• unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 year ago

    Budget: Military Complex > CERN

    Long term value to citizens: CERN > Miltary Complex

    All historical CERN expenses combined are a tiny fraction of the yearly expenses of the combined EU miltary

  • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Guys, the trick is to get it partially built and then cancel funding. Then scientists will never trust you to fund anything ever again, and you get to act like science is a waste of money while you’re spending ridiculous sums on fighter jets.

    Yes, I am still bitter about Waxahatchie.

      • Landmammals@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        If you ask the scientists in my local Facebook group, it could kill all of them. That is, the ones not already killed by vaccines and 5G.

    • DrQuickbeam@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The feds give the states more than $16b per year to build and run shitty, custom made IT systems for their Medicaid programs. It’s basically a subsidy to IT companies. There are thousands of examples like this, where spending money on fundamental science is clearly a better investment.

    • Chobbes@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I was kind of thinking that $22 billion really doesn’t seem like that much money for a project like this.

  • Default_Defect@midwest.social
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    1 year ago

    Remember when people were worried about these killing us all by creating a black hole that swallows the Earth?

    Can this one just hurry up and do that please?

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    I’d rather spend 22 billion on this than in Israel or more weapons of war

    • RoyaltyInTraining@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      We have wasted way more money on way stupider projects. Would love to see this built rather than the military getting even more money.

      • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Hyperloop was known high schooler nonsense from the start, at least this will get something back, whatever it is.

  • Cyrus Draegur@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    i hope someday we construct a collider that spans the entire circumference of the earth. But we’d probably have to build one that spans the circumference of the moon first, and then maybe mars, since the oceans are going to be a bit of a doozie to work around that we don’t have the technology for, whereas the interior of a collider is supposed to be evacuated, so, the moon almost kinda already handles that for us. heat might be an issue of course, but if we can figure out thermal radiator panels that can dump the heat straight into space, maybe we could pull it off…

    mars would address the heat issues, but those dust storms are no joke and the dust itself is microscopic toxic/caustic razors and it’ll try to get in everywhere and ruin fine instruments it touches. Moon dust is also really bad but there’s no wind to kick it up on the moon obviously…

    but damn. DAMN. imagine the fucking science we could get done with a LUNAR-SCALE PARTICLE COLLIDER!!!

    • CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
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      1 year ago

      Now I’m imagining placing a ring of gigantic dyson-sphere powered magnets in an intergalactic void to create the final and ultimate supercollider, the size of a galactic supercluster

      • Cyrus Draegur@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        that would legitimately be so fucking cool, but I think at those scales we’re actually encroaching on things that truly are physically impossible. If it takes light entire geological eras to move through such a system, any hope of maintaining physical integrity throughout its length is … exceedingly unlikely. Like, at ranges THAT vast, pretty sure the expansion of spacetime itself would rip it open…

        … but i’m still enjoying imagining it :3

        • CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
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          1 year ago

          Does it actually have to maintain physical integrity as a single structure? If it’s not got a vacuum chamber due to relying on the ambient vacuum, then each section of magnets need not physically touch, so the individual components need only use some of the energy from their power source to actively steer themselves into formation rather than rely on material strength to hold together.

          • Cyrus Draegur@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            I would expect so on the basis of precision. At scales that large, space itself becomes an unreliable medium…

      • VCTRN@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        Also, maybe add some biomes, oceans and wildlife. And absolutely no parasitic life forms trapped in there.

        • Quadhammer@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Hear me out okay. hits blunt Dyson ring. Maybe we start building it out between earth and Mars. We dig a big ass hole into Mars core and use some kind of laser technology to focus radiation into it perhaps “jump starting” the core. Or maybe we use some kind of cable and gymbal system to run a hard wire into it. hits blunt Then meanwhile we’re crashing comets and shit into it to get us some oceans and atmosphere, badabing badaboom we got earth 2.0

          • Cyrus Draegur@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            Well check this out: if it’s big enough and can collect enough solar energy, it can be a self-powered gargantuan electromagnet and CREATE a magnetosphere for Mars itself. And the moon has a higher silver content than earth, which a) won’t tarnish in the vacuum of space and b) is more conductive than copper or gold!

            Aluminum alloy structures, silver circuitry, we could build this thing without sending ANY of it’s raw materials from earth. It’s all already up there waiting for us… … Some assembly required :p

    • Epicurus0319@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      The Moon’s daytime is half a month long and can reach 120 C so we’d need some pretty powerful heat shielding. And there’s no ozone layer to protect the electronics from radiation, and I’m pretty sure the Moon orbits outside of Earth’s magnetosphere. And the shielding used for such a project could also be used to fix climate change here (and terraform Venus later) with orbital parasols. And whatever unimaginable technology we’d need for such an ambitious project may as well be used to run a grid of electromagnets and power lines across Mars to give it a magnetic field

      • Mohaim@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        Most proposals for moon colonies are either built underground or covered up with a thick layer of regolith for both of the reasons you mentioned. It’s very likely a collider would also be built underground for the same reasons. Digging a many-miles-long tunnel on the moon with the awful properties of moon regolith to deal with would have its own set of challenges though.

        • Epicurus0319@sopuli.xyz
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          1 year ago

          Yeah. I hear NASA and India are planning to send 3d-printer robots to lava caves to seal them off, cover/get rid of all moon dust and build permanent bases there (but as of now the priority seems to be researching the polar water-ice and using moon rocks to study what the early solar system’s geology was like)

    • marcos@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      There’s probably opportunity to do some really large colliders in space, for much cheaper than on any celestial body.

      But then, people are having a really hard time imagining the fucking science we could get done with a lunar-scale particle collider. That’s why the merely 100km one isn’t getting any money.

    • KittyCat@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      If gravatons are a real particle, we’d need one on on the order of earths orbit around the sun to see it. Maybe someday lol.

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I think on earth is preferential

        Something something “resonance cascade.”

      • cynar@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        At the energies involved, it’s akin to a bacteria interfering with a supersonic goods train. The only bit that needs shielding is the detector systems, and that’s not THAT hard to do in space. At least if you’re at the point of building a space based accelerator.

      • BastingChemina@slrpnk.net
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        1 year ago

        Even underground there is tons of issues. One for example is that the ground is having tides.

        As the moon passes above is the ground is moving by several cm so it has to be compensated by the collider.

  • Yokozuna@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Fun fact, they were going to build one in the US crossing the borders of LA, TX, AR. They even dug out the damn hole, but they shit canned the whole project so now we’re just left with a random giant circular hole underground.

    Edited AK to AR. That would have been a bit excessive.

  • Diabolo96@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    Imagine if only 1/10 of all countries GDP gouvernement spending went to scientists and the patent bullshit didn’t exist ? We’d be mining asteroids and sipping coffee on Mars.

    • TyrionsNose@lemmy.world
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      This comment doesn’t even make sense. For example, the USA government spent 37% compared to the GDP.

      If you mean 10% of government spending towards science then that question makes sense.

      The USA spends about $75billion of the $800billion defense budget on R&D. It spends another $120billion on non-defense R&D.

      Which is about 1/31 of federal spending for the US.

      • Diabolo96@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        Thanks for the correction. I never knew what word to use and used GDP because that’s the closest thing to what I mean. Thanks again !

      • Patapon Enjoyer@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Would be neat if they found a way to only spend like 200 billion a year (the GDP of Hungary and as much as the second biggest military spender) on the people grinder.

        • frezik@midwest.social
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          1 year ago

          I don’t think even a purely defensive military could be that small for the US. We have a lot of coastline on two oceans, plus distant holdings in Alaska and Hawaii. Even discharging Guam and the like would still be a lot of ground and ocean to cover.

          • Patapon Enjoyer@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            My googling says the US spent/185b on the DHS for this year and has 100b for FY2024, which includes the stupid mexico wall. I’m sure there would be more things to deal with not included in that number and it would take time to transition, but any reduction is a positive gain if you ask me.

        • TyrionsNose@lemmy.world
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          But we spend nearly $200 billion just paying salaries. We spend the most because we are also an expensive country to live in and that means paying the folks who volunteer a decent wage.

          We would have to significantly downsize the military personnel and pretty much operate as homeland defense only.

      • Diabolo96@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        I like to analyze art ( usually alone and in my mind ) so bear with me. His art is Very interesting but it’s always big robot/drone/ megalithique structures in an open field. While I can totally imagine a big robotic mascots rotting away for months after a malfunction, his work more akin to the 50s view of what the future would be but with modern lenses/tech than a plausible future . In the steel vs digital war, the digital won and his work doesn’t show any of it.

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Venus would take longer, but would be vastly easier to terraform to a habitable world. The atmosphere should be able to be transformed into an earth like atmosphere by dumping a few comets and some bacteria in. Might take the bacteria a few thousand years, but they did it here in Earth caused the first mass extinction.

      We might wanna check to see if any bacteria exist on Venus first, but honestly if there are, they haven’t made the evolutionary jump in the last 4 billion years, so I doubt it will happen just cause we add the necessary water.

      While we are at it, we may as well solve the dark forest problem, turn the solar system into a massive spaceship, and extend the life of our sun, by turning Mercury into a solar thruster/ star lifter.

      • Olhonestjim@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’m partial to the idea of converting Mercury into a star lifter / thruster / planetary shade. Blocking sunlight to Venus would cause the atmosphere to cool, then freeze and fall as snow. Then you can disassemble Venus too for more raw material. That’s a massive store of carbon, oxygen, and sulfur. Solar powered mass drivers operating out of a planetary vacuum cut costs of launching material into space.

        People often object to the idea because we can’t afford it, it’s too difficult, or out of concern for preserving those planets. Yeah, we won’t be doing all that. It will be our descendants in the far future. A task for new civilizations, over eons. Discovering life on Mercury and Venus is a long shot. But if it is there, it’s doomed without human intervention. Convert those two planets to Dyson swarm, and they’ll have matter for countless orbital habitats, not just for whoever humans evolve into, but for nature preserves too.

        I’ve watched a bunch of Isaac Arthur.

          • Olhonestjim@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Dont worry dude, I won’t. I promise. 😆

            Well, I understand the argument for terraforming, and I’d bet good money we will terraform it long before disassembly, but I’m more of an O’Neil Cylinder / Dyson Swarm kind of guy. I prefer the idea of overwhelming surface area via orbital habitats rather than colonizing gravity wells. I also don’t trust Venus not to catastrophically resurface itself and refill the atmosphere with CO2 and sulphuric acid in a mass volcanic event.

            Long term, but far too soon the Sun will expand into a red giant and devour Mercury, Venus, and likely Earth as well. If it’s possible to employ a Dyson Swarm to lift material from a star to reduce its mass, then it may be feasible to prevent or mitigate the red giant phase to preserve Earth and extend its habitability, perhaps indefinitely. If preserving the birthplace of known life seems more important than building a copy in a more precarious orbit, then we ought to sacrifice that copy to expand the Dyson Swarm and mine the Sun faster. Mercury first though. We’ve got time. Mars can probably go too.

            Oh yes, and if the notion of slowly altering Earth’s orbit by tossing asteroids past us ever needs to happen, then surely rapid firing 2 or 3 planets worth of material across our bow ought to get the job done much faster.

            Considering the eons involved with stripping both inward planets down to the last bucketful though, I’m certainly in favor of a few millennia to fully explore and research them both beforehand.

            • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              A properly configured solar thruster doubles as a starlifting platform. Kurzgesagt has a video on is as well as PBS Spacetime

      • Donjuanme@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’m not seeing why the same couldn’t be said for Mars, drop some mold spores and water bears down there, maybe some photosynthetic bacteria, slowly build a blanket of CO2 to warm the planet, melt/release the water from the surface, a thousand years gives a habitable planet, no asteroid steering required.

        • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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          Mars is roughly a single order of magnitude larger than The Moon, in mass. The Earth is roughly 81 times the mass of The Moon. Mars doesn’t have a magnetic field protecting it, and can’t unless we add a significant amount of metals, and mass to the planet. It also doesn’t have an atmosphere due to the two previous facts.

          Meanwhile, Venus is roughly the size of The Earth at a scale of 4.8673 : 5.97222. It doesn’t have enough water though. It also doesn’t have a large iron core to create a magnetic field to protect the inhabitants. However, we could re-route several comets fairly easily to impact Venus giving it a small amount of mass, but also all the water that is needed to start the bacteria creating a Nitrogen rich atmosphere that has a large percentage of Oxygen, turning Venus into a tropical planet that will lose its atmosphere in a few billion years. To counteract this, as we throw 20-30 comets at Venus, we should also throw 100-200 Iron rich asteroids at Venus so that they will be absorbed into the molten core and form a magnetic field for Venus.

          Now we have 2 Earth-like planets in a few hundred to thousand years.

          To create such a gravitational well on Mars, so that we aren’t constantly losing both our normal skeletural muscles, but also more importantly, our organ muscles, you would have to create a stable black hole in the core of Mars, or you would have to bombard Mars, and its pathetic moons, with millions of asteroids.

          To create a long term naturally stable, new earth, Venus is just closer to the masses that we actually need. By dropping just the comets onto Venus you just added a lot of mass, and that gets Venus even closer to being “Earth-like.” We will have to give Venus a comparative moon, but with asteroid mining, and starlifting, that shouldn’t be an issue.

          By using Mercury to create a solar thruster, we gain access to unlimited space dust, that will form unlimited asteroids for us, in the Kuiper Belt.

    • FastAndBulbous@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s all fine calling patents bullshit until you start getting large corporations stealing technology from small and medium enterprises.

      The way to ensure that large corporations and no small businesses can thrive have an even bigger monopoly is to get rid of the patent system.

      Tired of this shit on Lemmy. Do your homework.

      • Diabolo96@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        It’s currently used to monopolize important discoveries and technologies. The Huawei debacle is the biggest proof. No country should be able to control another’s technological advance based on weither they’re friends with them at the moment or not. Also, it’s not like big tech stealing from small/medium enterprise never happens. Either they just buy the company or strangle it one way or another to bankrupt it and then buy it for cheap.

        • FastAndBulbous@lemmy.world
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          You make the patents too easy to get and it fucks the little guy over as the big corps hoover up all the ideas. You make them difficult or impossible to get then that also benefits the big guys over the little guys as they will just steal people’s ideas and produce them for cheaper with their existing infrastructure which creates an even bigger monopoly.

          There is a sweet spot that society is trying to reach. It’s imperfect like any system but it’s far far better than having no system.

          You’ve not even considered that in order to get a patent granted you have to disclose your invention to the public which stops big corporations hoarding too many trade secrets.

          All in all, the idea that patents shouldn’t exist benefits nobody except the large corporations. Say goodbye to start ups growing in size if that is the case.

        • brianorca@lemmy.world
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          Just because big tech does these things doesn’t mean we should remove any pretense of rules against it. If they want something a little guy has, they should buy it, not take it for free.

  • ASeriesOfPoorChoices@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    When I look at the inability to fund big science projects like this, I’m reminded of the most fictional thing to ever happen in a science fiction movie.

    The film? Contact.

    They build a giant portal machine thing.

    Gets blowed up by terrorists.

    But that’s okay, because they’ve got another one!

    What?

    Yep!

    “Why build one when you can build two for twice the price?”

    FALSE. SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF FAILURE. ABORT.

    • Zorque@kbin.social
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      Wasn’t the second one built by an eccentric billionaire or something? Like a Howard Hughes type.

      • jacksilver@lemmy.world
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        It was actually the us government that built a second one in secret, which actually sounds about right.

        • directive0@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Close. The US controlled it but it was built by Japanese subcontractors who just happen to be…

          …recently acquired… …wholly-owned subsidiaries… …of Hadden Industries.

          Want to take a ride?

          *I love that film despite all its flaws.

    • Dave.@aussie.zone
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      1 year ago

      But look how fast we can make those little fuckers go!

      It’s just like slot car racing, round and round, but… you know… faster. And yeah, it’s more expensive than a regular slot car track, I guess. But still, those particles will beat any slot car you care to pick! So there’s that. Welllll not those fancy slot cars with them high performance motors, I mean, that’s a completely different ballgame there, we can’t compete with that.

      But still, those particles whizzing around, it’s gonna be pretty cool. I reckon we should do it.

      So anyway, thank you for reading my financial proposal for the SuperLHC.