What will the LHC prove in the next fifty years or so?

I've seen the topic in the news quite a lot lately, like the article about it in the Daily Mail today. They have such awesome and eye-catching headlines like the one today, 'Scientists simulate the sound of the 'God Particle'. So I obviosuly read the headline thinking there's been the massive breakthrough we've been all waiting for since they first turned it on a few years ago. But after the first paragraph or so, I stop reading it because I simply don't understand any of it and I loose interest.

I just want to know, what potential results and knowledge it will give mankind in the next fifty years or so. Except the boring "to recreate what happened in the early form of the universe" yes yes I get that bit. But as far as I know, they could have done that after about a month when they first turned it on and when it was less popular in the news.

My question is, what MAJOR annoucement can we expect in the next fifty years. Like something exciting such as "LHC scientists have found a way to travel to the next star, where matter and antimatter collides". That might not make sense, but you get the picture.

I mean, what difference will it make if we knew what happened during the Big Bang? They're just going to write about it in some boring books and update Wikipedia on the subjec. The world won't change at all, politics will remain, racism will remain, and terrorism will remain on the planet. The world won't be any better than it is today.

I just want an announcement that WILL change the world, something that will open everyone's eyes on the planet - and make them look up to the sky.

I hope to be alive and well in the Year 2070, and I also hope that the world will be green, nuclear weapons have been long forgotten, abovetopsecret won't even exist anymore because there will be nothing to hide because the world have learned to love and trust, and also a Space Research Center will be preparing a Space probe to another Star - and it doesn't have to be NASA. I'm tired of Americans thinking they have to be first to everything, why can't all Space Research Centers unite and share their ideas properly.

Yes, I hope they eludicate as much as they can using the LHC before some sort of financial nightmare makes them shut it down. It will be hard to justify the LHC, let alone hardcore space exploration, in a world where widespread human misery is no longer confined to the third world and a few shady neighborhoods in the developed world. I'd say they have a few years at most to get as much knowledge as they can. I'd like to see the whole "Higgs field" thing sorted out, although I must confess most of it is too complex for me to understand, personally.

Originally posted by cllj7
I hope to be alive and well in the Year 2070, and I also hope that the world will be green, nuclear weapons have been long forgotten, abovetopsecret won't even exist anymore because there will be nothing to hide because the world have learned to love and trust, and also a Space Research Center will be preparing a Space probe to another Star...

I'm quite sure I won't be alive in 2070 and I'm not bothered by that in the slightest beacuse I'm also pretty sure the world will be even more of a hellish nightmare by then than it already is. Not to rain on your parade, but crack open a history book...our track record as a species for long-term-thinking and paradise-building is pretty bleak.

Still, there's always hope. Looks like you've got some. Good for you. Here's hoping you don't lose it.

While I believe that technology will come to us eventually, it it amazing at how complex the highest tier and maths have become.

You think you understand it now...just wait until your fifth grader is taking Intergalactic mathematics

reply to post by FritosBBQTwist


I've been wondering for some time to what extent the highest reaches of mathematics and theoretical physics are "emperor's new clothes." For example, they say there are many mathematics professors who are the only expert in the world in one or another obsucre branch of math, and thus nobody else on earth is qualified to judge whether or not they are truly doing valid work. When you enter a situation where nobody else can tell you you are full of it, the chances of scamming increase, don't they?

Originally posted by cllj7
I just want to know, what potential results and knowledge it will give mankind in the next fifty years or so.

It's hard to predict. First note the Tevatron was completed in 1983 and is about to be taken out of service do if that's an example we may only be looking at a 30 year life span instead of 50?

And after 10 years they are talking about upgrading the LJC to the SLHC:

en.wikipedia.org...

It's not like we haven't run particle accelerators before, they just keep getting more powerful.

It's hard to predict what discoveries they will make and how they will impact our daily lives.

I tend to think they won't impact us any more than they have been doing over the past decades we have been increasing the energy in accelerators.

But Kaku would like us to believe that anything is possible as a result of the LHC, like we may figure out warp drive or other advanced technologies. I think he's being a little overly optimistic but that's just the way he is.

There could be a pleasant surprise, like maybe they figure out why researchers got inconsistent cold fusion results and they figure out a way to do cold fusion? I seriously doubt it, but it could be something just as surprising we can't even anticipate.