CERN and creating knowledge

[greenie_breizh]

Granted, I am not known for my super scientific mind, but so far from what I've heard about the CERN and its LHC, all I can think is:
...we really should be spending our research money on other stuff.
...how much energy are they using just to run this thing?
...will we ever know where to stop and what are we doing with this knowledge?

The thing to me about scientific knowledge is very often it doesn't seem to be put into any kind of perspective. It's all knowledge for knowledge's sake, which arguably is cool, but the problem is that knowledge isn't created in a vaccuum and I wish we would think more seriously about the consequences of that, about the social context in which we come up with that knowledge and the meanings and uses that are going to be put onto it. I guess I have more examples that come to mind with genetics and bioengineering, but fuck knows nuclear research has blown up in our faces, too (but I guess not really our faces so it's all good).

I'm also slowly coming to wonder if knowledge for knowledge's sake in the sciences is all that good. I mean, scientific knowledge in itself isn't good or bad (though arguably depending on how much energy it demands you could also wonder if the means are worth the end). I guess it's just that the applications for that knowledge can be so wrong that it really makes me wonder if the pros outweigh the cons of just leaving some things unknown.


Yesterday my TA class was...interesting, to say the least, and I want to say a word about that, but first I have to take Mommy Cat to the vet to get spayed. She peed in the litter box overnight and I'm hoping this is going to be the end of that.

Comments

[shiraz_wine]

I see what you're saying. But honestly, if one scientist backed out of a research project because of those reasons, another scientist would probably be found to take his or her place. It's the reality of scientists being people too and therefore subject to the same vices as anyone else, specifically greed.

[greenie-breizh.livejournal.com]

That seems to be a very slippery slope - I mean, that sounds a lot like what someone could say if they got themselves tangled up in crimes against humanity, like, well, someone would have tortured/killed/maimed anyway... even without that extreme comparison, just because there are people ready to do unethical things doesn't absolve you from doing them, too, y'know?

[shiraz_wine]

Yes, it is a very slippery slope. But that's the reality of what occurs all the time. I'm not saying that it's a valid argument, just pointing out that people do use that argument to justify their actions. It's well and good to say 'people should stop and think before they do something that can be harmful' but there are people who do stop and think and do it anyway.

Let's take a milder example. Most adults know that littering is bad. And yet I watch people drop containers in the street or throw things out their car window without a thought as to the future consequences. There are people out there who just don't care, because if it's one thing that people are good at, it's rationalizing. 'Someone else will get it' and they go about their merry lives.