Why the LHC is not really that impressive
Yesterday the Guardian had a special pull out section dedicated to the
LHC. If you browse through the articles you find lots of comments along
the lines of
"temple to mystery and imagination", "a journey to the edge of
understanding". "a modern cathedral to our relationship with the
universe", and so on. From the superlatives that are being written one
would think that the LHC is the best thing to happen to enlightenment
since some fat chinese guy sat beneath a tree, and that it is the summit
of human imagination, achievement and art. Well, I just don't buy all
of that crap.
Reading these articles got me thinking about what the LHC is, and
fundamentally it's just a larger detector than what we already had
before. As I see it, it's an inevitable extension of what you do if you
want to measure something that we already know how to measure (particle
tracks), with better precision over a higher energy range.
The bottom line is that we have been doing this since the 1920's.
If you look at it as just being an artifact then it is neat, but there
are many other piece of artistry that required as much imagination,
effort, skill and chutzpah to bring together. The moon landings are one,
the regularity of probes landing on mars another. The engineering
required to make a large city like New York work always blows my mind,
and that emerged from a bottom up self organization of 15 million souls
trying to find a way to survive in an area of land a little too small
for them all.
As we look around the world at the things we as a species have built
there are many such artifacts that can inspire our awe and wonder. I
don't think that the LHC can lay a claim to be at the pinnacle, though
no doubt it is a good example of a big complicated object that make
people look small when they stand beside it.
There is something to wonder at in all of this, and that is the idea
behind the inevitability of something like the LHC. That idea is the
atomic and quantum electrodynamical nature of the world. In that there
is something to be proud of as a species. I don't see the LHC as being a
radical departure from this idea, but rather an object whose existence
is quintessentially rooted in that idea.
One could almost argue that the LHC represents a failure of the
imagination. We are faced with limits to our ability to test the
mathematics that we have written down against the atoms that we write
with. We cannot tease apart the Fynemann diagrams to tell us more about
the world, and so we resort to a bigger hammer rather than a more subtle
approach that might look to other ways to coax the mysteries of the
universe out of their hiding places.
There have been some papers that have come out recently looking for
connections in the physics of super fluids with the imagined state of
the early universe, the idea being that looking at the behavior of
vortices in super cooled liquids could demonstrate identical physics to
the phases of matter at the point of various decouplingings in energy
scales. It's pretty clear that these models are yet toy models, but
perhaps they point out an orthogonal direction to building massive atom
smashers.
I want to be clear that I do applaud the work of the thousands of people
working at Cern, and I do think that the billions of euro that something
like this costs is more than worth the investment. I appreciate how hard
it is to deal with systematics on something of this scale, and it is a
minor miracle, but I just don't think that the artifact deserves unconstrained
adulation over the ideas that is reflects.
Comments
Changes never end
That is never change ever……
Because it had just only
one thing is the change
without anything else ever….
Sometime I try to find to
some answer
for the true of life……
What is the life?
And why all of everything happens
at here in the Galaxy
and the world?
We could to knows
in the first time of the Universe
it could start come from
nothing or empty
by without the empty
or No the empty though
No everything or it’s the “O”
But in certainty so
“Nothing” is a thing
or “O” is the one like-wise
So I can see in the first time
of the Universe happened
it could not be start
come from the empty
because it’s have a thing
being before all the times
that is nothing
cause the meaning of nothing
that is a thing
Yes, a thing that is the empty
but that it’s not the empty
like we understood
Something we called it’s the empty
but not be so like that
And what is it?
All that I can see a thing
it still never change ever
So could you believed or not?
Everything and every-life
never to be lost out of the Galaxy
or all the Universe
And that because
when all everything to the end
it will became nothing empty again
but no lose all
because nothing
that is a thing one more
So I have asking you
How everything happened
at here in Galaxy or the Universe?
When everything it can happens
and when it lost out of the Universe
Why it cannot come back again?
Yes or not
But in the true of everything
It will be come back
to start again forever
Because all the Galaxy of
the Universe all of everything
all is the One
And nothing empty is the One
It is the One never change
Never lose
Never end ever
Everyone have been so like this
We are everyone never knew
Yes or not
That we have been circle never end
Between birth and die like everything
Cause all space in the Universe
Without back side
Or out side of space
And that is “O” nobody
When whatever life to the end
Or die and the Universe
No space to keep and hide them
So everything every-life
that to be lose or die
When the time of them come
All will start to happen again
And circle never end
It’s not the reason
If you will talk about is
When all everything to be lose
And to the end
And it will not come back
To start again anymore
The most important that is
all everything can happened
in this now when it can happens
And when it lost it will must
turn back to happens again
Everything that the eyes can see
in this now that is
the reasons and most important
it’s the answer of everything
that be lost and
it will happens again ever
When everything
there’s in front of the eyes
in this now
all happened from the empty
and when it lost and gonna be
the empty and from the empty
that become back as everything
all that the eyes can see
in this now
like in the first time of
the Universe all that’s nothing
so but everything happens
as that you can knew
when you read that I wrote
and how you think of about it
But everything
cannot be as usual forever
So when all everything
changes never end
that is never change…...
And I can see to something add up
That is in the Universe or Galaxy
In certainty
Universe without the time
There happens from
changes never end
That’s never change
That’s never had
the time………….
The walking of the time
It always ran never stop
Every-time when it walking
It will always make space
and distance add up to ever
The empty making
chemical reactions
with atoms of everything
Explain is everything
in the Universe that
the eyes can see and
we can touch to knows
all that is one piece
and nothing empty
that is piece one more
the pieces both make
reactions together
And if whenever the time
to the end real or stop,
All space, distance and speed
It will be lost with the time
And everything is “O”
When it is “O”
That is one piece (nothing-empty)
In this case O was One finished
And this piece will start to make
new reactions with piece one more
(or new nothing-empty one more)
together again never had to stop
right here it will new atom happens
for every-time ever
In the true nothing-empty
it will always have stand forever
whenever that have anything happen
it will have nothing happen follow
altogether forever
(it’s automatic time-real)
All everything every-life
never to be eternal ever forever
: Nothing-empty is
center one of the Universe
center all of the time
Everything always had changes forever
That is all the reaction of reasons
That talk about is nothing-empty
and everything make energy by
change itself forever