“More importantly, everyone can see that nothing useful is coming out of particle physics, it’s just a sink of money.” -cry of a (wo)man hypnotized by capitalis

“More importantly, everyone can see that nothing useful is coming out of particle physics, it’s just a sink of money.” -cry of a (wo)man hypnotized by capitalism. You cannot waste money, we made it up and can make more. Alternatively, you can explore the universe. I would be more open to the idea that the only reason some people want to understand anything is because they want control over it. Here we see that the author only find value in what can be exploited for profit; (s)he wants to control the absolute minutiae of existence and is upset that (s)he cannot claim it as property to lord over. If I were to give an ounce of sympathy to the profit motive of science, then I’d say that the way to profit off the unknown is to get people interested and willing to give money in order to create knowledge of it. In this way, particle physicists are wildly successful in both accumulating “Lots of money”, and in generating new mysteries to (be paid to) explore. Some factories generate fidget spinners, and the LGC generates wonder in existence. I’m happy for the latter.