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Current high energy physics research brought us lots of big data advances, electronics advances, sensor advances, as well as the web itself. You dismiss too qui
by ChrisLomont 6y ago
Current high energy physics research brought us lots of big data advances, electronics advances, sensor advances, as well as the web itself. You dismiss too quickly the advances made when attacking large, hard problems.
- erikpukinskis 6y agoHave you considered some of the large, hard problems whose solutions also have immediate benefits?
- ChrisLomont 6y agoYep - but that is not true for most high energy physics. The incredibly short lifetimes and low coupling of most new particles make them mostly unusable for anything we can forsee being useful. Electrons were useful, because they have long lifetimes, are easy to make, and interact well. Higgs bosons are unlikely to be useful as technology ever since they are so ephermeral. And they're certainly not giving immediate benefits.
- Koshkin 6y agoWhy kid ourselves that “we are doing physics,” then? Wouldn’t direct investment in these areas more efficient?
- ChrisLomont 6y ago>Wouldn’t direct investment in these areas more efficient? Often not, because you don't know what areas to choose. Having a big, hard goal to solve usually requires building pieces to solve the problem, and these pieces end up being useful in themselves. Plus the big goal is often achieved. Mankind could have done a lot of the stuff discovered along the way to big goals, but didn't, until the big goals were attempted. Plus, it's often easier to get funding as a nation-state for big goals. Little side projects are often not individually worth chasing. The internet is a good example - it could have been done by industry before the govt decided to chase it as a piece of a big goal.