
  • fun_size
    • 0
      fun_size  
    • JanforGore:

      Science and religion are similar in that they are both a means to achieve "truth". However, the means by which they go about it is 100% different. Whereas science uses quantifiable reactions and data to explain an ever-changing understanding of the universe, religion keeps people confined to a set understanding of the universe.

    • 5 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • JanforGore:

      The Bible vs Science eh? Well, the Bible says at Eccles. 1:4 "the earth abideth forever", which inspired or not still came from someone who lived a lot closer back than we'unz today, so he should have had a better focal point to know somethin' we don't. If correct then either God or some Law of Physics stopped the collider (barring just plain human error &/or sabotage).

      This doesn't have to be a case of Either-Or it could be both. If God-Caused, the universe would certainly have an inertia to it that would sense something threatening its continued inertia, sensing an "outside force" within itself beginning to happen. An outside force also in the sense of a force building outside the equation running the inertia.

      If not God-Caused the universe still has an overall inertia... that is so large an inertial force it would likely be squeezed into being itself a near-sentient entity in its intense sensitivity to anything out of the norm happening big enough to threaten it. Not to mention that a real God would have made a universe with a whole lotta automatic pilot.

      I would lay money the Hadron Collider never works. It has both God and Science dictating its demise the moment after they hit the Start button. However, since both the Universe and God has now drawn a clear bead on it and knows exactly GPS coordinates where the thing is, I don't believe it's a real healthy idea to be the person who presses the button THE NEXT TIME.

    • 5 months ago
  • bailey78
    • 0
      bailey78  
    • I don't know what to think about this. Just why do we need a Large Hadron Collider for any way? Will it help heal the sick or feed the poor why are people so hell bent on destroying the earth. Am I just paranoid or is this not just another weapon of mass distrucion? Maybe not in it's present form but just why are they doing what they are doing. I just don't under stand what it does or what it will be for. I think it might just be a toy for some to tinker with till they retire.

    • 5 months ago
  • ianakaeeen
    • 0
      ianakaeeen  
    • bailey78:

      Initially, the idea was to recreate the conditions of the big bang.

      Now, who knows what they're doing with it. I don't think they're hellbent on destroying the planet. Maybe we're secretly hellbent on getting off this planet, so that's why we trash it.

    • 5 months ago
  • bailey78
    • 0
      bailey78  
    • bailey78:

      Well I for one Try not to trash it. I like it here and don't think Space has much to offer us. Not that we can't do something out there. Just the lack of air thing is kind of a draw back. we don't do to good with out it for some reason. Why do we need to recreate the big bang? I think they just want something to make a bigger better bomb with.

    • 5 months ago
  • retro_Syl
  • bailey78
  • retro_Syl
  • bailey78
  • bailey78
    • 0
      bailey78  
    • bailey78:

      I did find this tho. Schrödinger's cat is a thought experiment, often described as a paradox, devised by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. It illustrates what he saw as the problem of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics applied to everyday objects. The thought experiment presents a cat that might be alive or dead, depending on an earlier random event. In the course of developing this experiment, he coined the term Verschränkung — literally, entanglement.[1]

    • 5 months ago
  • redvelvet1278
    • 0
      redvelvet1278  
    • bailey78:

      bailey, i agree that we should be wary of anything like this. look at Einstein. he didn't know what he was creating when he invented the atom bomb and ended up regretting it. this seems a little to close to a repetition of history for me too

    • 5 months ago
  • retro_Syl
    • 0
      retro_Syl  
    • bailey78:

      That's it. So, you should understand my logic then. Without the advent of the internet or, infact, any advanced communicational technology, I wouldn't be aware of your existence; hence, you'd be dead(to me).

    • 5 months ago
  • bbar
    • 0
      bbar  
    • bailey78:

      @retro

      Schrödinger's point was that there's a fundamental problem with the standard collapse formulation of quantum mechanics. One of my old professors, Jeffrey Barrett, has written extensively on this subject (Google him and Schrödinger's cat, or "measurement problem" if you're interested). The experiment was a response to the EPR paper and it was intended to show the absurdity of the relationship between very small objects and their non-linear collapse dynamics with macro objects (like a cat) and their "supposed" standard linear dynamics.

      I'm kinda opposed to bailey78 -- I'm all for the LHC, but I don't understand how Schrödinger's cat helps your argument.

      You seem to be talking about something closer to Berkeley's immaterialism concerning metaphysics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immaterialism

    • 5 months ago
  • retro_Syl
    • 0
      retro_Syl  
    • bailey78:

      Thanks bbar.

      Unfortunately, being analogous is a lost art. Did you read the entire discussion? Either way, I was trying to make the point that bailey's existence would be unbeknownst to me because there probably wouldn't be any communicative tools at our disposal without science.

      Sorry bailey! You're not dead. Well, you could be dying as I type this... :(

    • 5 months ago
  • bbar
    • 0
      bbar  
    • bailey78:

      Yeah, I read it. I agree with you -- without the help of physical science, you and bailey78 probably would have gone your whole lives and never spoken. I just thought Schrödinger's cat was a stretch and it sounded more like an argument for immaterialism. Like if a tree fell, but no one was around to perceive it, it doesn't make a sound. Quantum mechanics is so interesting on so many levels. Have you ever heard of the double-slit experiment? When you read through it, it kinda rings something like immaterialism because particles seem to behave differently when we're looking at them than when we're not. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-slit_experiment

    • 5 months ago
  • bailey78
    • 0
      bailey78  
    • bailey78:

      No I'm not dead but as I type this I am getting closer to death. I do like the cat in a box thing though. I do like science even do my own expearments. now and then. this just looks like something that would be the begening of something bad thats all.

    • 5 months ago
  • Mr_Ben
    • 0
      Mr_Ben  
    • It makes a nice headline but I reckon there's a more logical explanation for the LHC's woes. This things taken years to make, is complex and it's huge! there's bound to be some teething problems, saboteurs from the future smacks of science fiction.

    • 5 months ago
  • hpseaton
  • caverat101
  • Revelation_Machine
  • Vierotchka
  • Hunnter
    • 0
      Hunnter  
    • Revelation_Machine:

      A nuclear bomb is nothing on the grand scale of the universe.
      Observing the very thing that gives mass to every particle in the universe is a very big deal.

      But the chances of Higgs being shown in a physical state creating a causality inversion and damage the collider in the past is unlikely... but it isn't impossible.

      I'm sure it is just human error as usual.
      This is one of the most complicated machines we have ever built, and one of the most expensive too.
      Come November when it has to start up again, i am sure it will be fine.
      But if we end up nulling the whole universe, i'll buy the beers in Non-space.

    • 5 months ago
  • S3th
  • fun_size
    • 0
      fun_size  
    • Revelation_Machine:

      @S3th

      The very essence of humanity is curiosity. Its what drove us to all corners of the world and has given us the technology we are using at this very moment. The whole premise of science is to try and achieve understanding using empirical data and quantifiable evidence. Scientists do for the most part, follow a code of ethics by the way.

    • 5 months ago
  • Progresshiv
  • vladbox
  • samthesixth
  • Vierotchka
  • lenhart
    • 0
      lenhart  
    • samthesixth:

      Re: "Eminent physicists also thought the universe revolved around the Earth"

      You're obviously referring to Medieval scholastics, possibly religious folk, Alchemists etc. None of them qualify as 'eminent physicists' because 1) they are all dead; 2) none were scientists 3) folk like Kepler, Galileo, Newton et al literally invented science and none of them since have believed any earth-centric theory of the universe.

    • 5 months ago
  • Sam_the_Wizer
    • 0
      Sam_the_Wizer  
    • samthesixth:

      Ptolemy believed the universe revolved around the Earth. It was a valid scientific hypothesis because it accurately described observed phenomena. I think that even Tycho Brahe (Kepler's laws were based on his observations) saw the universe as revolving around the Earth. Then folks like Kepler, Galileo, and Newton came along and said the Universe revolves around the Sun. They were wrong too of course, but their hypothesis more accurately described phenomena. This is the way science works. Just because they were wrong does not mean they were not thinking scientifically.

    • 5 months ago
  • S3th
    • 0
      S3th  
    • samthesixth:

      Science: Religion for common senseless geeks.

      Everything about our understanding of the Universe is changing. Even the term Universe we are discovering is innacurate to describe reality. With String Theory it would appear that our so-called Universe, is just one of many multiverses.

      The point is, no one has a copyright on the truth.

      To think so would just be your ego working overtime!

    • 5 months ago
  • Saladin
    • 0
      Saladin  
    • samthesixth:

      Using science to disprove the merits of science?

      That's the kind of logic you can expect from S3.

      Here's a hint, you can't subscribe to string theory if you think scientific methods of analysis are faulty because string theory relies on those methods.

      In fact, you can't rely on reality period if you don't think science works.

      Turn off your computer, return to the jungle. After all, the whole thing could explode at any minute! Who knows right?

      Make sure not to use tools when you get there, because you don't understand the truth behind them.

    • 5 months ago
  • Vierotchka
  • pukemnukem
  • bbar
    • 0
      bbar  
    • Vierotchka:

      We prove negative claims all the time. Take sets A,B, for example.

      A = {0,1,2,3,4}
      B = {4}

      Claim: these sets are not equal.

      So, in order to prove the claim, we would just need to prove that these sets are not subsets of each other. Just by looking at each set, it's easy to see that the members are different.

    • 5 months ago
  • pukemnukem
  • bbar
    • 0
      bbar  
    • Vierotchka:

      You're talking about an inductive argument. Read David Hume and you can't prove any inductive arguments (positive or negative). Read Kurt Gödel and you'll realize that we can't prove anything using an axiomatized model (that's all of mathematics and logic). I don't understand you point.

    • 5 months ago
  • Saladin
  • bbar
    • 0
      bbar  
    • Vierotchka:

      I said that ALL mathematical/logical systems are axiomatizable. And by me using set theory (which invokes axioms) to prove a negative, I am fully aware that Gödel would object by means of his incompleteness theorems. I still don't see your point. If we're allowed to use logic to prove something, then we can prove negatives. I did it above.

      And who are you, Karl Popper (scientific method)? He lived long enough to retract just about every dumb thing he said. Think about it -- when you falsify a positive, you are just proving that something is false, which is proving a negative.

    • 5 months ago
  • bbar
    • 0
      bbar  
    • Vierotchka:

      Hey guys, also, your claim that "you can't prove a negative" (actually, saladin is the only one who made that claim), is a negative claim in itself. It's the negation of the claim, "You can prove a negative." So if what you're saying is correct (which it is not), then your claim is not provable anyway.

      Note: it's NOT raining outside:)

    • 5 months ago
  • Saladin
    • 0
      Saladin  
    • Vierotchka:

      Because proving a negative is not logically the same as disproving a positive in a realistic standpoint.

      The language of logic is irrelevant to the reality that logic is representing. Ignore for a second that linguistically, disproving a positive or proving a negative are actually equivalent. Think about what they're asking you to do in REAL terms.

      Your claim makes sense with regard to say, the rain example, in which falsifying that it is raining is the same as proving that it is not raining, but in a more complex atmosphere it has problems.

      Can you prove that this supposed future interaction is not causing the LHC to break down? Can you prove that invisisble unicorns sent by god are not causing the LHC to break down?

      No, all you can do is falsify causes that you can establish. You can falsify that your equipment is acting funny, you can falsify that it's not receiving enough power, etc. etc.

      The point being, proving a negative has the same problem as proving a positive, in that it requires a knowledge of the universe that's impossible to fully obtain because it always requires you to make certain assumptions along the way.

      Proving that something does not happen requires a hell of a lot more knowledge than disproving that something IS happening.

      That's the realistic difference I'm trying to point out.

      Otherwise, I agree with you.

    • 5 months ago
  • bbar
    • 0
      bbar  
    • Vierotchka:

      No, I can't prove that some future interaction is NOT causing trouble with the LHC, but that's not the claim. The claim is "you cannot prove a negative." That claim is false, and I have already given you examples.

      You are wrong (and any paid logic/mathematics professor who has an understanding of logic/metalogic will agree with me) -- in a bivalent system, proving a negative is just as easy as proving a positive.

      Here, prove that some future interaction IS causing trouble with the LHC. If you even tried, you would realize that it's just as hard to prove as the negation of that proposition. If you negate every line of any proof in any bivalent system, you will get the same conclusion (as long as you negate it as well).

      ---

      Here: I wrote a quick proof.

      P: P v Q
      P: ~Q
      C: P (by disjunctive syllogism)

      or, if we negate everything...

      P: ~P v ~Q
      P: Q
      C: ~P (by disjunctive syllogism)

      Same amount of work, both ways.

    • 5 months ago
  • Saladin
    • 0
      Saladin  
    • Vierotchka:

      Again, you're sticking too closely to the LANGUAGE of logic and not its applications to reality.

      We're talking about the manufacturing and confirmation of data here, not the rhetoric that connects the facts together.

      Of course is a hypothetical example that you've set up to be true (axiomatic as you've conceded) you can disprove a negative.

      But it's important to remember that logic's primary purpose is to be DESCRIPTIVE, not PRESCRIPTIVE, to the universe.

      When you've deduced something with logic, you haven't used logic itself to determine the truth of the universe, you've set up a falsifiable situation based on the data you've obtained from the universe. The difference is subtle, but important.

      In your example, for instance, how can you really prove the premise ~Q?

      You seem to be relying on a system of logic that is really introductory, those kinds of proofs have serious problems and relying on them too strongly is ignoring the primary purpose of logic.

      The purpose of logic is to create a language human beings can use to make sense of the facts they've gathered about the universe. And that fact that the LANGUAGE can account for proving a negative doesn't mean we can always do that in reality.

      Edit : Here, I've thought of a better way to illustrate this to you.

      How can you -ever- definitively prove that the future was NOT interacting with the LHC? What would you have to know that would prove beyond the shadow of the doubt that it didn't happen? If it starts working again, could you prove that the future wasn't interfering with it prior to this?

    • 5 months ago
  • bbar
    • 0
      bbar  
    • Vierotchka:

      Try this:

      P = It's raining.
      Q = It's sunny.

      Look, I already told you, I believe Hume and I don't think there is anyway you can establish cause between any two events. I also believe Gödel insofar as every axiomatizable system is either incomplete, or undecidable. But, if we're going to try to use it anyway, then as it stands, not only it is possible to prove a negative proposition, it's just as easy as proving a positive proposition. It's built into first order logic via the negation operator.

      This is one of the things I studied in school. I can't even remember how many problem sets I've completed, how many books/papers I've read on it, how many essays I've written, how many lectures I've attended, how many hours with professors I've spent, but I can say that you're not going to convince me otherwise. Do I have a problem with a bivalent logic? Yeah, it's probably not correct -- and quantum mechanics has good empirical evidence to suggest this (see Hilary Putnam and his claim of the distributive laws breaking down), but as it currently sits, I can use first order logic to prove a negative just as easy as I can use it to prove a positive.

      If you want to have a metaphysical/epistemic conversation on how exactly logic relates to our universe, then that's fine. But, your original claim that you cannot prove a negative is wrong.

      EDIT: I read what you've added. It seems to me that you would have trouble proving the negation as well - that is, to definitively prove that the future WAS interacting with the LHC. I think the problem here is we keep crossing back and forth between induction and deduction. You're not going to prove (without criticism) an inductive claim.

    • 5 months ago
  • Saladin
    • 0
      Saladin  
    • Vierotchka:

      Your last point is precisely the thing I want to touch on.

      It's not just that inductive claims can't be proven, deductive claims can't be proven either.

      I can't prove that the future isn't interfering with the LHC, but such a claim is nearly impossible to deal with and therefore shouldn't really be considered until all other factors have really been either completely or mostly scratched out.

      What I'm trying to get across to you is epistemological, because your logic on the ability to prove a negative is irrefutable in its own axioms. I agree that you can prove a negative in that fashion.

      The point I'm getting at is that it's not a reliable way to make meaningful claims about reality. When you talk about quantum mechanics possibly undoing all of this, that's what I'm really trying to get at.

      The nature of existence is such that we shouldn't rely on that form of logic being prescriptive to the universe. Meaning you shouldn't prove a negative in anything but your own axioms, because it becomes impossible to do when dealing with anything complicated about the processes of the universe. There's too much rooms for error.

      So the discussion of logic behind science, I think, should rest far more strongly on logic as a descriptive force rather than one which asserts things about the universe.

      Because that seems to be the direction science has been heading in since special relativity.

    • 5 months ago
  • pukemnukem
  • bbar
    • 0
      bbar  
    • Vierotchka:

      I think deductive propositions are easier; especially those proofs by definition. You cannot have a square circle, for example. But yeah, like I said before, all you need is Hume and Gödel if you want to knock science down completely.

      Since Aristotle (formally), logic has been set forth to describe what we see and then to ultimately reveal the truth. Whatever that means. It would be nice, though, to have a system that asserts certain truths about the universe. You might like to read Charles Peirce. I think you would be interested in his believe revision model of truth. That is, we start with a big set of beliefs, and as time goes on, bad beliefs get thrown out and we get closer and closer to the truth. I think that's really what's going on here. Newton had a theory of gravity, which seemed to work great, but still had a few problems. Einstein comes along and explains those problems with his new theory. But now even that theory cannot explain what we see happening with very tiny particles. And along the way, especially with the transition from classical mechanics (that includes relativity) to quantum mechanics, logic has been challenged. If you think about it, why have a system if it's only going to explain what we already know happens? I think we want a system that is going to tell us stuff that we haven't yet tested empirically (and also backs up what has happened in the past). Who knows, maybe it will never happen for whatever reason, but what we have so far gets up pretty far on pragmatic grounds.

    • 5 months ago
  • Saladin
    • 0
      Saladin  
    • Vierotchka:

      Yeah, that second paragraph is exactly what I mean.

      But regarding the first, I don't think logical problems "disprove" science. Problems of logic are just that, linguistic puzzles that we haven't figured out how to work around.

      I took a philosophy of science course that talked about all of the logical problems science had, and for a while I agreed with them. But there was one account that stood out as a contradiction in all the reading that I did, how do these logical failures account for the success of science? And this account opened up a whole new door for me.

      Just because you can't account for all the details possible in science doesn't mean you can't prove anything on a practical level.

      For instance, you can't ever positively prove say the science behind man-made flight. But the fact that there are logical problems with the theory doesn't contradict the fact that the theory has practical results. The plane flies doesn't it? Who cares if you're not entirely sure if the logic is solid?

      That, I think, is the main important thing about science.

      Aristotelian logic is too limited because it attempts to -prescribe- how the world should work logically, rather then letting the world dictate how logic should work.

      The success of science is what should dictate its truth or falseness, not necessarily its ability to empirically prove things (since that's logically impossible).

      In short, what matters most is that it works, not the language you use to prove it.

    • 5 months ago
  • AARP
  • hammywill
  • Revelation_Machine
  • Saladin
  • Jjjjason7
    • 0
      Jjjjason7  
    • No way! this is just an amazing one of a kind science tool. Tools like these are complicated and this thing is huge. I usually like the simplest answer. Sabotage is more probable than the future causing the problems.

    • 5 months ago

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