[jordanpg]

This article strikes me as having lost its focus in editing somehow.

One can hardly blame theoretical physicists for exploring above and beyond what the experimentalists are doing. It's not like there's a large body of more practical, down-to-earth problems being ignored in favor of these sexier, Nobel-bait questions.

I believe the point is that we are in trouble if something exciting doesn't happen at LHC; in this case, getting the planet to fund an O($1T) accelerator to probe higher energy levels seems far-fetched. Theorists know this. This is a closely related point to the comment about the politics of theory.

I don't know that this automatically spells crisis. There are plenty of problems out there that require the mathematical talent of folks that can perform at this level. Eventually, when more data is available, the pendulum will swing back towards interesting theory.

After all, it's not the case that if there isn't some rush to a GUT before 2020, the human race loses.

[nn3]

Modern physics currently cannot explain what most of the universe is made of, as in the dark matter problem. While not exactly "down to earth" this would seem like a very pressing problem to me, that may be in need of more attention.

[jordanpg]

While I am as convinced as you about the urgency of these issues in the context of physics itself, a crisis it is not. Not for physicists and certainly not for civilians.

[aminorex]

You say that now, but when your sailboat gets eaten by a dark matter kraken you will sing a different song.