Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: quixotic
  • Music: Jekyll and Hyde, 'Presentation to the Board of Governors.'

I regret nothing!

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva will be firing for the first time on September 10th, at 9:00 AM (or thereabouts). Since I am not actually in Geneva, this means the Large Hadron Collider will be firing for the first time...tonight. At around 11:00 PM. After I've gone to bed.

So, y'know, I may wake up to discover that a black hole has been accidentally unleashed and will now begin cheerfully devouring the planet. Or I may not wake up at all, since the really paranoid people inform me that there's a decent chance the Large Hadron Collider will recreate the Big Bang and, in so doing, unmake all creation. (Amanda, before you hit me with your amazingly large physics brain, I know this isn't going to happen. But a girl can dream.)

So if tomorrow we're all reduced to component atoms, stardust, and the sound of voices screaming "I told you so!" into the void, well...

I regret nothing.

Do you?
Tags: mad science
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  • 61 comments

feed_your_muse

September 10 2008, 08:22:28 UTC 8 years ago

I regret little. Not big enough regrets to stress over, anyway.

Protons went 3km around the ring, so the first stage went ok. They'll be sending more round throughout the day, getting further around each time according to the chap at CERN interviewed on Radio 4 this morning.

It's odd, though, that not many Europeans (that I know of) were worried about this...

Most of the people I spoke to were either completely unaware, or just not bothered. (Hey, I'm in the UK. There's nothing that can't be sorted out, calmly, with a nice cup of tea! Black Hole? That's nice dear; put the kettle on would you?) :P

keristor

September 10 2008, 08:43:38 UTC 8 years ago

All the way round already. It went a lot faster than they were expecting, with no problems. Remarkable for something that big and complicated, I wish my (much smaller) software rollouts were that smooth.

Then there's sending stuff round in the other direction, of course, and then ramping up the energies.

(And don't forget that Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the first HTTP system and "Father of the Web", was working at CERN at the time...)

lapintada

September 10 2008, 12:38:43 UTC 8 years ago

"Remarkable for something that big and complicated, I wish my (much smaller) software rollouts were that smooth."

Amen to that! And DITTO!!!