Personal Argument Task

Introduction:

I shall argue for the claim that our Universe ended in 2012 as a result of an experiment on the Higgs
boson particle at the large Hadron collider at CERN. When the scientists found the Higgs boson, a
black hole or tear in space time was created and our Universe was destroyed. As a result of this
destruction, our collective consciousness was transferred to a digital simulation so that we would
continue to believe that we were living in our current universe. The three main reasons I shall give in
defence of this claim are:

(1) That the transfer was full of glitches, and the digital reality we were transferred to contains
many noticeable errors. For instance, we have distinct memories such as Nelson Mandela dying
in 1989, or that the cartoon character Curious George has a tail, but in our digital simulation,
these facts have now changed. In the simulation, glitches in the matrix show that Curious
George has no tail, and Nelson Mandela died in 2013. (Bakilla, 2019)

(2) The Higgs boson particle was theorised as likely to result in the destruction of the universe,
which is what happened when it was created in 2012. Some scientists have been clear about
this risk, and another scientist from CERN has broken an enforced silence and admitted to their
experiment going wrong via underground information channels such as 4Chan. (Anon, 2016;
Malcolm, 2014)

(3) Government research into Time-Travel in the 1970s at the Montauk Airbase found that
although they could travel into the future, they could not travel past 2012 – there was no
Universe there to travel to. (Preston & Moon, 1992)

My conclusion, that the world was destroyed in 2012, is a radical claim, since it is one I would
not expect most audiences to accept. This has made it harder to support, since the premises
needed to support it are themselves quite radical. I provided support for each of my main
premises which, if accepted, would provide evidence of the main claims, but I acknowledge
that the audience may not accept them either. The most conservative claims are those
supporting the first reason, drawing on experiences the audiences may have had, so I have
focussed on those in my poster to make the argument seem as acceptable as possible.
Word count: 382
In the visual argument, I shall focus on the main claim and reason one.
Standardisation:

C: The Universe was destroyed in 2012 by the large Hadron collider, and our Universe has been
recreated as an imperfect digital simulation.
1. The digital recreation of our Universe is full of factual glitches.
1.1. Many people have distinct memories of Nelson Mandela dying in 1989, but in our
simulation, Nelson Mandela is reported to have died in 2013
1.2. Many people have distinct memories of Curious George having a tail, but in our
simulation, Curious George’s tail is missing.
[Sub-premises 1.1 and 1.2 Convergen]
2. Scientists knew the destructive power of the Higgs boson, and have admitted that it
destroyed our Universe.
2.1 Dr Robert Hogan and Dr Malcolm Fairburn from KCL have spoken and written about how
the Higgs boson makes the Universe unstable.
2.2 A scientist from CERN has admitted that a 2012 experiment destroyed the Universe in a
4Chan thread from 2016.
[Sub-premises 2.1. and 2.2 are linked]
3 In the real, non-digital Universe, time-travellers found that there no time or space to travel to
after 2012.
3.1 The US Government conducted time-travel experiments from the 1970s at the Montauk
Airbase in Long Island.
3.2 Preston B. Nichols’ reports on the Montauk Project showed that time-travel from the
1970s into the future was only possible as far 2012 due to a space-time “wall”
preventing any further travel.
[Sub-premises 3.1 and 3.2 are linked]
[Premises 1, 2 and 3 are linked]
References:
• Anon. 2016. “I am one of the 23 Research scientists responsible for what you call the
Mandela Effect”. 4Chan. 22 August 2016. Viewed 31 July 2020.
https://randomarchive.com/board/b/thread/700602767/i-am-one-of-23-
scientistsresponsible-for-what-you-call-the-mandela
• Bakilla, Blake. (2019). “40 Mandela Effect Examples That Will Blow Your Mind”. Good
Housekeeping. Viewed 30 July 2020.
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/entertainment/g28438966/mandela-
effectexamples/
• Fairburn, Malcolm. 2014. “The (Brout-Englert) Higgs boson and the Stability of the
Universe”. Dark London Skies. Web Log. Viewed 30 July 2020.
https://darklondonskies.com/2014/06/25/the-brout-englert-higgs-boson-and-thestability-
of-the-universe/
• Nichols, Preston B. and Moon, Peter. (1992). The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time. Sky
Books.