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The Dominium: Sequencing Antimatter and Gravity Effects: Big Bang to Black Hole; and Implications for a Manmade Near-future Doomsday: End-of-all-life on Earth
Science fiction or science fact? A question that will need to be worked out by the reader and the world scientific community. Although this work is cross-referenced by the most up-to-date scientific journal articles, it has all the trappings of a great science fiction story: divine revelation, doomsday, and scientists blinded by ego
192 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2007
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February 23, 2019
The author is alarmed that physicists are trying to create mini-black holes in laboratories. What if the black holes can't be contained and gradually swallow the entire planet over the course of one or two human generations, leaving us in existential terror?
This is difficult to read. It's not telling the journalistic, human-interest story of physicists' work. It jumps right into technical arguments. It does not seem to have had an editor.
This is written by a white Presbyterian man who converted to Islam, a journey he mentions briefly and never really describes. Many physicists are religious. From my perspective, the fact that he believes in God doesn't in itself delegitimize his scientific ideas, though I would have liked more information on what he sees as the connection between religion and science since those are both highly motivating forces for him.
Here's several things that do delegitimize his ideas, in my view:
1. His own prejudice against disabled people, and his casting of doubt on the accuracy of Stephen Hawking's theory in large part for that reason.
2. He thinks the universe is sending him messages because numbers have numbers in them.
3. He admits that, though he considers his book "highly researched and cross-referenced with the most current understandings of science reported in the highest esteemed of scientific journals," he deliberately marked it as "science fiction" to fool people into buying it. After all, "there are more readers of science-fiction than there are of works of hard science. This work needs to be read by as many people as possible, as soon as possible." (p. XIII)
While I suppose there is a non-zero probability that anything whatsoever can "kill us all" at any time, my personal approach is to worry more about known and agreed-upon existential threats like climate change and nuclear weapon arsenals. I just don't think a black hole in a laboratory is going to be what gets me.
This is difficult to read. It's not telling the journalistic, human-interest story of physicists' work. It jumps right into technical arguments. It does not seem to have had an editor.
This is written by a white Presbyterian man who converted to Islam, a journey he mentions briefly and never really describes. Many physicists are religious. From my perspective, the fact that he believes in God doesn't in itself delegitimize his scientific ideas, though I would have liked more information on what he sees as the connection between religion and science since those are both highly motivating forces for him.
Here's several things that do delegitimize his ideas, in my view:
1. His own prejudice against disabled people, and his casting of doubt on the accuracy of Stephen Hawking's theory in large part for that reason.
"I began this section by stating my disrespect for Mr Hawking. Mistrust is actually a better word. Why should a man confined to a wheelchair for so many years care about the well-being and lives of the able-bodied populations that run, jump, play, and have sex around him? I am serious with this question....He doesn't have any children, does he? As for his own life, what does he truly have to preserve? Honestly, how can anyone trust a man (or his theories) with so little at stake?" (p. 132)
2. He thinks the universe is sending him messages because numbers have numbers in them.
"...I was receiving alarming signs in the form of numbers. Cash register receipts and dockets were all lining up: $18.18, $9.87, $22.22, $3.57, $5.67, $20.00, $44.44, etc. It was scary going to the store, because every day, no matter what I bought the receipts contained numbers that didn't seem to appear by chance. * * * The more I wrote, the more was revealed. My friends described me as a man possessed. I've lost about fifteen pounds as the result of basic lack of hunger. This work took precedent over all else." (p. 157)
3. He admits that, though he considers his book "highly researched and cross-referenced with the most current understandings of science reported in the highest esteemed of scientific journals," he deliberately marked it as "science fiction" to fool people into buying it. After all, "there are more readers of science-fiction than there are of works of hard science. This work needs to be read by as many people as possible, as soon as possible." (p. XIII)
While I suppose there is a non-zero probability that anything whatsoever can "kill us all" at any time, my personal approach is to worry more about known and agreed-upon existential threats like climate change and nuclear weapon arsenals. I just don't think a black hole in a laboratory is going to be what gets me.
Displaying 1 of 1 review