This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but with a whimper.
- T. S. Ellot, The Hollow Men (1925)

I was surfing around the Sunday Times of London site not too long ago, when I discovered an article that I found particularly interesting. Apparently, the Brookhaven Institute on Long Island has test-fired their new heavy material particle accelerator, which ultimately will be used to accelerate gold and iron and the like and slam it together, forming a reaction about 10,000 times as powerful as the sun's similar reactions.

It should be very interesting -- high energy physics always is, and we may learn a good amount about how the universe works. And, according to my Science Buddy Jon, we have reactions of similar or more levels of power from cosmic rays slamming into the atmosphere rather often. Which is no doubt true, although it's not the same interaction.

The scientific community is abuzz and excited about the possibilities, though they have one very mild reservation. You seem they're not positive that the experiments won't destroy the Earth.

Ex-squeeze me? Baking-powder?

Well, you see, we've never slammed such heavy materials together at such a high percentage of lightspeed (99.999%) before, and we're not entirely sure what might happen. One very remote theoretical possibility is the creation of so-called Strange Quarks, which interact differently with the universe than normal matter does. A black hole may spontaneously develop. Other such things might happen too. And they might be capable of obliterating the entire planet in the bat of an eyelash.

Astounding. Now this is science like we were raised to expect science to be, damn it! Not merely a "radiation accident" or "minor setback," but the complete and utter obliteration of all humanity, all humanity's works, or indeed any sign that humanity ever existed.

No one has suggested they not do the experiment. I don't suggest it either. You see, the chance this will happen, if that one theory is correct, is somewhat less than a trillionth of one percent. Which is in the acceptable range.

But still. >Poof.< No more Disneyland. No more McDonalds. No more digital watches. No more Internet. No more me. No more you. No more Donald Trump. No more Madonna.

Staggering thought, isn't it.

It doesn't scare me, though. Frankly, while this would be an epic, tragic event (the ultimate human tragedy -- the end of humanity and her world themselves), it wouldn't be a bad way to go. All of us at the same time. No mourning. No gnashing of teeth. No pain. No fear. Just suddenly, in a billionth of a second, all the lights get turned out at the same time, and we have a really long line at whatever happens next. (I'm hoping it's alphabetical by last name. Burns may not be the front of the Queue, but it's sure well ahead of Zobkiew.)

It's humbling, but also egalitarian. Bill Gates would die as fast as you would. So would the President. So would Tom Cruise. The rich, the famous, the powerful... they'd all go just as fast as the poor, the nameless, the powerless. It would simply happen all at once.

So how does one fear this? How does one fear simply... stopping? No lingering disease or painful car crash. Just lights out and thank you kindly. Frankly, it's a better way to die than most.

Save of course that there'd be no one left to mourn, but you know -- mourning is overrated. Mourning is a commemoration of a life, but it's mostly an excuse to pity one's self. To realize that a part of our world has left us, and we have to move on alone. But, if we all go together, none of us have to endure that loss. It's just... there.

Who knows what will happen? Maybe we'll learn something massively useful from this. Maybe it'll be the key to some serendipitous discovery. Maybe the research will produce exactly what results are expected. And, well, maybe we'll all die instantly, our very planet missing, our sun destabilized by a sudden singularity in its system, the moon sucked in and the planets suddenly wobbling in their orbits. Heck, maybe it's experiments like this that have kept other life forms from visiting. You get to a certain level of technical development, you create an experiment slamming heavy materials together in a particle accelerator, and your race vanishes.

Either way, I'm kind of looking forward to the experiment. And making my peace with the universe, but that's always wise.