Have you ever wondered if the universe isn't simply in a beaker in a lab somewhere with a solution of molecules mixed up by a lab technician, a giant chemistry experiment with our solar system just one of the trillions of molecules? I have, I've even hypothesised that life itself could be some kind of catalyst sprinkled into the mix to cause some kind of reaction.
The theory goes that life always ends up at the same inevitable conclusion, the way it reacts with the universe is predictable. You can predict it as reliably as, ice melts when you heat it, or iron filings stick to a magnet. Take a solar system, add life, wait between five or ten billion years and capow! (Whatever your waiting for, that happens).
So every time I see that some particle physicists are getting ready to do some new enormous experiment I think is this it, is this us reaching boiling point, is this our turn to fizz?
The CERN particle accelerator 27 kilometres below the Swiss - French border is due to be switched on in May. The multi billion pound project is for the purpose of accelerating two beams of protons up to close to light speed and then colliding them at energies of 14 trillion electronvolts, whatever that means.
It begs the question why would anyone go to such great lengths to do this? One answer:
Physicists hope the LHC’s experiments will reveal new worlds of unknown particles and explain why those particles exist and behave as they do. Scientists will also search for the origins of mass, study the universe as it existed shortly after the big bang, and try to uncover hidden symmetries of the universe and extra dimensions of space.
A view from the Sun newspaper:
LINK. . . this may tear the fabric of the universe and result in a “wormhole” linking our time with the future.
My hypothesise is that it is hard wired into us to do this. It's in our programming. The same answer to why to teenage boys and girls suddenly feel compelled to rub their genitals together in such a way that they end up with a rather inconvenient bundle of joy to leave round their Nan's house while they revise.
What bundle of joy this action will produce I don't know, but even if CERN doesn't do it in May you know we will, maybe not for a couple more million years, maybe it would be another species, but that's the thing about intelligent life, it just has to ask these questions.
Of course the bigger picture is: what exactly is the point of the guy with the lab coat and beaker who's mixing this whole thing up anyway, but asking questions like that can end you up with a 27 kilometer supercooled tube in the side of a Swiss mountain and that kind of thing should probably be avoided.