Spacetime Rip

by wjw on November 4, 2011

The Europeans, I am delighted to report, are planning on punching a hole in spacetime.

(Into which, my cynicism tempts me to add, they will throw billions in their soon-to-be-worthless currency.)

The combined power of 10 separate lasers would be focused down to a very small volume, creating conditions more extreme than in the center of our sun. It is hoped (yes, hoped) that this immense energy will punch a hole through the fabric of spacetime itself, heralding a new era of exotic physics discovery.

To which I can only say: Awesome! This sucker works just like the Death Star!

The Extreme Light Infrastructure Ultra-High Field Facility has yet to be built, and Hungary, Romania, and the Czech Republic are now building big lasers in hopes that the selection will light upon them. So even if these countries never get the facility, they’ll still have these freaking huge lasers to play with!

Gotta love that.

The point of the ELI is to examine virtual matter and the quantum vacuum and maybe find dark matter blah blah blah.

But dude . . . big freaking lasers!

What more do I need to say?

John Appel November 4, 2011 at 2:00 pm: Countdown until the frivolous lawsuits claiming this will imperil the earth via some exotic cosmic doom scenario (as with the “LHC will create black holes that will swallow the earth”) begins in 3…2…1…

But yeah, big freaking lasers!
wjw November 4, 2011 at 11:14 pm: It was actually difficult to find any science news on this, so full was Google of fringe sites deploring the event. Most seemed to think that the spacetime rip would be permanent, not something that would last milliseconds.

Most of them also felt that God would not approve of a rip in spacetime. I wish I knew the mind of God as well as these people do.
PCB November 5, 2011 at 3:09 am: Actually, if these big freaking lasers can at least function to get outside the atmosphere, they might have a beneficial effect. Just think, what a way to get rid of some of the space junk floating around up there! Every time they fire them off, they are bound to burn up some of the junk floating around! GOD forbid they hit an existing satellite and create any new junk!
DensityDuck November 5, 2011 at 4:58 am: What could go wrong?
TC/The Writer Underground November 5, 2011 at 3:27 pm: I’m with the Duck. First they open some kind of tear in the fabric of spacetime, and next thing you know the streets are filled with angry, drooling extremist zombies trying to eat the brains of the living.

At least that’s what my casual survey of contemporary literature tells me.

Then again, I guess the House of Representatives already exists, so I say let ‘er rip…’
Rick November 6, 2011 at 3:04 am: I thought for sure that someone would make a reference to Days of Atonement.