Why? Why would you build this thing? How are you even going to use it, when it requires more electricity to run than the whole planet produces?
Why would your example of how the laser works look exactly like the Death Star beam? Who do you think you're fooling, science? We've been here before, we know your tricks.
The idea is obviously to rip space-time so we can ask the future a question.Specifically, that question will be how to close the horror rift.
Why? Why would you build this thing? How are you even going to use it, when it requires more electricity to run than the whole planet produces?They plan to build up the electricity over time or something. The thing only fires for a trillionth of a second.
Why would your example of how the laser works look exactly like the Death Star beam? Who do you think you're fooling, science? We've been here before, we know your tricks.
...a giant laser that can emit a beam with an amount of energy equivalent to all of the power the Earth receives from the sun combined...
Wait, I have a better idea.Quote...a giant laser that can emit a beam with an amount of energy equivalent to all of the power the Earth receives from the sun combined...
Solution: Build a magnifying glass the size of the Earth. Bam, laser.
!!SCIENCE!!I believe destroying space itself would qualify. :P
But jesus christ, between this and CERN going faster than light, chances are the Universe is gonna go "fuck you" and collapse.
In related news, I have just found the perfect hood ornament for my car.You'd probably destroy time and space itself, but yes. It would help get people out of the way :P
That's a practical plan, yes? Never worry about traffic again.
In related news, I have just found the perfect hood ornament for my car.You'd probably destroy time and space itself, but yes. It would help get people out of the way :P
That's a practical plan, yes? Never worry about traffic again.
The idea is obviously to rip space-time so we can ask the future a question.Specifically, that question will be how to close the horror rift.
Well what's the point of ripping a hole in the fabric of reality if you fix it before meeting any brainmelting cosmic horrors? Y'know, like Ayn Rand.
Somehow I don't think that driving the insane even more insane would help.Well what's the point of ripping a hole in the fabric of reality if you fix it before meeting any brainmelting cosmic horrors? Y'know, like Ayn Rand.
We just have to shoot a few copies of Atlas shrugged through the hole, and they'll give up :P
Throw me in. And give me my axe.Somehow I don't think that driving the insane even more insane would help.Well what's the point of ripping a hole in the fabric of reality if you fix it before meeting any brainmelting cosmic horrors? Y'know, like Ayn Rand.
We just have to shoot a few copies of Atlas shrugged through the hole, and they'll give up :P
Why would your example of how the laser works look exactly like the Death Star beam? Who do you think you're fooling, science? We've been here before, we know your tricks.I'm glad I'm not the only one who saw Death Star in that. It's funny, I watched a show only two years ago claiming that making a laser work in that manner isn't possible. So much for that.
If you tear apart the vacuum of space, what's the vacuum equivalent inside a vacuum? One powerful sucker, I would suspect.I don't think you understand. There shouldn't be anything below the vacuum. That's the end. We will have truly ripped a hole into nothing. Which, for our sake, hopefully does not create a black hole or something equally horrible.
It's already been done before anyway, just not on this fucking massive scale.If you tear apart the vacuum of space, what's the vacuum equivalent inside a vacuum? One powerful sucker, I would suspect.I don't think you understand. There shouldn't be anything below the vacuum. That's the end. We will have truly ripped a hole into nothing. Which, for our sake, hopefully does not create a black hole or something equally horrible.
The real question is, is this laser going to be powerful enough? They might need to build 9 more of these and combine them into a single beam.The idea is that a laser is much more focused than a warhead.
Another thought: If this laser is going to be that powerful, won't it melt itself when its fired? I thought one of the major physical limitations to the output of lasers was that they'd boil their mirrors away and not work. If not, could they retire the laser, put a big mirror into orbit and bounce it over the horizon to potentially melt hostile foreign people?
Along those lines... don't nuclear warheads generate temperatures similar to what this laser is designed to achieve? Do they just generate too much excess noise to detect these particles they hope to study?
I don't think you understand. There shouldn't be anything below the vacuum. That's the end. We will have truly ripped a hole into nothing. Which, for our sake, hopefully does not create a black hole or something equally horrible.
1 laser isn't enough; 10 lasers combining into a single super-laser aren't enough; we need 10 super lasers combined (from 10 lasers each) to form an ultima-laser.
Here's what i have in mind:
(http://fractalfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/fractiontree170.jpg)
The Star Wars Death Stars were under-achievers.
EDIT:
Screw that. If it's worth overdoing it, it's worth over-overdoing it.
We need 10 ultima-lasers to be certain, forming the God's Laser Pen.
EDIT EDIT:
Then again, I think God would suggest making 9 more of His laser pens, and combine them together to make him a laser flashlight. He can blind the Devil from dimensions away for the hell of it.
We can go beyond the impossible and combine 10 GL-Flashlights and make Him a light saber that can nuke universes.
It's called dirt, dust, grime, and hair.I don't think you understand. There shouldn't be anything below the vacuum. That's the end. We will have truly ripped a hole into nothing. Which, for our sake, hopefully does not create a black hole or something equally horrible.Well. Since we rip open a hole of nothing and find a large amount of mass inside.
Well. I think that would be awesome.
It's called dirt, dust, grime, and hair.
Vacuums are normally filled with it.
Wait, Science is having a mid-life crisis? It makes so much sense now.Now all we need is a pimp sportship! That can ram through asteroid fields without a scratch! AND A GIANT SPACE MEGAPHONE
It makes so much sense now. The giant supercollider, getting into existential questions about the nature of neutrons, and now overcompensating with a big-ass laser.
Another thought: If this laser is going to be that powerful, won't it melt itself when its fired? I thought one of the major physical limitations to the output of lasers was that they'd boil their mirrors away and not work.This (or something like it; often it's not mirrors but other components that are fragile) is why major lasers like this combine multiple beams.
See: Death StarAnother thought: If this laser is going to be that powerful, won't it melt itself when its fired? I thought one of the major physical limitations to the output of lasers was that they'd boil their mirrors away and not work.This (or something like it; often it's not mirrors but other components that are fragile) is why major lasers like this combine multiple beams.
At no time will the full beam be passed through any given lasing chamber or material. At most you need one lens to focus the multiple beams. More likely you just aim them all at the same target as with inertial fusion lasers like the NIF.
Why? Why would you build this thing? How are you even going to use it, when it requires more electricity to run than the whole planet produces?Well, essentially they're delivering a pretty damn small amount of energy very quickly. Less than 2kJ, even (so uh... about 3 seconds of lightbulb). So an array of batteries would be fine.
My complete ass-pull prediction: We'll find that the fabric of spacetime is much like the skin of a balloon, and this laser will melt a hole in the cosmic balloon, causing it to fly around wildly for several seconds while making colossal rude noises.
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 a BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP
I don't like this whole fabric of space time thing though. Either I'm uneducated or it's a very vague concept. A fabric? Like some sort of textile? Made out of what?Reality.
Thank you, Science, and thank you, Scientists. Thank you for never being afraid to ask for vast amounts of money to build a groundbreaking death laser intended to annihilate space.I can only imagine what they had to say to the people who don't understand the exact science of this in order to get funding.
I don't want to be that guy, but the worlds governments really need to shut this down.As if you're not curious what lies below the below, in the darkest depths of irreality?
I am not much impressed by this project. It will just be some energy (200 kJoules = 50 gramm TNT, doesn't sound like militarily significant) that will be concentrated in tiny space. Experiments on laser ignited nuclear fusion already deal with more energy that is less concentrated and LHC - with less energy that has higher concentration.Not 200kJ, 200PW. Even for only a split second, you still need an incredible amount of voltage. More than the Earth currently has, unless they can ramp up the current like mad.
I don't want to be that guy, but the worlds goverments really need to shut this down.Why? It's probably not dangerous.
Yes, what could possibly go wrong?I don't want to be that guy, but the worlds goverments really need to shut this down.Why? It's probably not dangerous.
Why does this even need to be researched? Nobody should never invent something capable of fucking up the whole world.Because it's not capable of fucking up the whole world?
200PWh in a trillionth of a second is quite a significantly 'split' second. So no, you don't need an enormous amount of voltage, just the ability to deliver it all at the same incredibly tiny timespan to the same place, which in many ways is much more difficult.I don't want to be that guy, but the worlds governments really need to shut this down.As if you're not curious what lies below the below, in the darkest depths of irreality?I am not much impressed by this project. It will just be some energy (200 kJoules = 50 gramm TNT, doesn't sound like militarily significant) that will be concentrated in tiny space. Experiments on laser ignited nuclear fusion already deal with more energy that is less concentrated and LHC - with less energy that has higher concentration.Not 200kJ, 200PW. Even for only a split second, you still need an incredible amount of voltage. More than the Earth currently has, unless they can ramp up the current like mad.
This. The vacuum of space is different from space itself, which would require gravitational distortion to tamper with at all. If you've heard of vacuum energy, this is taking that and pumping a ton of energy into it to make it more visible. Like a really short-lived burst from a guitar amp - the guitar isn't making a lot of noise, it's the energy we're putting through the 'speakers'. Really not that exotic.Why does this even need to be researched? Nobody should never invent something capable of fucking up the whole world.Because it's not capable of fucking up the whole world?
I don't want to be that guy, but the worlds goverments really need to shut this down.I'm totally behind this statement. I mean, the A-bomb did not ignite the atmosphere, CERN did not create a black hole, but one of these days we'll just run out of our luck and Something BadTM will happen.
Madness! It keeps changing! What could it mean?!Not 200kJ, 200PW.200PWh
I don't want to be that guy, but the worlds goverments really need to shut this down.
I'm not fucking with forces that very well hold space together.I don't want to be that guy, but the worlds goverments really need to shut this down.
I think governments need to shut you down.
I'm not fucking with forces that very well hold space together.Nor do you understand them. I mean, do you want nuclear power banned because that's tampering with the forces that hold atoms together? What about coal mining, which fucks with the very earth under our feet? Fire, because it messes with the air we breath and the matter we build, eat, and are made of?
Don't listen to Cthulhu! He's got a hidden agenda! He's been waiting for this moment since eons before time!I'm not fucking with forces that very well hold space together.I don't want to be that guy, but the worlds goverments really need to shut this down.
I think governments need to shut you down.
No, but theres a difference between screwing an area up and screwing the hole damn universe up.I'm not fucking with forces that very well hold space together.Nor do you understand them. I mean, do you want nuclear power banned because that's tampering with the forces that hold atoms together? What about coal mining, which fucks with the very earth under our feet? Fire, because it messes with the air we breath and the matter we build, eat, and are made of?
That's the spirit!Its a shame we couldnt wait till the velocirapture...
Besides, if something this minor can screw up reality itself, we were bound to do it on accident sooner or later anyway. Best to just get it out of the way and say hello to the Rift Daemons right now.
Sorry, I was mistaken, it's probably just 200PW - the s is generally left off. Thinking of 200PW as 'a lot' without thinking of time-frame is like leaving off the per-hour in MPH, only more acceptable because generally what you're assumed to be talking about is joules per second if you don't have it indicated. Wattage is a measure of joules per second. So 1 trillionth of a second of 200PW is equal to about 1000 joules? I don't know, my conversions might be off and I'm not great with math, but it's certainly not going to burn a hole through the planet or anything, let alone space-time itself.Madness! It keeps changing! What could it mean?!Not 200kJ, 200PW.200PWh
So 1 trillionth of a second of 200PW is equal to about 1000 joules?It's 1MJ actually.
Fun fact, ~400PJ is what you'd get from e.g. completely annihilating your cat. Assuming it'd take a whole second, then you'd have a 400PW cat. It could power two such lasers easily!
Fun fact, ~400PJ is what you'd get from e.g. completely annihilating your cat. Assuming it'd take a whole second, then you'd have a 400PW cat. It could power two such lasers easily!
So what you're saying is, the laser will work fine, as soon as we invent a total mass-conversion reactor. Sounds like a solid first step to me.
Fun fact, ~400PJ is what you'd get from e.g. completely annihilating your cat. Assuming it'd take a whole second, then you'd have a 400PW cat. It could power two such lasers easily!Your cat is two Tsar Bombas, just chilling out, making cute noises and scratching up your furniture every day. Just sitting around being a cat. Think about it, maaaaaaan.
So what you're saying is, the laser will work fine, as soon as we invent a total mass-conversion reactor. Sounds like a solid first step to me.I dunno, are you not aware that there are already lasers that run at a higher power than the entire world's power output (http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/texans-build-wo/)? I mean this probably isn't gonna be that big a step up in terms of laser technology (the big thing seems to be "use a lot of these powerful lasers we already have").
Einstein taught us that each time we're taking a dump, we produce a potential few-megaton bomb.Fun fact, ~400PJ is what you'd get from e.g. completely annihilating your cat. Assuming it'd take a whole second, then you'd have a 400PW cat. It could power two such lasers easily!Your cat is two Tsar Bombas, just chilling out, making cute noises and scratching up your furniture every day. Just sitting around being a cat. Think about it, maaaaaaan.
I dunno, are you not aware that there are already lasers that run at a higher power than the entire world's power output (http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/texans-build-wo/)? I mean this probably isn't gonna be that big a step up in terms of laser technology (the big thing seems to be "use a lot of these powerful lasers we already have").Apparently each of the 10 lasers will be about thrice as powerful as the most powerful current laser.
are you not aware that there are already lasers that run at a higher power than the entire world's power output (http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/texans-build-wo/)?
femtoseconds
About that. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femtosecond)Quotefemtoseconds
Oh, nevermind. They're just makin' crap up.
C'mon, guys, this is how psuedoscientific fear-mongering gets started, re. LHC fiasco, with people actually trying to ban the thing.
About that. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femtosecond)Quotefemtoseconds
Oh, nevermind. They're just makin' crap up.
Damn, Texas. You crazy!The firing mechanism will be a S&W
Keep up the good !!WORK!!.
The Z machine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_machine) can already pump out 80 times the world energy production for a duration 200 nanoseconds. It's not like we've never done extreme stuff like this before.I don't want to be that guy, but the worlds governments really need to shut this down.As if you're not curious what lies below the below, in the darkest depths of irreality?I am not much impressed by this project. It will just be some energy (200 kJoules = 50 gramm TNT, doesn't sound like militarily significant) that will be concentrated in tiny space. Experiments on laser ignited nuclear fusion already deal with more energy that is less concentrated and LHC - with less energy that has higher concentration.Not 200kJ, 200PW. Even for only a split second, you still need an incredible amount of voltage. More than the Earth currently has, unless they can ramp up the current like mad.
If you tear apart the vacuum of space, what's the vacuum equivalent inside a vacuum? One powerful sucker, I would suspect.I don't think you understand. There shouldn't be anything below the vacuum. That's the end. We will have truly ripped a hole into nothing. Which, for our sake, hopefully does not create a black hole or something equally horrible.
"We can put materials into states that you can’t access here on earth," said Mikael Martinez, the laser project’s manager. "You’d have to go out into space and hang out with an exploding star to observe what we plan to observe here in Texas."
couple hundred femtoseconds (that’s 10-15 seconds)I almost did a facepalm here till I realized that it's supposed to be 10-15, and the superscript just didn't carry over. I really hope it wasn't like that in the original article.
I think they may use Marx generators (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marx_generator)
The Marx generator will produce Engels-waves which should allow the inherently unstable isotope of Leninium to undergo a rapid Stalinisation in mere trockoseconds.Thus establishing the triumph of the People's physics over the decadent bourgeois vacuum. Down with capitalist emptiness! We will replace vacuum with the bounty of the Proletariat!
The Marx generator will produce Engels-waves which should allow the inherently unstable isotope of Leninium to undergo a rapid Stalinisation in mere trockoseconds.