tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4212234230338648875.post8088051733487211980..comments2024-03-27T20:43:05.862-07:00Comments on The Eternal Universe: Doomsday Created at CERNJoseph Smidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02583891162785742138noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4212234230338648875.post-60602943107850948912008-03-31T08:51:00.000-07:002008-03-31T08:51:00.000-07:00I'll tell you a funny story one of the experimenta...I'll tell you a funny story one of the experimental particle physicists told us here.<BR/><BR/>He said at Fermilab they wanted to shoot a beam of neutrinos several miles away and build a detector to see how they oscillated.<BR/><BR/>Somebody from the public found out and said it would pose a health hazard to have "renegade" neutrinos flying through peoples homes constantly.<BR/><BR/>Physicists reminded them that there are billions of neutrinos that pass through them every day from the sun which that pose no threat as they don't really interact with you. So adding a fraction more wouldn't be a problem either.<BR/><BR/>Physicists compromised by saying that they would build a concrete wall between the emitter and their homes. <BR/><BR/>The people agreed. The funny thing is a concrete wall is worthless in stopping neutrinos. It was the ultimate placebo.Joseph Smidthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02583891162785742138noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4212234230338648875.post-7044479142529863162008-03-30T22:16:00.000-07:002008-03-30T22:16:00.000-07:00There is more to his talk and you can probably fin...There is more to his talk and you can probably find it online by googleing "people are stupid" Isaac AsimovQuantumleap42https://www.blogger.com/profile/16711817313734546305noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4212234230338648875.post-62329488902428278262008-03-30T22:15:00.000-07:002008-03-30T22:15:00.000-07:00There was a talk given by Isaac Asimov and the pre...There was a talk given by Isaac Asimov and the premise of the talk was "People are stupid" (that's a direct quote). He talked about the first story he ever published which was about a man that built a rocket in his backyard, but there were many people that protested him doing it (protested the man in the story, not Isaac Asimov). Asimov told how he came up with the idea when he had to "read" a book for a job he had in collage about resistance to technological advance. As he put it:<BR/><BR/>"Well, when I read all of these references I discovered, to my amazement, that all through history there had been resistance...and bitter, exaggerated, last-stitch resistance...to every significant technological change that had taken place on earth. Usually the resistance came from those groups who stood to lose influence, status, money...as a result of the change. Although they never advanced this as their reason for resisting it. It was always the good of humanity that rested upon their hearts.<BR/><BR/>For instance, when the stagecoaches came into England, the canal owners objected. Not that they would lose money, although they would, but they feared for humanity. Because as the stagecoaches tore along at fifteen miles an hour, the air whipping past the nostrils of the people on board, would by Bernoulli's Principle, suck all the air out of the lungs."<BR/><BR/>"There was a whole organization of people on earth who were sore as anything at the people who were trying to get out into space. They thought people should stay on earth and mind their own business."<BR/><BR/>"It never occurred to anybody that there might actually be resistance to the whole notion; people might think it was a rotten idea and a waste of money."<BR/><BR/>I first heard about this story from Dr. Spencer (he was also making the point that people are stupid). But it makes a good point that we typically don't think about as scientists; people are stupid and when we have a theory they will ignore us but when we actually try to build something to test our theory they will try to stop us.Quantumleap42https://www.blogger.com/profile/16711817313734546305noreply@blogger.com