Debating Doomsday Scenarios in Public: Historical and Philosophical Issues

I’ll discuss historical and philosophical issues raised by the 35-year history of the issue of how best to discuss the extremely remote but possibly nonzero potential that accelerators can create abnormal matter.  The talk will touch on the theoretical idea of Lee-Wick matter (1973), the Bear Mountain conference at which the possible dangers of abnormal matter were first mentioned (1974), the discussions of whether or not to air these issues in public that took place in connection with the Bevalac accelerator at Berkeley (1977) and the Michigan Cyclotron in Ann Arbor (1978), discussions in connection with the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven on Long Island (1983) and as the machine neared completion (2000), and early LHC attempts to confront the issue (2003).  How best to debate, in public, hazards with a scientific-technological dimension touches on issues of trust, expertise, scientific education, and democratic decision-making.