[extropy-chat] Existential risks and CERN

[The Avantguardian]

I must agree with Dr. Cox in this instance. My
confidence comes from the "oh my God particle". A
cosmic ray proton that was measured as having the
kinetic energy of a major league baseball pitch
(deadly force from a single proton? - AMAZING). If
individual protons that have the relativistic mass
(due to sheer velocity) of a major league baseball
fastball don't pose a threat, it will be a while
before I start to worry about the danger of CERN and
other particle accelerators. Of course that being
said, I wouldn't want to be hit by one, but even if I
were, I am rather certain that you all would be safe.
 

--- Olie Lamb <neomorphy at gmail.com> wrote:

> Just came across an actual figure for the
> existential risk posed by
> experiments at the Large Hadron Collider:
> 
>
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=325&objectid=10400645
> 
> Dr Cox dismissed worries that by adventuring into
> the unknown and creating
> tiny black holes, the machine could even destroy the
> planet.
> "The probability is at the level of 10 to the minus
> 40," he said.
> 
> ...
> 
> With that number, against the probability of other
> existential risks (eg:
> Gamma-Ut Ray Mi Burst), the risk is negligible
> against the noise.
> 
> Question is: are these the real chances, or are they
> skewed by cognitive
> biases?
> > _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
>
http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
> 


Stuart LaForge
alt email: stuart"AT"ucla.edu

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us 
with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use." 

-Galileo Galilei

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