Is Doomsday Coming? Perhaps, but Not in 2012

[groovedaddy]

NASA said last week that the world was not ending — at least anytime soon. Last year, CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, said the same thing, which I guess is good news for those of us who are habitually jittery. How often do you have a pair of such blue-ribbon scientific establishments assuring us that everything is fine?

On the other hand, it is kind of depressing if you were looking forward to taking a vacation from mortgage payments to finance one last blowout.

CERN’s pronouncements were intended to allay concerns that a black hole would be spit out of its new Large Hadron Collider and eat the Earth.

The announcements by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, in the form of several Web site postings and a video posted on YouTube, were in response to worries that the world will end on Dec. 21, 2012, when a 5,125-year cycle known as the Long Count in the Mayan calendar supposedly comes to a close.

The doomsday buzz reached a high point with the release of the new movie “2012,” directed by Roland Emmerich, who previously inflicted misery on the Earth from aliens and glaciers in “Independence Day” and “The Day After Tomorrow.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/science/17essay.html?th&emc=th

[Dreamer Tatum]

1. Long count? The Mayans were probably just trying to draw the defense offsides nt

[Possumpoint]

2. It Won't happen!

As I understand it the Mayan Long Count just starts all over again. BTW, saw the movie 2012 yesterday. What a ride, throughly enjoyed it despite the improbability.

[damntexdem]

3. More likely 2010 -- if the Dems don't pass a strong HCR bill.

But if they do, then doomsday will still come in 2010, but only for the GOP.

[FSogol]

4. No, I don't think Palin will be elected.

Oh wait, did you mean something else?

[charlie]

5. Already happened

The Call of Duty MW2 Cataclysm of November 13, 2009.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQpcO8x6NNY

[RoyGBiv]

8. Huh ...

I used to feel that way about Centipede, but luckily I never had enough quarters to play it 17 hours straight.

[charlie]

10. Just 2 hours of Centipede would've depleted my college savings

My suckage at Centipede was unbounded. That kid should play 8-bit games for some perspective on white-knuckle frustration. It'd put hair on his chest.
</geezerdom>

I blew goats at most games, was middling with a handful, and, for whatever reason, found my Zen groove in Galaga. 7-11 clerks hated me, because after level 255, it'd roll over to level 0 and couldn't be used again without a hard reset.
</preen>

What were we talking about? Oh yeah, Doomsday :D

Same as it ever was. Us Americans have had a goofy End of the World fixation since forever. We're just doing it in Internet Time right now. IOW, ten times as fast, ten times as often, ten times as loud.

We're waaaaay past the point where anyone can expect to order and understand the deluge of "information" we encounter and it's making us nuts. Whether the tumult of exponential novelty is taking us to doom or unimagined possibility is becoming more a reflection of personal predilection than sober assessment.

Underneath the blare of resource depletion, social fracture, predatory economics, encroaching surveillance, etc, are strong indications that nanotech, genetics, expansive/inclusive social reordering, etc, are keeping the same blistering pace. We're definitely in a race with our monstrous idiocies and the outcome is scarily uncertain, but our end-of-the-world fascination is indulgent... ignorant... unwarranted... bullshit.
</unsolicited pretentious soapboxing>

[Ganja Ninja]

6. Of course if they knew something was going to happen it would be

kept secret.

As for CERN, how do they know for sure what will happen when you mess with the most primal forces of the universe? OK so maybe not a black hole and maybe not this experiment but keep messing around with things we don't understand and who knows what might happen.

They don't have a clue about how the universe came into existence prior to the big bang. Yet in their own words they are recreating some of the same conditions that existed only a few seconds after it started. They have no idea what it would take to trigger another big bang and I sometimes wonder if they could accidentally do just that. Of course if it happens we'll never know so no reason to lose sleep over it.

Sorry just the paranoid ramblings of a sci-fi freak.

[laconicsax]

7. Nice post, Chicken Little!

Asking about what existed before the big bang is analogous to asking what's south of the south pole. There is no "before" the big bang, ergo "how the universe came into existence prior to the big bang" is meaningless. That's why physicists don't have a clue about it--it's the same reason why cartographers don't have a clue what's south of the south pole.

Watch this talk given by Lawrence Krauss. In the Q&A at the end, he addresses your concern that the Large Hadron Collider could create a new expanding universe. (link to the video) (link to the question itself)

[krispos42]

9. Good analogy!

"What's south of the south pole?" Excellent! :thumbsup:

[Ganja Ninja]

12. There's no before the big bang in this universe ...

What about other universes? What about other dimensions? 90% of this universe is made up of stuff we can only observe indirectly. We know it's there but we can't see it or explain it. Just because we can't observe or understand what was before doesn't mean it's meaningless or didn't exist. And really there is something south of the south pole it's just not part of this planet just like what came before the big bang wasn't part of this universe. Do you really believe that there was nothing at all before the big bang?

[laconicsax]

13. Would you care to explain what is south of the south pole or what came before the big bang?

So what about other universes? So what about other dimensions?

So what about dark matter and dark energy? One of the hopes for the LHC is that dark matter will be created and directly observable.

You sound more paranoid than the teabaggers.

[Ganja Ninja]

15. You sound like your taking this personal.

Like I said I'm not losing any sleep over any of this. All I'm saying is that at some point in the future we may be able to devise an experiment that would be unwise to do. Making dark matter/dark energy sounds like it might fit in to that category since there seems to be very little if any understanding of what it is. And insulting me with the teabagger comparison is pretty low.

[laconicsax]

16. Not at all.

You're just making wild claims and then retreating when called on it.

[BridgeTheGap]

11. What would it take to knock the earth for a loop? There have been mass extinctions on the planet.

The following link is about the asteroid that got pretty close. I vaguely remember one in the last several years that "snuck up" on us? The visual was evidently blotted out by the sun and it wasn't seen until it was fairly close. Now pegging an exact date from way back in history? Naw. But an asteroid impact. It's happened before. It'll happen again.

http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/science/2009/march/Large-Asteroid-Barely-Misses-Earth-Can-We-Prevent-Future-Collisions.html

[laconicsax]

14. We should be more concerned with the end of the calendar next month!

The calendar ends on December 31st! What's going to happen? The sky is falling! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

[JustFiveMoreMinutes]

17. Don't give up hope! Yellowstone could blow!

The Super Caldera under Yellowstone is and will be a possibility for eruption for decades/centuries to come.

Don't give up total hope of a world changing event!

Won't END the world, but wow, what a mess!