Fuck CERN. Fuck 'em.

Posted on | March 30, 2010 | 1 Comment

It cost $9.4 billion dollars to build.

And now here they are, finally operating, in an attempt to recreate conditions right after the big bang. According to this article, they’re shooting particles at nano-FRACTIONS short of the speed of light. The point is to answer questions about the universe, about matter, etc. And they will answer questions, lots of them. But then, the whole thing will only create a new set of questions. And the first thing those physicists are going to start thinking is “we need a bigger one”.

Baudrillard would have something to say about this.

He might ask (as do I), at what point is the simulation large enough? You’re trying to simulate the Big Bang, but in order to do so accurately, you must ACTUALLY RECREATE THE BIG BANG. To truly KNOW everything, you must DESTROY it.

And this demonstrates my fundamental problem with modern science of late. As a former dyed-in-the-wool empiricist myself, I still love geeking out on new information. But hasn’t it become clear to everyone by now that there are no hard limits on how BIG the research can be, and how TINY the increments of measurement can get? When does common sense kick in and show us that going bigger, or measuring tinier, is simply no longer efficient or cost-effective?

Because no matter how close to the “truth” these physicists claim to be, there will always be a gap between what we KNOW and what we FEEL WE SHOULD KNOW, unless we are willing to destroy ourselves. And that gap will continue to be filled with art, music, religion and spirituality, because that is how we create meaning for ourselves.

So fuck CERN. Even if they “find” dark matter, what does that really mean for the rest of us? Take all the billions you want to spend on the next collider and use it to teach kids to paint or something. To me that puts humanity on a much better course toward the real meaning of life than just uncovering more science questions.