Wasn’t there an article a week ago about a new particle found “on a tabletop”?
Feels like I'm being hustled.
Ten years after the Higgs, physicists face the nightmare of finding nothing else
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Re: Ten years after the Higgs, physicists face the nightmare of finding nothing else
#12James Clerk Maxwell united electricity and magnetism with a pen and paper. Einstein discovered special and general relativity in the same way. Has theoretical physics advanced enough now that such pen and paper discoveries are all but over, and the only way to continue making progress is to dedicate an ever larger share of the global economy's productive capacity to building larger and more expensive experiments? Wha…
Well, we also blow up billions in missiles that achieve nothing. So, why not smash some particles instead?
We probably wouldn't have the LHC now if the results hadn't been applicable to blowing stuff up for previous incarnations of it.
Re: Ten years after the Higgs, physicists face the nightmare of finding nothing else
#13James Clerk Maxwell united electricity and magnetism with a pen and paper. Einstein discovered special and general relativity in the same way. Has theoretical physics advanced enough now that such pen and paper discoveries are all but over, and the only way to continue making progress is to dedicate an ever larger share of the global economy's productive capacity to building larger and more expensive experiments? Wha…
It's a question worth asking, but I think ultimately humanity needs a purpose. Something more than just survival and sensory pleasure. It's almost a given that we will have them both in abundance soon. And so increasingly the question we will face as immortal beings in eternal bliss is "well now what". Particle physics seems a reasonable way to pass time.
Re: Ten years after the Higgs, physicists face the nightmare of finding nothing else
#14James Clerk Maxwell united electricity and magnetism with a pen and paper. Einstein discovered special and general relativity in the same way. Has theoretical physics advanced enough now that such pen and paper discoveries are all but over, and the only way to continue making progress is to dedicate an ever larger share of the global economy's productive capacity to building larger and more expensive experiments? Wha…
Paperclips are important! We need to optimise paperclip production!
some time later
The entire universe is one giant paperclip constructor.
Re: Ten years after the Higgs, physicists face the nightmare of finding nothing else
#15James Clerk Maxwell united electricity and magnetism with a pen and paper. Einstein discovered special and general relativity in the same way. Has theoretical physics advanced enough now that such pen and paper discoveries are all but over, and the only way to continue making progress is to dedicate an ever larger share of the global economy's productive capacity to building larger and more expensive experiments? Wha…
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Re: Ten years after the Higgs, physicists face the nightmare of finding nothing else
#16James Clerk Maxwell united electricity and magnetism with a pen and paper. Einstein discovered special and general relativity in the same way. Has theoretical physics advanced enough now that such pen and paper discoveries are all but over, and the only way to continue making progress is to dedicate an ever larger share of the global economy's productive capacity to building larger and more expensive experiments? Wha…
> James Clerk Maxwell united electricity and magnetism with a pen and paper. Einstein discovered special and general relativity in the same way. > Has theoretical physics advanced enough now that such pen and paper discoveries are all but over, and the only way to continue making progress is to dedicate an ever larger share of the global economy's productive capacity to building larger and more expensive experiments?…
The LHC cost was 2% of the yearly revenue of Apple I am fairly certain that we can "afford" it.
Re: Ten years after the Higgs, physicists face the nightmare of finding nothing else
#17I only have an amateur interest in physics, so I'm sorry if this sounds dumb, but I often think about what if we've reached as far as we can go within the current framework of physics? This is more meta-science than actual science, but what if we made some decisions very early in the development of physics and mathematics and we need to revisit those?
Perhaps one such decision is that matter is fundamental. There are increasingly substantial cases being made that this is now holding us back in physics, and that we need to consider that consciousness is fundamental, and matter is only a consequence of it. See, for example Hoffman's The Case Against Reality.
Re: Ten years after the Higgs, physicists face the nightmare of finding nothing else
#18I only have an amateur interest in physics, so I'm sorry if this sounds dumb, but I often think about what if we've reached as far as we can go within the current framework of physics? This is more meta-science than actual science, but what if we made some decisions very early in the development of physics and mathematics and we need to revisit those?
My feeling is that a big part of the physics field is trying to see patterns in noise and equipement artifacts.
Re: Ten years after the Higgs, physicists face the nightmare of finding nothing else
#19Why would this be a nightmare, isn't this good? They know they're going down the wrong path and can probably correct?
Re: Ten years after the Higgs, physicists face the nightmare of finding nothing else
#20I only have an amateur interest in physics, so I'm sorry if this sounds dumb, but I often think about what if we've reached as far as we can go within the current framework of physics? This is more meta-science than actual science, but what if we made some decisions very early in the development of physics and mathematics and we need to revisit those?
My feeling is that a big part of the physics field is trying to see patterns in noise and equipement artifacts.
This is untrue.