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The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), just one year from completion at CERN, will be the most powerful particle accelerator ever constructed, the largest and most technologically sophisticated machine ever built, and one of the greatest scientific endeavors humanity has yet undertaken.
The late Austrian-American physicist Victor Weisskopf described the grand particle accelerators that began to take shape around the world in the 1950's and 60's as the "Gothic cathedrals of the 20th century." The comparison was, and is, apt. The medieval cathedrals pushed the limits of available technology, involved the craftsmanship of literally thousands of skilled workers, and took generations (and sometimes centuries) to complete. Modern particle accelerators require decades from conception to completion and involve scientists from about 80 countries, speaking dozens of languages, whose separate handiwork must mesh together perfectly on the scale of thousandths of millimeters. The physical magnitude of these distinct public works projects is similarly comparable—just one of the LHC's four detectors is large enough to house the Notre Dame Cathedral...
- More at Seed Magazine
The analogy with the Cathedral is indeed a fascinating one, but I would stretch the connection a little further.
Whereas the Cathedral is a space built as a focal point from which to better appreciate the mind of God, the Large Hadron Collider is a machine built to actually read the mind of God.
In the blueprints of various modern technological apparatus religious parallels can be found which show that mankind, in all its years of theological, philosophical meandering, still yearns for the mysteries which lie beyond the boundaries of our world. The present day method of pursuing this knowledge is technology, an ever widening curve of complex universe interactions, but the ultimate goal is the same: acheiving the power of God ourselves.
Idioru345's recent forum contribution takes the tech-religion analogy deeper still: "The problem is not that they resemble humans, but that they resemble gods". Perhaps in allowing the computer to act as our perceptual equipment we are moving away from an awe once known to be found in activities of the 'spirit', i.e. meditative awareness. The Cathedral, and spaces like them, became echo chambers for the resonance of the universe, funneling 'the power of God' into our self obsessed minds. The 'revealed' knowledge of the technological age, however, is now so complicated that it has been moved beyond our perceptions, into the super-computer.
If mass tech solutions (such as the LHC) are the new Cathedral, and the computer is the new meditative mediator where does that leave the human spirit? Where will be find the techno-equivalent of 'the holy spirit' in our attempts to understand the universe? Is it necessary at all? -
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CommentAuthorPure Hen-night vol1
- CommentTimeJun 6th 2006 edited
This is very interesting, particularly with regards to it's construction!
However, just because the American government throws 8 billion dollars on the Iraq war every few months does not make this a worthwhile cause, even if it does give a few particle phycists something to do. I'm all for humans increasing our understanding of the universe, but maybe there's just few more important questions to address right now -
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See that is an interesting question. Do we strive ahead with enormously expensive scientific research OR concentrate on AIDS patients in Africa?
I personally feel that there is room for both. Everything happens to come down to a point of money these days, which is very sad. When a problem arises our top down perceptive governments knock off a few million from the budget, throw it down and wipe their hands of the whole situation. We should do things from the bottom up, beginning with foresight to solve problems which have not arisen yet, and may not do for decades, but society wouldn't place their votes based on 30 year plans - humans are too concerned with the here and now to see beyond their clouded judgements.
And this is where projects such as the LHC come in - unbelievable foresight, because to be honest, no one quite knows what benefit it may bring us, if any. Thing is, science always changes society more than the whims of governments as far as I'm concerned. Without quantum theory we'd have no electronic equipment, without the space programs we'd have no key hole surgery. It's stuff people don't see coming that really shifts the world's favour.
Better understanding the universe allows us to better appreciate ourselves. Long sighted measures for invisible goals.
And yes, the Iraq war is an utter travesty. The LHC is peanuts compared to that. -
Without pure research we would have nothing....no antibiotics, no technology at all. There are always important social questions to be addressed but we shouldn't give up our best hope of finding solutions....pure research is our best technique for finding these solutions. I will make a list of things we cant live without that have been the serendipidous products of pure research.
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CommentAuthorPure Hen-night vol1
- CommentTimeJun 7th 2006
You're right numerous benefits have arisen from projects such as this one, but I'd hazard a guess at saying there's just as many examples where nothing has been achieved, or where something completely negative has been created, the atomic bomb springs to mind.
As a species we've been blessed with curiosity, but I think one of science's major failings is that it is often unable to connect this curiosity with that of the population at large. This may be another example of the often self-serving world of scientific research, if they had spent this money on developing hover-cars or shell less pistachio nuts, maybe then the use of tax revenue on scientific research would not inspire apathy or even anger in many people -
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I think its the humans that have the major failings, all our endevours are driven by vanity and lust....or maybe not. I've been wondering recently that maybe 95% of us are nice helpful loving creatures, meek even, and that we've all been conned by a bunch of bullies and gangsters. How do the non-violent deal with violence? Good old Ghandi had some nice ideas but there are fundamentalist murderers in india now who claim to be inspired by him.
I think I just learned to make a paragraph, cool. The hydrogen bomb is not evil, it could be used to deflect an asteroid or somethig, it is the human, choosing to kill that is evil. Sorry, I seem to be in a contentious mood tonight. Plus I've always loved subatomic physics. -
Couple of interesting responses to this article have cropped up, well worth a read:
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It will probe the structure of matter on scales 10 billion times smaller than anything "nano," creating fleeting elementary particles that, since the Big Bang, have existed almost exclusively in the imagination of theoretical physicists.
Selecta.
Sorry, Dan, but your ramblings about 'foresight' make you sound like a native Dildoian. I hope they were a joke.
Two points.
1. You said,this is where projects such as the LHC come in - unbelievable foresight, because to be honest, no one quite knows what benefit it may bring us, if any
That is not foresight. That is a straightforward absence of foresight. You were joking, weren't you?
2. This Large Hadron Collinder project is built on an absence of foresight, or, more accurately, what you described as the human obsession with the here and now. From the original article:The real question is whether we as a culture can afford not to pursue the questions about the universe that have baffled us for millennia.... To turn our back on these questions is to dismiss our cultural inheritance.
If this is to do with the culture of humankind - a kind which has existed and will exist a long way from the here and, in particular, the now - then whence comes all this urgency? Holding back a little does not constitute turning our backs.
Spending $8,000,000,000 on a device for draining pasta - large, hadron, or otherwise - when some people have really old trainers which don't look cool is completely unjustifiable. -
Yes! I got called a Dildoian within a few hours of discovering the word...
Foresight, imagination, naive utopianism. Interchange these words if you so please, but do so with care.
A friend of mine recently finished reading the true life story of the first voyage to the South Pole. If I remember correctly, it was at least a 3 year trip, laced with hardship and peril every single 'minus 60 degrees below' step of the way. The men who undertook this journey didn't sit around and say - "Wait a minute! If we leave our trip 50 years, maybe someone will have invented the Snow Mobile!" - they strove to do what no human had ever done before, to reach the very pinnacle, central spinning point of the Planet Earth. They did it because they could, because it was there, because that's what humans do.
The LHC is a similar leap of ridiculous abandon, all be it a much more expensive one. Will people look back in 100 years and see it as a stupid voyage into a future destined to hold easier methods to the same problems? No. They will see it as the first step on the road traversing those problems. This is a mere baby step towards the land of 'progress' - all human striving is done in this way. -
Do it now! Dont Procrastinate, 8 billion is a spit in the ocean, anyway, money is not destroyed when it is spent, it flows...until it reaches the pockets of the bastards we really need to worry about. And they aint particle physicists.
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Same goes for trainers. If you don't get them now, they'll be just as uncool as your current ones when you do.
1 Large Hardon Collider = 1.6 million Reebok Pump 2.0 trainers
I rest my case. -
I like Mr. What?'s wider perspective on this.
I, for one, hate sport. It bores me (except for the odd game of snooker and a pair of snow skis I'd give it all up). I don't know the numbers bu the amount of cash pumped into something like the Football World Cup is probably mind boggling (O.K. so not LHC mind boggling, but hear me out). As far as I'm concerned, kill football off. The money which goes into it is bound to be better spent elsewhere... yadda yadda yadda. But no...
the Football industry employs countless people, supports literally millions of avenues of entertainment from the betting agents to the merchandise buyers to the fans on the stalls. What's more, a mega event like the World Cup can invigorate an entire city, perhaps even a country, bringing with it a blossoming of tourism, money and growth which flowers long after the Football has ended.
In the same way the LHC has wide reaching implications. The design and manufacture of each of its components fuels industries I probably don't even know exist. The technical know how gained by the whole process will undoubtably get filtered into numerous 'smaller' projects, many of which will improve medical technology, make motor cars more efficient, increase our knowledge of fluid dynamics. I don't know, but you get the idea...
The final result might be a huge donut with a fancy name which makes scientists fill their pants with joy, but the accumulative enterprise of such a science/tech/knowledge event is impossible to estimate.
Whenever I question technological advances I always think back to an example I heard related to the space program. NASA pumped millions into developing a metal which could restore to its original shape under extreme conditions. A metal which had a 'memory'. Sure, they probably just layered a couple of strips down the side of a soon to explode shuttle craft and threw the rest at the US Army, but do you know what... Every kid who has nice straight teeth has something to owe to that research. NASA designed the metal, the dentists slide it around your gums and - hey presto - perfect choppers for everyone.
Funny how no one ever sees the most useful stuff coming along... -
How we surprise God!
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Go behind the scenes:
In Seed's first exclusive short film, science communicator Alom Shaha travels underground and behind the scenes to probe the cavernous Large Hadron Collider at CERN. His tour offers a glimpse into the exciting preparations afoot as the accelerator is pieced together. The film also asks whether this project is worth all the time, money and effort. Featuring interviews with physicists Brian Cox (University of Manchester), Jon Butterworth (University College London) and Albert de Roeck (Antwerp University), Lords of the Ring explains why so many scientists are pinning their hopes on this experiment's potential to answer some of the biggest questions in science. - link
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