Vo, This LHC white elephant is being strongly hyped in the UK. Keynesians and Free-marketers go hang! How about commonsense? If this is the face of state subsidised science Heck help us, mind you toadying to the Dragon's Den doesn't look good either...
Here are some comments I saw on a discussion site (I like #4 most): #1 It is a question of priorities. We could turn over 50% of World GDP to landing and setting up bases on Mars and the moon. The common man whose work is taken by force through tax by the state already knows that the universe 'works' he lives in it every day! No, these physicists (or one particular kind) are SELF INDULGENT. All it is is about tallying up how they think with their symbols. No useful engineering really comes about below distance scales of an angstrom (10^-10metres) it's a waste. #2 I'm also sick of hearing how clever these people are. They are highly trained and specialised. Most of the people at CERN are journeymen with the mentality of jumping on the bandwagon. There are people working at the hinterlands who will break mainstream doing stuff which is seemingly 'just engineering' but *is* fundamental physics. For example quantum entanglement experiments are just 'bench top', or even alternative energy and long held cherished notions about what can be done with 'energy'. #3 Don't talk about spins off of research, teflon pans, microchips and the like. They would come as spin offs from other well funded project(S) too WWW could have come from cancer research. No, tinkering with the sub-atomic would be useful if we could: use the weak/strong forces to render radioactive materials inert or alter inertia. There just isn't much direct engineering that can come from partphys. I think there is too much SF and Star Trek attached to these glamourboys. Ahead Warp Factor Zero! #4 Since the outcome will be highly arcane and only understandable to the few initiated (since no engineering applications below about 10^-10metres, engineering "makes theories real") we will be told that the Universe is made from quarks and strings held together by "glue-on" and this will be based on "highly repeatable experiments" (one event in trillions of other collisions). So its all becoming a just-so-story. One branch of philosophy/poetry against another. Wanna swap creation myths anyone?
