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Thank you for expanding on this -- I agree with all of these points. There is a real and tangible, albeit in this case indirect, value to have highly skilled pe

Thank you for expanding on this -- I agree with all of these points. There is a real and tangible, albeit in this case indirect, value to have highly skilled people try to push that boundaries of what is possible technologically. It is easy to forget that the world-wide-web itself had its inception in at CERN -- an institution whose focus is particle physics. In my opinion, another important reason to support of keeping these large accelerators alive is there is a very real chance that the expertise to build these kind of devices could atrophy or be lost entirely given the long timescales involved. Even if one is opposed to building this specific collider, I think the prospect of losing this kind of institutional knowledge is concerning (though if one finds these things useless, you might care less if we lost that capability).

kergonath 6y ago
Oh yes, good point about the Web. I know there’s a lot of cutting edge research on storage and computing distributed across the world to handle the sheer amount of data coming out of the LHC. It’s not implausible that this could help improve the Internet’s architecture. I entirely agree with your second point. I’ll add that it is also important to keep these people (from highly specialised technicians and physicists to diplomats and support staff) employed in positions where they can keep their skills sharp. Some of them then go back to their countries of origin to apply this experience and knowledge to help improve research and policy at home, whilst retaining personal links with their counterparts abroad. In the grand scheme of things, the expenditure is a rounding error anyway.
thetinguy 6y ago
It was lost in the US after the supercollider project was cancelled in the 90s.