Comments on: New results indicate that new particle is a Higgs boson

By: CKDexterHaven

CKDexterHaven — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 19:33:06 +0000

Standard Model physics sure have a pre-copernican flavor to them.

By: stevo

stevo — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 12:54:14 +0000

Shenanigons, I would say.

By: NakedApe

NakedApe — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 02:04:03 +0000

Why bother to discover the makeup of the Universe when I have car payments to make…

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 12:22:55 +0000

Do you mean solve, as in eliminating just the problems, or solve, as in eliminating man?

By: mormovies

mormovies — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 19:12:53 +0000

the ‘crisis’ is in your mind.

By: steve

steve — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 15:23:45 +0000

Oh is it funding season already?

By: Scott

Scott — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 13:09:11 +0000

Pete, nice commentary. But seriously, you and I both know that the core of many of the world’s problems lie within the nature of man (and perhaps life on this planet). I believe that humans generally do not take collective action to correct something seemingly intangible, until it negatively, and uncomfortably affects their lives.

I fear that a sentient AI, would decide that humans are the problem, and decide to “modify” (or eliminate) us. That being said, I still look forward to the singularity, because I do not believe humans will remain as they are, 50-100 years from now. With technological advancement comes enlightenment, although I would argue that the latter trails the pace of the former to a LARGE degree.

By: Jesse

Jesse — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 21:17:30 +0000

Quote of the day.

By: Bri

Bri — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 20:21:14 +0000

If we didn’t have an understanding of the atomic world we wouldn’t even be able to tell that the earth is heating up. Never mind figuring out possible solutions to those problems. If we could understand gravity better we might be able to cancel out it’s effects. That could save a tremendous amount of fossil fuel. It may seem a waste of time and money, but a closer examination of it’s possible impacts could lead to the solutions that we need.

By: Pete

Pete — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:10:02 +0000

Discovering new types of subatomic particles can help in advancing “femtotechnology” (in Dr. Hugo de Garis’ lingo, computer techs in the 10^-15 m scale, with computational parts the size of nucleons and quarks)
or even more miniaturized technologies.
If femtotech computers are built, they will have processing power orders of magnitude greater (faster, more storage space) than most computers today.
A femtotech computer the size of a small molecule (combined with quantum computing effects) can outperform the combination of all existing computers and human brains on Earth.
A super AI can be created in such femtotech computers, which can solve (I guess) all of the world’s problems.

By: Dan Robinson

Dan Robinson — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 18:17:08 +0000

That’s great, but what does it mean in the context of cliamte and financial, ultimately population, crises? In the 22nd century, maybe we’ll be getting back to convincing people the earth isn’t flat.

By: tflahive

tflahive — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 17:07:03 +0000

Humans have got fission figured out.
We’re close to controlling fusion.
Get bosion.
Poof – It’s all gone.

By: Tom B.

Tom B. — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 15:33:00 +0000

So what you’re saying is that an infinite number of Benny Hill’s with an infinite number of sexy sub-atomic lab assistants could discover all the secrets of the universe?

By: DC

DC — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 14:27:09 +0000

Now I totally get it!

By: john

john — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:42:35 +0000

This is awesome. Thank you

By: Spotted Marley

Spotted Marley — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:11:11 +0000

If anybody has been looking for a really great way to visualize what the search for the Higgs boson is like, just imagine the theme song from Benny Hill and some sped up old-timey footage of some scientists in lab coats chasing a sexy little sub atomic particle around the lab … shenanigans etc