[jolinar of malkshor]

Originally Posted by photon

We do have a clue, stuff like quantum theory are the most successful theories that have ever been made, nothing has gone against them yet. So we have a clue. We don't know for sure of course, but you don't know for sure if you'll wake up, if gravity will work tomorrow, or if the strong force will all of a sudden stop and the universe stop existing.

First off I just want to say I am not a physicist nor have I had any academic training in physics. I do however read a lot of articles on physics. So much that my friends throw my scientific america into the camp fire when we are camping. Any how, yes we do have good theories, but that is all they are theories. And we also have several theories that go against each other not like you are suggesting that they all agree with each other.

I posted about this in a thread a while back about why pure science research is still VERY necessary.

I am not saying we shouldn't seek out knowledge, but in cases like this it whould be done very very carefully. I don't think it is being done carefully because most people are not aware of this experiment and the risks are merely being shrugged off as "well if this is going to happen it already would have happened." Way to defend a position.

With this we're not approaching anywhere near the conditions that already exist in our universe now, let alone more extreme conditions that existed earlier in time.

Yes, cosmic rays collide all the time at much greater speeds, that doesn't mean that this something wont go wrong during the experiment. Clearly it happens in the universe. There are black holes and there are neutron stars. So it can happen.

Look at it a different way, if it does go wrong and destroy the earth or universe, it'll happen fast enough that you'll probably never know.

That is reassuring.

What?? No one says it's almost impossible to win the lottery, the exact odds of winning are known. If one in 16 million win, and 16 million play, chances are one will win.

You ask people who play the lotto and they always say I will never win it. But they know that they can't win unless they try. You also talk to people who don't play the lotto and they say it will never happen to me. Same idea here. They say it could happen but the odds are it won't.