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Are there any predictions for possible daily-life-affecting spin-offs from the new physics itself, rather than just from the engineering advances made in the se

Are there any predictions for possible daily-life-affecting spin-offs from the new physics itself, rather than just from the engineering advances made in the search? Or do the energies involved preclude any direct practical uses?

eswangren 14y ago
That's a nearly impossible question really. Who could have predicted that Einstein's research would eventually lead to cellular phones?
claudius 14y ago
The energies themselves aren’t that high, the problem is that the energy densities are high - the Planck mass, for example, which is usually taken as the highest possible energy in particle physics beyond which we have to take gravity into account, is equivalent to a mere 21 μg. However, ‘practical’ uses of these physics are not immediately obvious in the way special relativity is necessary to get decent GPS[0]. Nevertheless, both the engineering advances _and_ the mathematical tools invented during such research prove very useful time and time again - methodology from String Theory, for example, is used in trying to find dynamical descriptions of superconductors, which, if found, will affect daily life strongly (hopefully). The key point to keep in mind here is that predictions about the future are rather hard and we have no idea what weird things people come up with in twenty or thirty years time, let alone a hundred years. Or could you have predicted the global cat picture viewing machine mentioned next door in 1913? [0] And to understand why more than 3 to 4 GHz are rather impractical if you want to keep the CPU and RAM physically separated, btw.
- InclinedPlane 14y ago
  Quite so. We can't predict the future, nor can we fully predict all of the potential applications of any given theory, but we do know that not understanding the fundamentals of how things work in our Universe is certain to limit our options. Many of the most important bits of scientific knowledge in industry today were at one time just as esoteric subjects of research as the study of the Higgs field is today.
- DougWebb 14y ago
  I figured as much, I was just wondering if anyone knew of any potential predictions. As a counter-point to your examples, Tesla had lots of visions for the possible uses of his research and inventions that were years ahead of his time, many of which have come to be and some of which are still ahead of our time. So it's possible to predict possible uses for cutting-edge science, even if it's rare.
  - XorNot 14y ago
    Understanding the origins of mass in the universe is directly tied to how gravity works. All of which feeds into any hope we might have of one-day figuring out how to step-around it's particular limitations, or find some suitable negative-space time curvature to build Alcubierre drives with.

eswangren 14y ago

That's a nearly impossible question really. Who could have predicted that Einstein's research would eventually lead to cellular phones?

claudius 14y ago

The energies themselves aren’t that high, the problem is that the energy densities are high - the Planck mass, for example, which is usually taken as the highest possible energy in particle physics beyond which we have to take gravity into account, is equivalent to a mere 21 μg. However, ‘practical’ uses of these physics are not immediately obvious in the way special relativity is necessary to get decent GPS[0]. Nevertheless, both the engineering advances _and_ the mathematical tools invented during such research prove very useful time and time again - methodology from String Theory, for example, is used in trying to find dynamical descriptions of superconductors, which, if found, will affect daily life strongly (hopefully). The key point to keep in mind here is that predictions about the future are rather hard and we have no idea what weird things people come up with in twenty or thirty years time, let alone a hundred years. Or could you have predicted the global cat picture viewing machine mentioned next door in 1913? [0] And to understand why more than 3 to 4 GHz are rather impractical if you want to keep the CPU and RAM physically separated, btw.

InclinedPlane 14y ago
Quite so. We can't predict the future, nor can we fully predict all of the potential applications of any given theory, but we do know that not understanding the fundamentals of how things work in our Universe is certain to limit our options. Many of the most important bits of scientific knowledge in industry today were at one time just as esoteric subjects of research as the study of the Higgs field is today.
DougWebb 14y ago
I figured as much, I was just wondering if anyone knew of any potential predictions. As a counter-point to your examples, Tesla had lots of visions for the possible uses of his research and inventions that were years ahead of his time, many of which have come to be and some of which are still ahead of our time. So it's possible to predict possible uses for cutting-edge science, even if it's rare.
- XorNot 14y ago
  Understanding the origins of mass in the universe is directly tied to how gravity works. All of which feeds into any hope we might have of one-day figuring out how to step-around it's particular limitations, or find some suitable negative-space time curvature to build Alcubierre drives with.