…but if they do make a black hole…it’s a cool way to go out right? You’d have a cool story in the after-life/parallel universe

The point here is that we couldn’t all die. There is no risk. As the abstract of the paper says: “Indeed, conservative arguments based on detailed calculations and the best-available scientific knowledge, including solid astronomical data, conclude, from multiple perspectives, that there is no risk of any significance whatsoever from such black holes.”

However, the similarity is that in both cases “negligible” means, that it is small enough that we don’t need to adjust our behavior based upon the risk.

The risk of the LHC creating a black hole which destroys the planet is almost identical to the risk of your walking to the shop, creating a black hole, and destroying the planet, relative to the risk of being run over.

I think the idea that over 10,000 scientists, engineers, and technicians (who all contribute to the machine) would follow a “party line” seriously underestimates the regard scientists have for their own lives and the lives of their families, and also the degree to which this group think in unison. Scientists in a group are some of the most argumentative, contrary people you can collect because the nature of science is that scientists argue against each other to test ideas.

Interesting that the people at CERN think that any risk of destroying the planet can be regarded as “negligible”

There’s a negligible risk of getting run over if I walk to the shop.

Now.. if someone told me that walking to the shop incurred a “negligible” risk of creating a black hole and destroying the planet. I’d rethink my options.

However, if I was then told that €6.3bn had been spent enabling me to walk to the shop, and that my head would roll if I didn’t go, then I’d forget about armageddon and do as I was told.