September 10th could be the biggest day in the history of mankind. It could be the day some of the most intriguing questions of life get answered. It could be the day we find out the true nature of the universe. If some others are to be believed it is the the day the entire world could come to an end. It could of course also end up being just another depressing, quiz filled rainy day in SPJIMR, Mumbai, as far as I am concerned.
But being the eternal optimist that I am, I do believe that September 10th will be something special, because on this day the Large hadron collider, the largest particle accelerator ever built (by CERN) is going to go operational.
For the uninitiated who don't know what the LHC is and what it is capable of, it is the similar to the device mentioned in Dan Brown's(remember him) 'Angels and Demons' which produces the dark matter. And for further info read this:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/03/god-particle/achenbach-text
Just quoting from the above article:
"Starting sometime in the coming months, two beams of particles will race in opposite directions around the tunnel, which forms an underground ring 17 miles in circumference. The particles will be guided by more than a thousand cylindrical, supercooled magnets, linked like sausages. At four locations the beams will converge, sending the particles crashing into each other at nearly the speed of light. If all goes right, matter will be transformed by the violent collisions into wads of energy, which will in turn condense back into various intriguing types of particles, some of them never seen before. That's the essence of experimental particle physics: You smash stuff together and see what other stuff comes out."
So what so special about this particular smashing exercise? Well the stuff they expect to come out might tell us some very interesting things, answers to questions you have never thought of asking. For instance ever wonder, if matter is made of atoms which in turn are made of protons, electrons and neutrons, then what are the protons made of (everything has to be made of something right) ? Fundamentally it could give us what comprises the mass of the universe.
Now if all that was nice and pleasant, the real question is what else will happen? And if some doomsday mongers are to be believed then this experiment will result in giant black holes and wormholes which will cause the world to disappear into itself. And although the ideas seems ridiculous to most individuals, it has actually caused legal issues for CERN, producing lawsuits preventing the machine from starting up.
Personally I am not a physics enthusiast, but I did try to read up about the whole black hole concerns on wiki and well couldn't make head or tail of it. But then it got me thinking if the world were to dissolve in a black hole, how would it happen. I mean think about it, how will you kick the bucket, if you do actually kick the bucket in this scenario. Or will I exist in some other parallel universe. Or will I just stop existing. I mean I can imagine just sitting in class breaking my head on Working Capital management one second and then the next second I stop existing !!! Would I even know that my time on this planet is up? Correction would I know that the whole planet's time is up? And what about all the stuff that we have learnt about, souls, aatma, parmatama, salvation etc etc..I mean are you eligible for entry into heaven if you don't actually die. Or will you soul be wandering around the universe aimlessly? And what about God? Imagine that God could be just sitting around his office happily going about His job of monitoring humanity and all of a sudden he realises that humanity has disappeared and He's lost his job?
And wait a minute..what if this is my last blog post ever. Should I be wasting it talking about particle accelerators, black holes, souls and divine unemployment. So ask yourself, if you could write one single post on one topic only, what would be your last post on this planet? Your parting message to humanity.
Would you try and wax philosophy? Would you attend to unfinished business like vent your anger on someone, or tell a girl you have a crush on that you like her? Or would you just say a nice goodbye to all your loved ones? And how would all of this affect your life if you ended up posting a doomsday message and the world in fact did not end on the next day.
And the most important in this series of questions - would you give a rat's ass if the world actually came to an end at an arbit point of time tomorrow? Knowing that you are not going to leave behind any loved ones, or that all your dreams and hopes are going to vanish along with you. And that you wont be leaving behind any unfinished business, cause the business itself no longer exists.
Finally...How can anyone have feeling about an event that you can never foresee coming and after it has occurred you no longer exist.Would the event make a difference in your life, in the way that you think, in any decision that you make?
Think about it......
As for me I honestly don't know.
But all I will say is one thing, if the world has to come to an end tomorrow, all I would ask is that it happens before my IT in Business quiz.
As for last words (if the world were to collapse on itself), I will go with Karl Marx on this one -"Last words are for those who haven't said enough in a lifetime".
But being the eternal optimist that I am, I do believe that September 10th will be something special, because on this day the Large hadron collider, the largest particle accelerator ever built (by CERN) is going to go operational.
For the uninitiated who don't know what the LHC is and what it is capable of, it is the similar to the device mentioned in Dan Brown's(remember him) 'Angels and Demons' which produces the dark matter. And for further info read this:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/03/god-particle/achenbach-text
Just quoting from the above article:
"Starting sometime in the coming months, two beams of particles will race in opposite directions around the tunnel, which forms an underground ring 17 miles in circumference. The particles will be guided by more than a thousand cylindrical, supercooled magnets, linked like sausages. At four locations the beams will converge, sending the particles crashing into each other at nearly the speed of light. If all goes right, matter will be transformed by the violent collisions into wads of energy, which will in turn condense back into various intriguing types of particles, some of them never seen before. That's the essence of experimental particle physics: You smash stuff together and see what other stuff comes out."
So what so special about this particular smashing exercise? Well the stuff they expect to come out might tell us some very interesting things, answers to questions you have never thought of asking. For instance ever wonder, if matter is made of atoms which in turn are made of protons, electrons and neutrons, then what are the protons made of (everything has to be made of something right) ? Fundamentally it could give us what comprises the mass of the universe.
Now if all that was nice and pleasant, the real question is what else will happen? And if some doomsday mongers are to be believed then this experiment will result in giant black holes and wormholes which will cause the world to disappear into itself. And although the ideas seems ridiculous to most individuals, it has actually caused legal issues for CERN, producing lawsuits preventing the machine from starting up.
Personally I am not a physics enthusiast, but I did try to read up about the whole black hole concerns on wiki and well couldn't make head or tail of it. But then it got me thinking if the world were to dissolve in a black hole, how would it happen. I mean think about it, how will you kick the bucket, if you do actually kick the bucket in this scenario. Or will I exist in some other parallel universe. Or will I just stop existing. I mean I can imagine just sitting in class breaking my head on Working Capital management one second and then the next second I stop existing !!! Would I even know that my time on this planet is up? Correction would I know that the whole planet's time is up? And what about all the stuff that we have learnt about, souls, aatma, parmatama, salvation etc etc..I mean are you eligible for entry into heaven if you don't actually die. Or will you soul be wandering around the universe aimlessly? And what about God? Imagine that God could be just sitting around his office happily going about His job of monitoring humanity and all of a sudden he realises that humanity has disappeared and He's lost his job?
And wait a minute..what if this is my last blog post ever. Should I be wasting it talking about particle accelerators, black holes, souls and divine unemployment. So ask yourself, if you could write one single post on one topic only, what would be your last post on this planet? Your parting message to humanity.
Would you try and wax philosophy? Would you attend to unfinished business like vent your anger on someone, or tell a girl you have a crush on that you like her? Or would you just say a nice goodbye to all your loved ones? And how would all of this affect your life if you ended up posting a doomsday message and the world in fact did not end on the next day.
And the most important in this series of questions - would you give a rat's ass if the world actually came to an end at an arbit point of time tomorrow? Knowing that you are not going to leave behind any loved ones, or that all your dreams and hopes are going to vanish along with you. And that you wont be leaving behind any unfinished business, cause the business itself no longer exists.
Finally...How can anyone have feeling about an event that you can never foresee coming and after it has occurred you no longer exist.Would the event make a difference in your life, in the way that you think, in any decision that you make?
Think about it......
As for me I honestly don't know.
But all I will say is one thing, if the world has to come to an end tomorrow, all I would ask is that it happens before my IT in Business quiz.
As for last words (if the world were to collapse on itself), I will go with Karl Marx on this one -"Last words are for those who haven't said enough in a lifetime".
Ciao.
Dont Panic!!!!!
Dont Panic!!!!!
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