The End of the World is Nigh

The Big Bang Machine

Some people think that tomorrow might be the end of the world. In the early hours of tomorrow the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland will be turned on. The LHT accelerates particles to within a fraction of the speed of light in order to collide them together at immense energies with the intention of creating new particles. It is hoped that the results of these experiments will either confirm or repudiate the basic assumptions of physics that have operated for some decades now through what is known as the Standard Model. In particular, it is hoped that the experiments will produce if only for a fraction of a second the elusive Higgs Boson, a particle theorised as having existed right after the Big Bang, and which is the particle whose existence is necessary to prove the existence of the Higgs Field which is supposed to explain how matter achieves mass.

But, some scientists have argued that the experiments are dabbling in things not properly understood, and could create phenomena, which could destroy the planet. One common theory is that of the creation of micro black holes, which could grow due to their immensely dense mass to consume all other surrounding matter. Some of these ideas are discussed on Wikipedia here.

I'm not a physicist so I'm not qualified to say whether any of these ideas hold water or whether the response to them from the majority of scientists, which states that the risks put forward do not constitute good science are valid. Similar concerns have been raised in the past, and science does have a habit of undertaking activities that might be dangerous. For example, when the nuclear bomb was being developed the scientists working on the programme themselves did not know whether the chain reaction started by the explosion would be contained or not. From what I do understand of the contending views being put I think it unlikely that these experiments will mean the end of the world, but to an extent that is besides the point. As the above Wiki article points out Britain's own Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees, has speculated in a recent book that mankind has a 50-50 chance of destroying itself. The important issue surely is that science has now reached such a level that in a whole series of disciplines the consequences of error can spell catastrophes on a scale never previously possible. Just look at the way CFC's in a few short years of their extensive use led to the creation of the Ozone hole. It is surely time that the working class demanded that science be brought udner far greater democratic control, that some degree of workers inspection be developed to prevent a small minority who ultimately work in the interests of Capitalist society do not destroy the whole of mankind.

The Big Bucks Machine

In a CNN report today it was disclosed that Sarah Palin, the Republican Vice Presidential candidate, is not only a Creationist - which was disclosed last week - but that she was a member of a Christian Fundamentalist Church in Alaska known as The Assembly of God. The nutters in this cult not only gibber away like cretins supposedly speaking in tongues, but are also Endtimers. There are soemthing like 10 million Endtimers mostly on the Christian Fundamentlaist Right in America, and they had some influence on US politics under Bush, though he mostly relied on their votes rather than subscribed to their views.

The Endtimers are a frightening group of religious zealots. Were they just a small group somewhere their views would be frightening enough. That there are 10 million of them in the world's most heavily and nuclear armed country, a country where 70% of the population still believe that the world is less than 7,000 years old as the Bible bashers claim, and that Man walked on the Earth at the same time as the dinosaurs is even worse. That in such a country one of these nutters is possibly going to be in a position to have her finger on the nuclear trigger if the aged John Mccain were to pop his clogs by natural or other causes is far more frightening than the thought of either the world coming to an end through the experiments at CERN or the possession of a nuclear bomb by Ahmedinejad. Every year thousands of Entimers ffrom the US, UK and elsewhere visit Israel. They encourage conflict between Israel and Palestine hoping that sch a conflict will escalate into the Armageddon prophesied in the Bible, which will bring about the End of Days, and the Second Coming of Christ through which these religious lunatics hope to be saved.

See:Channel 4 - The Doomsday Code

It is necessary to do everything possible to stop Palin and McLean being elected. Of course, I'm not suggesting, even as a topic for discussion, that the fact that the world's most heavily armed nuclear power - and the only one to ever have used its nuclear arsenal (twice) - might under Palin bring about the end of humanity should lead to some pre-emptive strike against the US's nuclear capability or against the Republican candidates. Unlike others supposedly on the Left I can think of many socialist reasons why such actions would have to be condemned. Rather its necessary to build a working class in the US and internationally that is strong enough to remove such threats to human existence.