Besides my family and friends, I think science is the one thing I care about most in the world. So the following comment I read on cnn.com in response to the LHC (basically a new atom smasher in Europe) makes me more livid than almost anything.
Frankie M September 9th, 2008 5:51 pm ET
8 Billion dollars for a science experiment?
Great way to spend $$
Where does that moron think we would be without years and years and years of spending on “science experiments”? It is like people think that everything is okay right now. No need for advancement. No need to broaden your horizons. Let’s forget that the computer you are typing on is the result of experiments going back HUNDREDS of years, that at the time no one could have predicted would lead to a way to have instantaneous porn.
And the worst part is that these people claim we shouldn’t be doing this stuff because God doesn’t want man messing around with things that he doesn’t understand. What the FUCK kind of ass backwards society do these people want to create?! I say send them off to an island and let them beat each other up with rocks and leave the real world, the adult world, the not fucking MAKE BELIEVE world to us.
DO NOT FUCK WITH SCIENCE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. Just because you don’t understand it doesn’t mean that it is wrong or bad.
Oh, and please don’t get me started on “Intelligent Design”…
12 Comments
Even I am somewhat concerned about the experiment in Switzerland. Maybe I’m just getting old.
You just like the particle collider because it sounds like a teensy tiny little NASCAR track, except underground, and in Europe.
Well, depending on what else he would propose for that money, I can sort of see his point. I mean, I’m not saying science is unimportant, but there are a lot of things we could do with that much money that are also important and that would yield more immediate results (feed people, for instance, or offer them adequate healthcare, etc).
Of course, science can be used to grow food cheaper and feed more people, and to ultimately be able to offer better healthcare, but it’s a balancing act.
You could have argued that years and years ago there was no need to research electricity, since what good does it do to know that it exists. The minute that you stop looking forward is the minute you are doomed. The solutions to “near term problems” are often found in looking far, far away.
i don’t think it makes people moronic or stupid or ignorant to argue with $9 billion being spent on something like that – i think that there are a lot of health care issues (re: both disease research and insurance coverage for the un/underinsured) that need to be dealt with in a much more urgent and immediate way.
As someone with a disease that could probably be cured if someone spent 9 billion dollars, I can understand. I really can. But I think it is being narrow minded. People have been dying from diabetes for as long as there have been people. It would have been possible say, 200 years ago, to say “screw all this experimenting we are doing on electricity, lets devote all of our research to curing this witchcraft.” Then 60 years ago people could have said “We don’t need to worry about plastics, let’s concentrate on curing diabetes.”
Well the machine that I wear on my hip that literally keeps me alive is one of many devices that is possible because of advancements that no one ever thought would lead to a way to deal with diabetes.
I’m not saying that money shouldn’t be spent on other things, like advancements in health care, and infrastructure and all that stuff. What I am saying is that it is you can’t stop looking forward. Far forward. Beyond our lifetimes. We don’t know what sort of advances are going to come from this, and to say that we aren’t going to do it because we can’t think of the immediate results strikes me as narrow minded.
And think of it this way. The entire project cost less than one month of the Iraq War. For something that could fundamentally change our understanding of the universe, and give us insights that could lead to untold technologies.
What if, and just what if, this technology led to a way to generate electricity cleanly and efficiently. Doesn’t seem like that far of a stretch for something that is investigating the very nature of matter. So now we have a new way of powering civilization. Well now suddenly we have money coming out of the ass that we aren’t spending on oil or gas or magic farms of whatever. Suddenly fixing our problems is easier, because we have tons of money to do it.
Maybe that won’t happen, but maybe something else will. Even if it doesn’t pan out for 200 years, that’s fine. That’s how society has advanced to the point that it has today.
The black plague was cured in large part by burning rats and the dead. Today we could cure it easily using penicillin. I don’t buy the argument that society would be better served with amazing rat burning machines.
Let’s not forget the most important outcome from the research at this institute: they actually invented the Web Browser !!!
Can YOU do without?
I don’t disagree that money and time should be spent on research – of ALL varieties. i just think that there are certain immediate concerns SO pressing that $9 billion seems excessive.
It is the money that is being wasted on the war that is an outrage. Trillions. And there will be trillions more wasted on the bailout of Fannie May and Fredie May, while their CEOs who wrecked the companies are getting huge payoffs.
every society is based on innovation in some way. we cannot survive in diverse environments without technical improvements, however, basic they may be. Science must continue to pursue atomic research because it may lead to significant discoveries in energy production. New cheaper energy sources will reduce oil-driven wars and increase technology growth in developing nations.
$9B employed a lot of construction workers, janitors, engineers, receptionists, accountants … It provided, and continues to provide food, healthcare, job satisfaction, opportunity. Imagine if we hadn’t killed the one in Texas – maybe some of that would have happened in this country and maybe we’d learn something that could change the world in a very positive way.
“I don’t buy the argument that society would be better served with amazing rat burning machines.” is now on my favorite quotes on facebook. You’re one funny dude Nate.