Like Fleas on a Dog
Actually, we’re worse than the fleas because, as opposed to those tiny buggers, we are aware the dog exists and it exists in a world full of wonders. Wonders we purposely refuse to explore.
Apparently, we don’t have money to waste on such trivial matters as the nature of the Universe we live in. Researchers at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva have recently come up with a proposal to build an ever bigger particle collider which, they hope, would allow them to discover the elusive dark matter. At present, we understand the nature of only 5% of the matter in the Universe. The Earth, the Solar system and all those images of galaxies far far away are included in this 5% which we call normal matter. The rest, 95% is made of 26% dark matter and 69% dark energy. Basically, we are in the dark, so to speak, about the very essence of the Universe.
The fleas, at least, cannot fathom the concept of a dog. All they know is the instinct to hide deep inside the dog’s coat and feed on its blood. The reason the scientists’ proposal was met with disdain is the cost, an estimated $15 billion. That is a lot of money and granting such funds would require serious consideration. Or maybe not. Depends on what the money is intended for. Only last week the European Union generously granted another $53 billion to Ukraine. Also, the US Congress seems close to adopting a bill granting another $60 billion to Ukraine. Money that will be spent on more weapons that won’t accomplish anything. Let’s not even consider the hundreds of billions already spent in a war no side can win. Probably around the summer the clown in Kiev will come pretending more money, and so on. Meanwhile, mainstream media and many of the comments I’ve read agree we shouldn’t be spending $15 billion on something as stupid as deciphering the mysteries of the Universe.
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As it happens, over the past few days I tried to watch a public conference of a physicist who talked a lot and quite passionately about the research at the LHC in Geneva. It’s not something I usually do, but the video was recommended as part of the online course I’m taking. I didn’t understand anything, but in a world of sheer mediocrity it's fascinating to listen to people talking about the particles that are the building blocks of our world and questioning the nature of space and time.
The guy, by the way, is currently at Princeton occupying the position Einstein used to hold and he’s being paid to sit around and think about things that are far too complex for us mere mortals. Things that we could use though. Maybe understanding the nature of dark matter and dark energy would be the key to human space exploration or another dimension.
One of the comments that I found most disturbing said that we shouldn’t be wasting money on some scientist’s simple curiosity. Without curiosity, we’d be still living in a cave. Why venture over the next hill and see what’s there? Also, let’s not forget that fleas have the option to jump another canine if the dog they call home gets run over or dies if they bleed him dry.
We don’t.
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Newp. I explore stuff alla time. Don't speak for me if you're not going to speak the truth, ok? Also, we are pretty intellectually insignificant. Our reach far exceeds our grasp, and there are lots of questions we can't answer today, many about cosmology. I see no reason to assume from what we are that we are capable of grasping such matters.
I've explored the various cosmological hypotheses and physicists studying these matters, and there's a lot of merit to such explorations. But there are practical limits on what funding can be dedicated to such matters, and there are plenty of starving homeless fentanyl addicts that need EBT cards that need funding as well. We have to make rational decisions regarding what we spend on what stuff, and clearly killing Ukrainians is far more important to our peerless leaders than head scratchers trying to figure out the theoretical structure of the universe, and feeding homeless fentanyl addicts is more important than my electric bill, or dental needs.
Decisions, decisions. None of the political scrabbling over funding these things matters in the least to us paying for root canals. Clever monkeys need to take care of clever monkey stuff, and cosmological questions are pretty low on the list. They're a lot less important and practical than spending money genociding Ukrainians, which I don't think we should be doing at all. Max Igan has said 'As goes Gaza, so goes the world.' I agree, and reckon we should be making every effort to prevent genocides wherever they're ongoing.
I can afford to wrassle with the Higg's Boson when I have managed to wrassle the thieving politicians laundering tax money by slaughtering people around the world.
These things are probably - almost certainly - not real, but errors in how we interpret the data we already collect, and will be resolved by rethinking how we interpret the data we already have. The biggest problem smart people have is thinking they're so smart. Huffing their own farts, hubris, is the enemy of science, and humility is the only reasonable foundation of understanding of things far beyond our ken.
Thanks!
I was definitely not including people like you in that general we. Or myself, for that matter. I am curious about a lot of stuff... even things I have no hope of understanding.
You might be right. I've heard the idea before, but I find it depressing.
Oh, but Biden just talked to Xi and the media said the problem is being taken care of... Seriously, why would your administration spend money on solving the fentanyl crisis. Seems like a very lucrative business to me, it keeps plenty of people drugged out of their heads, and they will inevitably die young so they won't be a burden on Social Security. It's perfect!
Sorry about your dental needs.
Soft-hearted lefties have made it impossible to arrest them and make money off of them in jail. I think that's the only solution the current administration might work towards.
I see what you are saying. Criticism does not always come from science denialists or nit-picking politicians. Sometimes it comes from other scientists, such as Sabine Hossenfelder, who argue that there is insufficient justification for building an even bigger and more expensive Hadron Collider.
Congrats!
I agree with that. Certainly scientists should discuss the whole issue and decide on the best plan. I was upset only about the funding problem.
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I think they're working on something else altogether than what they're claiming with these particle accelerators. Why else would they be throwing so much time, money and energy towards them? It doesn't add up. There's a growing body of evidence that there's much more to physics than the general public has been led to believe. I touch on that a bit with my last post.
I agree, the amount of money being thrown around by politicians, in general, is asinine (and often ineffective). At this point they have to know the entire economy is just a house of cards, when they need money they just print more. It seems our whole world right now is just smoke and mirrors. This is the theme for the age we live in.