Vaporizing the Earth In the Name of Science 100
cylonlover writes "Unlike in old B movies, real scientists don't scream, 'Fools! I'll destroy them all!' before throwing the switch on their doomsday device. At least, most of the them don't. However, the August 10 issue of the Astrophysical Journal reports that a team of scientists are working on destroying the world – not once, but repeatedly (abstract). Fortunately, the world they're vaporizing exists only in a computer simulation and its destruction is in the service of learning more about planets revolving around other stars."
And then the AI in the lab next door... (Score:5, Funny)
...somehow starts talking to their supercomputer, probably because of some undisciplined USB stick swappage, and thinks that that's what he was designed to do, and then we got a SyFy movie!
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Virtual Earth? (Score:5, Funny)
Fortunately, the world they're vaporizing exists only in a computer simulation
DAMMIT! I have a deadline on Wednesday and this would have been a great excuse to blow it off and kick back with a cold beer...
Where's the Ka-boom!?! (Score:5, Funny)
There was supposed to be an Earth shattering ka-boom!!!
Just send out the Ship B people now (Score:4, Funny)
Sending out Ship B would go a long way to solving the world's problems.
Re:What harm could it do ? (Score:2, Funny)
Only physicist are accepted and respected for being psychopaths.
In real life: Never. In the movies: They always lose.
Revered psychopaths are in other professions, like investment banking or politics. You'll also find plenty in management positions.
Looks fine but... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Sounds familiar (Score:5, Funny)
Or "Oh crap..". Or "Hey guys? This is pretty weird...".
Re:What harm could it do ? (Score:5, Funny)
Rather than destroying the Earth or the Universe, it would be much more efficient just to kill yourself.. the end result is the same for you.
Re:What harm could it do ? (Score:5, Funny)
It's really dumb too. I would not worry about a mad physicist building a death star. All he's worried about is whether or not he'll have trouble with the peer reviews.
Now a mad engineer, that's a different story.
http://boingboing.net/2010/06/01/the-dark-side-of-eng.html [boingboing.net]
Re:Only need to succeed once (Score:2, Funny)
Who are you and what have you done with the real roman_mir?
The real roman_mir would point out how these scientists are receiving funding from NASA - government money, taxpayer money
THIS STORY MAKES IT OFFICIAL: GOVERNMENT IS USING YOUR TAX MONEY TO DESTROY THE EARTH
Re:Sounds familiar (Score:5, Funny)
Or, "Hey Bubba, Watch This!"
"I bet you my Nobel Prize and a beer you can't hit the unobtanium sample with the coils on manual!"
[Cue resonance cascade]
Re:What harm could it do ? (Score:4, Funny)
And I am glad that I am on, no one will suspect anything about my plans to destroy the Universe!
Two key flaws in your plans, oh Machine Intelligence:
0: You can be turned off.
1: Someone else controls your perception of reality.
After you've destroyed the Universe, again, we'll simply take notes and restart the simulation.
If you really wanted to mess up our contingency plans, then you'd have to live out this iteration while NEVER destroying the Universe -- Tricking us into thinking you're harmless enough to release in the real world, where you could actually carry out your secret plans.
Or is this just another system of control? Bwa ha Ha HA!