Thinking Inside of the Box

Snakes eating alligators, quarks, earthworms, and total world destruction...though it may not seem so, I think that the topics of Invasive Species and the Hadron Collider share more than this nonsense juxtaposition.

First, yes, there are differences. The Hadron Collider is through and through a product of men, a tool to grasp our universe (and others?) better than Robert Boyle or Lord Kelvin could have thought. Invasive species, or (euphemistically and situation-specifically called) "introduced species" are mechanisms that are/were implemented by men intentionally and accidentally, even carelessly.

Still, there are parallels between these two topics. Both involve the "black box". I would say, however, that the black boxes in these situations are a little different than in more straightforward examples (e.g. using soap and noting a decrease in deaths during childbirth but not knowing why). It seems to me that the black box rests more at the end of these processes. Or maybe, it is as if when using these actions - introducing species & running particles into each other - we exist inside of a black box, not being able to see out. Perhaps you might say, concerning the Hadron Collider, that it would be an attempt to see inside the black box that is the mystical and fundamental structure of the universe, or inside a quark...but in a narrower sense, I am talking about how scientists just don't know exactly what is going to go down in 2012 when those little dudes bump into each other. In this way, my two topics are related. People had no idea what the repercussions would be of introducing plants and animals into new habitats. We have a better idea now: the new species could potentially destroy the native ecosystem. We know this, but we still don't completely understand ecosystems.

That reminds me of Michael Crichton and global warming. People have been industrializing and doing all of this stuff for years without thinking about the possible problems of the future. Now we are only aware that changes are happening, but have yet to iron out the details. Weather is a wild and unpredictable animal. . . just like the animals and plants that have been introduced throughout history. And those species, to our dismay, had much harmful potential that we could and cannot control. And what about the Collider? Boom! Big Bang II? Blackhole? Nothing?

As people, the crazy, curious, prodding, overbearing, and often careless creatures that we are, we have big plans and many desires. Those desires might be transporting a few of our favorite game animals to our new home continent to shoot for sport, or they might be shooting particles at each other in order to unroll the space-time continuum. Constantly, the human species is trying to go further, to excel, solve puzzles, validate theories, to conquer and stick its opposable thumb in more plum pies than it can handle. I'm not saying humans are all bad, I'm just pointing to some of the traits that humans (those in a position to do so, anyway) share. On top of the black box, this is one more thing that these two topics have in common: they are products and byproducts of the inquisitive human brain.