So no miniature black holes but what about the strangelet theory? Ok so that isn't going to happen either but why spend $6 billion in hopes to learn about the matter behind the big bang (that is if the experiment goes as planned) when there seems to be so many other world issues that should take first priority?
There is no denying that there are many serious and pressing problems facing the world which could use financial support. And, it is easy to take large projects like this or goals of sending missions to Mars, and find fault in the logic of spending the money needed to manage them. However, that logic would be flawed in that it assumes that there is a single linear path to new knowledge or greater understanding. A brief review of history would find endless examples of unexpected discovery, of accidental accomplishment, and of endless ripples of learning that propagate from a single initiation point. The technology needed to make the LHC work - will be adapted to make for better medial equipment, more efficient energy transfer systems, and exponentially faster information processing systems. The money that goes into this research will not only benefit the goals of the research project but will also extend well beyond the sticker shock.
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So no miniature black holes but what about the strangelet theory? Ok so that isn't going to happen either but why spend $6 billion in hopes to learn about the matter behind the big bang (that is if the experiment goes as planned) when there seems to be so many other world issues that should take first priority?
There is no denying that there are many serious and pressing problems facing the world which could use financial support. And, it is easy to take large projects like this or goals of sending missions to Mars, and find fault in the logic of spending the money needed to manage them. However, that logic would be flawed in that it assumes that there is a single linear path to new knowledge or greater understanding. A brief review of history would find endless examples of unexpected discovery, of accidental accomplishment, and of endless ripples of learning that propagate from a single initiation point. The technology needed to make the LHC work - will be adapted to make for better medial equipment, more efficient energy transfer systems, and exponentially faster information processing systems. The money that goes into this research will not only benefit the goals of the research project but will also extend well beyond the sticker shock.
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