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At some point electromagnetism was a "low level" theory, but now you've taken advantage of all that basic research by typing that comment up in a computer and p
by m0th87 16y ago
At some point electromagnetism was a "low level" theory, but now you've taken advantage of all that basic research by typing that comment up in a computer and publishing it for the world to see. The practical application of this sort of stuff is rarely obvious, and sometimes decades out, but it's certainly there.
- tzs 16y agoI disagree that electromagnetism was ever a "low level" theory in the sense that I'm using. What I mean by a high level theory is that it deals with things that we can reasonably manipulate and interact with in an extended fashion. What I mean by a low level theory is something that deals with the very lowest level building blocks of the universe--things that are locked away inside the "elementary" particles, or that mediate forces like the strong force. We can, with enough energy, coax them out to play--for microseconds, and in small quantity. I'm not saying we shouldn't be doing research into the low level stuff. I'd just like to see something more concrete than "game changing potential for us as a species" to justify the argument that the SSC would have been a better project to fund than the ISS, given that we couldn't have both.
- perlgeek 16y agoSame for quantum mechanics. To understand semiconductors properly, you need quantum mechanics - once an obscure theory that Einstein never accepted. Today's hard discs rely on the Giant Magnetoresistance (GMR), an effect based on the spin polarizations of electrons. Spin is a property that can only be understood with quantum mechanics, there's no proper classic theory (and I guess there never will be) of spin.