Discussion
crofty1984 said:
To people asking what practical applications are we likely to see: Tomorrow, probably none. In 100 years, things we can't even imagine.
I was hoping for a quicker progression than that, given that technology breeds more of the same on a logarithmic scale. The only fly in the ointment - and it's a biggie - is likely to be a shortage of development money. 
Blackpuddin said:
I was hoping for a quicker progression than that, given that technology breeds more of the same on a logarithmic scale. The only fly in the ointment - and it's a biggie - is likely to be a shortage of development money.
All I care about is will I have a flying car in 3 years time?
So a load of really clever people have done a really clever thing and will hopefully make loads of really clever things as a result of it, thereby advancing mankind and eventually giving me the f
king flying car the bds have been promising for years.
At the other end of the mental spectrum (and hoo, boy, do I ever mean "mental"), check out the comments on the Daily Mail Article.
For extra lulz, view the comments "worst-rated first".
king flying car the bds have been promising for years.At the other end of the mental spectrum (and hoo, boy, do I ever mean "mental"), check out the comments on the Daily Mail Article.
For extra lulz, view the comments "worst-rated first".
With my limited understanding of this so far I think I've got.
The universe is made up of "stuff". We've managed to find another component or building block which goes into making that "stuff" but we are still a long way away from having all the ingredients for this "stuff".
If the above statement is basically correct, what are the next steps on from the Higgs? Do we then try to build a bigger\better CERN that will allows us to dig deeper and find out the other components which go to make this "stuff"?
What is the end goal of all this? Is it that in 100 years we will have gone down to the deepest level possible, ie found something which can't be broken down further, the few key ingredients that basically make up the entire universe? What could we do then? Could we create matter\anything\our own universe? Could we explain what caused the big bang for instance and what was there before it? Is this why it was called "The God Particle" by the media.
Not sure if any of that makes sense or is just plain silly but I'm not clever enough to understand the maths so I am trying to work out what this might mean for the advancement man in simple terms.
The universe is made up of "stuff". We've managed to find another component or building block which goes into making that "stuff" but we are still a long way away from having all the ingredients for this "stuff".
If the above statement is basically correct, what are the next steps on from the Higgs? Do we then try to build a bigger\better CERN that will allows us to dig deeper and find out the other components which go to make this "stuff"?
What is the end goal of all this? Is it that in 100 years we will have gone down to the deepest level possible, ie found something which can't be broken down further, the few key ingredients that basically make up the entire universe? What could we do then? Could we create matter\anything\our own universe? Could we explain what caused the big bang for instance and what was there before it? Is this why it was called "The God Particle" by the media.
Not sure if any of that makes sense or is just plain silly but I'm not clever enough to understand the maths so I am trying to work out what this might mean for the advancement man in simple terms.
Guvernator said:
With my limited understanding of this so far I think I've got.
The universe is made up of "stuff". We've managed to find another component or building block which goes into making that "stuff" but we are still a long way away from having all the ingredients for this "stuff".
If the above statement is basically correct, what are the next steps on from the Higgs? Do we then try to build a bigger\better CERN that will allows us to dig deeper and find out the other components which go to make this "stuff"?
What is the end goal of all this? Is it that in 100 years we will have gone down to the deepest level possible, ie found something which can't be broken down further, the few key ingredients that basically make up the entire universe? What could we do then? Could we create matter\anything\our own universe? Could we explain what caused the big bang for instance and what was there before it? Is this why it was called "The God Particle" by the media.
Not sure if any of that makes sense or is just plain silly but I'm not clever enough to understand the maths so I am trying to work out what this might mean for the advancement man in simple terms.
All you need to know is if there wasn't people like those running CERN, the world would be a very primitive place. This particle they have discovered gives all other subatomic particles their mass in accordance with the Standard Model.The universe is made up of "stuff". We've managed to find another component or building block which goes into making that "stuff" but we are still a long way away from having all the ingredients for this "stuff".
If the above statement is basically correct, what are the next steps on from the Higgs? Do we then try to build a bigger\better CERN that will allows us to dig deeper and find out the other components which go to make this "stuff"?
What is the end goal of all this? Is it that in 100 years we will have gone down to the deepest level possible, ie found something which can't be broken down further, the few key ingredients that basically make up the entire universe? What could we do then? Could we create matter\anything\our own universe? Could we explain what caused the big bang for instance and what was there before it? Is this why it was called "The God Particle" by the media.
Not sure if any of that makes sense or is just plain silly but I'm not clever enough to understand the maths so I am trying to work out what this might mean for the advancement man in simple terms.
When Alessandro Volta created the first modern battery in 1800 no one knew what uses it would have bar scientific study, now take a look around.
Very emotional scenes from the conference anyway, Higgs himself in attendance.
Guvernator said:
With my limited understanding of this so far I think I've got.
The universe is made up of "stuff".
Yup.The universe is made up of "stuff".
Guvernator said:
We've managed to find another component or building block which goes into making that "stuff" but we are still a long way away from having all the ingredients for this "stuff".
Not quite, some very clever people have a theory about what all this stuff is and how it fits together. A lot of the major questions have been answered.What they have found now is a new particle they haven't actually observed before, whether this is actually the other Higgs Boson or not as predicted by 'The Standard Model' remains to be seen.
Guvernator said:
If the above statement is basically correct, what are the next steps on from the Higgs? Do we then try to build a bigger\better CERN that will allows us to dig deeper and find out the other components which go to make this "stuff"?
More data, more analysis. Basically they need to determine if this new particle is the other Higgs boson.Guvernator said:
What is the end goal of all this?
To understand how things actually work.Guvernator said:
Is it that in 100 years we will have gone down to the deepest level possible, ie found something which can't be broken down further, the few key ingredients that basically make up the entire universe?
Possibly.Guvernator said:
What could we do then? Could we create matter\anything\our own universe?
1. ???2. No.
Guvernator said:
Could we explain what caused the big bang for instance and what was there before it?
Maybe, assuming the BB theory is correct.Guvernator said:
Is this why it was called "The God Particle" by the media.
No, it's because they're idiots.Guvernator said:
Not sure if any of that makes sense or is just plain silly but I'm not clever enough to understand the maths so I am trying to work out what this might mean for the advancement man in simple terms.
The advancement would be in the understanding of the fundamental operations of our universe.Think of it like this, you have a machine that is the universe it's been running for a very long time, it works, in it's own way and we have what we observe, so now we know that we stick to the Earth, we know the moon goes round the Earth and we know the Earth goes around the Sun.
We know this is caused by Gravity, now we know this effect occurs as we can observe and measure it, but we don't know how or why gravity exists!
The Standard Model predicts that this is due to how particles interact with something called the Higgs field. The Higgs boson is the result of a specific experiment if the Higgs field exists.
If the Higgs field does exist, it may explain why and how we have gravity.
Moving forward, depends what the actual answer is.
Graebob said:
I'm going to wait for the limited edition Higgs Boson GTi.
ewenm said:
Bedazzled said:
I wonder if we could manipulate the Higgs field? Now that would have some interesting ramifications... light speed travel anyone?
If the Higgs field is responsible for gravity, manipulating it could give anti-gravity!Asimov did a story about that.
CommanderJameson said:
ewenm said:
Bedazzled said:
I wonder if we could manipulate the Higgs field? Now that would have some interesting ramifications... light speed travel anyone?
If the Higgs field is responsible for gravity, manipulating it could give anti-gravity!Asimov did a story about that.
ewenm said:
CommanderJameson said:
ewenm said:
Bedazzled said:
I wonder if we could manipulate the Higgs field? Now that would have some interesting ramifications... light speed travel anyone?
If the Higgs field is responsible for gravity, manipulating it could give anti-gravity!Asimov did a story about that.
At the speed of light.
Which would make for some interesting TomTom directions.
CommanderJameson said:
The story in question posited that if an object were to be freed from all gravitational influence (i.e. anti-gravity), it would bimble off in a random direction.
At the speed of light.
Which would make for some interesting TomTom directions.
I guess it depends if you think it could be free of gravity but still have mass (and hence not be able to approach c).At the speed of light.
Which would make for some interesting TomTom directions.
Bedazzled said:
While I couldn't follow most of the presentation I was touched by Peter Higgs' speech at the end, saying he didn't expect to see it in his lifetime. Nice to see all the geeky enthusiasm in the crowd too, like watching a rocket launch.
I wonder if we could manipulate the Higgs field? Now that would have some interesting ramifications... light speed travel anyone?
the trouble is the energy requirements, I think lots of technology is very possible but right now humanity lacks enough energy to do stuff like this. Look at how much is required for the observations of the (presumed) Higgs boson at CERN. What humanity needs to discover/tap is a practical and portable source of massive energy. I wonder if we could manipulate the Higgs field? Now that would have some interesting ramifications... light speed travel anyone?
ewenm said:
CommanderJameson said:
The story in question posited that if an object were to be freed from all gravitational influence (i.e. anti-gravity), it would bimble off in a random direction.
At the speed of light.
Which would make for some interesting TomTom directions.
I guess it depends if you think it could be free of gravity but still have mass (and hence not be able to approach c).At the speed of light.
Which would make for some interesting TomTom directions.
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