should we be trying this kind of thing?

rubycodez

Thu Aug 03 18:21:57 -0700 2006

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 I've wondered if someday an experiment like this will be attempted but with some tiny suprise, like maybe the new universe hypothesized by this article *doesn't* break off from ours but grows big-bang style like ours did, ruining everyone's day.   LIke where aliens 10,000 lightyears away 10,000 years from then sitting on their porch at night sipping mint juleps see a supernovae-like explosion and go "ho boy, another buncha dumb-ass primates had to try the mini-universe thing, that's the third time this galatic revolution.  No more nighttime drive-in movies for ten years, crap dang it"

should we be trying this kind of thing?

Len Pitre

Fri Aug 04 00:10:50 -0700 2006

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I've wondered if someday an experiment like this will be attempted but with some tiny suprise, like maybe the new universe hypothesized by this article *doesn't* break off from ours but grows big-bang style like ours did, ruining everyone's day.

If there exists a universe-destroying experiment could be performed with modern (or even more advanced) technology, we're already dead. It's a fairly safe assumption that somewhere in the universe there's a few lifeforms that are, say, around our rung on the tech ladder. Presumably someone has already tried the experiment and - if what you say is true - there's a big ball of new universe heading right for us at lightspeed. And we'll never know. We'll be sitting around and suddenly, with no angels or fanfare to herald its coming, the new universe will sweep through and zap us.

So the only obvious thing to do is eradicate their runaway universe with our runaway universe, if only for spite.:)

But I do like this idea. We can start creating universes out of our trash. Zap the junk into another universe, and tah-dah! No more landfills! And we can keep doing that right up until we're conquered by the Used Condom Warriors of Dimension NJ9606.

should we be trying this kind of thing?

Beryllium Sphere(r)

Fri Aug 04 12:38:07 -0700 2006

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Zap the junk into another universe

Ah yes, the story "Dusty Zebra" by Cliff Simak. Eventually the people in the other universe figured out what was going on and returned years of garbage to us all at once.

should we be trying this kind of thing?

phred14

Fri Aug 04 06:52:36 -0700 2006

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Something akin to this was a key plot-point in Joe Haldeman's "Forever Peace". Some scientists were worried about the particle physics experiment, claiming it would "destroy the Universe." Another scientist tried to calm things down, saying that the effects of the experiment would be self-damping, and certainly not propagate more than a light year.

Can We Make Another Universe?

Ian Gibson

Thu Aug 03 18:22:56 -0700 2006

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Excellent! What could possibly go wrong?

Whooo boy, where to begin....

wowbagger

Thu Aug 03 19:05:52 -0700 2006

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Whooo boy, where to begin....

Unless things have changed drastically, magnetic monopoles have never been observed, and while some theories allow them to exist, others don't. So unless the Japanese have managed to capture a monopole and demonstrate its existence - a Nobel Prize winning feat in and of itself that would be trumpeted to the heavens in every science rag - the idea of "pumping energy into a monopole" that is presented as key to this plan is sort of like saying "First we find a Stargate...."

Second of all, this hypothesis does not really lend itself to experimentation as it really isn't falsifiable. You pump energy into this particle, it collapses into a atto-black hole, and immediately radiates itself away as Hawking radiation. Unless you are able to measure a difference between the input mass/energy (particle + exciting energy) and the Hawking radiation emitted, you cannot tell if you created a baby universe. So unless that is indeed their theory (i.e. they are planning on measuring a difference), they cannot test it - thus it's not really science.

Now, on to the "OMFG! What if they blow us all up?". The energies we reach in the biggest particle accelerators on Earth are still orders of magnitude less than the energies of cosmic ray interactions high above the earth every day. So if it were possible for a high energy collision to create a baby universe that DIDN'T detach from ours, and thus destroy us all, it would have happened LONG AGO - probably within minutes of the Big Bang - you'd just get an endless series of bangs.

Now, the causes of my first objections could just be the standard distortion introduced by a <scare quotes>science</scare quotes> magazine reporting on something that is at the edge of science - and if so, then this will be very cool when they are able to demonstrate energy leakage away from our brane, as it would really provide significant support for M theory.

Whooo boy, where to begin....

Beryllium Sphere(r)

Thu Aug 03 21:44:57 -0700 2006

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The energies we reach in the biggest particle accelerators on Earth are still orders of magnitude less than the energies of cosmic ray interactions high above the earth every day.

A single particle with macroscopic energy has actually happened. Any attempt to describe the results when it hit a nucleus would sound like Doc Smith.

Can We Make Another Universe?

Dave

Fri Aug 04 09:29:55 -0700 2006

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     There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why
it is here, it will  instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.

     There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

- Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe