Benefits of black holes

[Ego Tripping]

Really interesting article on the new CERN being built.

The benefits of black holes - Cosmic Log - msnbc.com

Most interesting part I found to be here:

Q: I know this is the question that physicists hate, but would there be any implications for daily life? Could extra dimensions lead to new energy sources, for example?

A: I really have no idea what we could get out of extra dimensions. But there is one element of our universe that we don’t understand very well, and that is gravity. Being able to do experiments exposing extra dimensions would for the first time provide us with a new observatory for gravity.

So far, the only place where we can measure gravity is in the macroscopic universe, where we measure the motion of planets and other large objects, or the expansion of the universe itself. But it all follows from the same law of gravity: Newton’s law or, if you wish, Einstein’s theory of general relativity. By looking at how spacetime works at very short distances, we get an entirely different picture. God knows what we will uncover.

All of these discussions about traveling forward and backward in time, or wormholes, you name it – all of these ideas, however bizarre, if they work at all, could be exposed by phenomena in the framework of extra dimensions.

When we’re talking about the proton-proton collisions at the LHC, one manifestation of extra dimensions would be the production of black holes. Maybe there are other manifestations. Maybe you could alter the fabric of spacetime, for example. But again, the risk is something we can rule out, because destroying the fabric of spacetime is not something that would happen only at the LHC. If you look at the much more energetic cosmic-ray collisions taking place out there in the universe, if any of those had created a problem with spacetime, we would know it by now.

So when I say “we don’t know what will happen,” it doesn’t mean we have a new source of uncontrollable risk. I’m simply saying that the picture of the universe that we will see could be very interesting.

You know, 5 billion years from now, the sun is going to blow up. There is nothing we can do about that. This will be worse than global warming. It will be worse than a meteorite hitting Earth. If we want to survive for more than 5 billion years, we have to find a way out of this place – and the way to get out of this place is not just by building more powerful rockets. We have to understand more about spacetime and how to travel in a much more efficient way.

I’m not saying this will come out of the LHC. But it’s quite clear that, if it finds black holes, the LHC will be one of the steps in this direction.

Sounds like we're on a fast track to changing our everyday perceptions of reality, no matter what they find.

[Smaerd]

Interesting! I have my own theory on black wholes... And if they get to it before I finish it I'll be pretty sad.

[The Rev]

I like black holes because of their abundance on Hollywood Blvd.



The Rev

[JcP]

lol rev.

[espiex]

I know they keep saying they're not going to destroy the planet with that LHC doohickey, but... well they'll be mighty embarrassed if Earth is consumed from within by a runaway black hole.