| > Why should we stop inventing and discovering things? Just because you want immediate gratification? Doesn't have to be immediate, but there has to be gratification in very practical terms. Taxpayers deserve it. LIGO and James Webb telescope won't yield anything for them. Same goes for the ISS. The ITER fusion project is a different animal, it has low odds but huge upside in very practical terms. Same for the money spent on nuclear fission in the 20th century. > And I will do so, by applying for grants, and taking YOUR MONEY to do it. Thank god for the existence of the Cayman Islands and BVI and Bermuda and UAE I guess. > We can solve more than one problem at once. We are not one person. Sure but there is a reason why BioNtech, Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca can knock at capital markets door 24/7/365 and publicly, while theoretical physicists only have POTUS, or EU Commission President door. People who have arrived at the pinnacle of the human experience, don't have to worry about anything so they can afford to sign off expensive projects (with money which is not theirs to begin with) and done solely for intellectual curiosity which don't yield any benefit. > Do you think that physicists are misanthropic No, but the lack of awareness and not collectively stopping to ask questions about ROI and quality of life returns for projects is a bit off. It's one of the only fields where stuff gets routinely written off as a loss (of time and money), and we are at a stage where the rare wins only produce brain juices and prizes for the ones who solve the murder mystery do jour... |