This summer a 26 mile long machine called the Large Hadron Collider will be switched on under the Franco Swiss borders under the commission of CERN. The purpose of this machine is in order to unravel some of the deepest mysteries of our universe, using it we will be able to recreate the conditions that were present seconds after the big bang, allowing us to know how the universe was formed, we will also be able to explain why it is that subatomic particles are massless on the microscopic scale but seem to have mass on the macroscopic scale.
Many who have already read about this will know that there are associated dangers with this machine, dangers which some have deemed so worrying that even a law suit has been filed against CERN. These dangers regard the energy levels found within the Collider, which could potentially cause disasters such as micro black holes and tiny particles called strangelets, which could turn the whole earth in to nothing but a mass of strange matter.
But these things are of no worry to me. Mathematical predictions which according to everything we know about the universe should be almost certain show that the black holes should evaporate, similarly strangelets are a fringe view held by few scientists. The theory is actually laughed at by most of the scientific community. These things, whilst they seem worrying are shown
By mathematics to have a very small chance of actually happening.
No, the thing that worries me most of all about the LHC being switched on is what it will stand for. This experiment has the potential to destroy the earth, the odds of the earth actually being destroyed might be very small, but it still has the potential, therefore the scientists are essentially make a gamble, it might be a well informed one, but it is still a gamble.
What worries me so, what turns the LHC in to an ethical monstrosity is the fact that they are gambling with the earth itself. When was our planet the property of scientists to gamble with? I did not give my consent to have my life gambled with, but like it or not, within the next summer it will happen. What’s more this is no democratically decided motion; we haven’t simply lost out because we didn’t vote. This experiment is being carried out by a private enterprise; we have no choice but to accept it.
It is bad enough that the governments of the world gambled with our planet once before with the creation of the A-Bomb but the day that the LHC is turned on is the day that something far more terrifying happens. It is the day that private industry is allowed to gamble with the public’s life for nothing but financial gain and a greed for knowledge.
Would it have been too much to get United Nations consent first? I accept that even with United Nations consent it is hardly a democratic decision, but even then it would have still been something. But no, the governments of the world simply do not seem to be addressing this issue. Instead they stand by under facades of democracy, full in the knowledge that our lives will be gambled with.
Private industry has always found ways to exploit people, it has always in a sense gambled with the lives of people (need I remind folk of the nestle disaster?) Yet activation of the LHC is the most flagrant attempt yet. It is in clear view, yet there will be no public review, there will be no United Nations consultation and there will be no fine. No one will ask us whether we consent to have our homes
and our essences put in to this giant game of rullet. Where do we stop? This summer private industry will discover that it can get away with gambling the publics lives, and when they know they can get away with it, when will they stop? Our autonomy is not now bound simply by laws but has been ripped from us, simply because they can.
I accept that some governments in the world have indeed backed this machine, including the British government. However rather than showing the LHC has support does it not instead show that our government is not only letting this corporate rape on the rights of our lives happen, it is actively supporting it?
There will always be human progression, it is our instinct, but this summer the nietchszen morality present in our world as a result of that progression will really come through. This summer on a day that we do not even yet know a scientist some where will be playing the biggest game of cosmic cards ever played, you and me and every one we know will be in the middle of the table in this game. The question you should ask is, even if the scientist is renowned for playing good hands, even if he is poker world champion, are you quite happy to be his bet?