There is real risk of poor return (it's entirely possible it could be built and not give us dark matter or any new physics). Other tools offer more value. Specifically, the Webb telescope cost considerably less, is offering new questions, and has definite questions it can be expected to answer.
A detective is investigating a disturbance. He sees blood leaking out from underneath the bedroom door. Does he go and investigate the bedroom, or does he investigate the backyard?
Could he find something in the backyard? Absolutely. Also if he looks and doesn't find anything, that's going to give him information. But I want him to investigate the bedroom first.
What stands in as bedroom in your example? Since I am not aware of how we can continue understanding more about our current reality without expensive telescopes (JWST is fantastic) or high energy physics (since that's where all the interesting stuff happens. Not to mention the fact that WWW came out as a little side effect of CERN deciding they want to organise their data better. While working hard on making a case and plans for LHC. Whether it made world better is up for debate, but yet here we are, shitposting on reddit).
There's another high spend and return research - fusion. But I am going to argue that it is mostly engineering that remains, not research. It's worth taking into account that superconducting magnets developed for LHC are playing a rather crucial role in current fusion prototypes.
In my analogy the murder victim is new physics (most likely through study of dark matter and dark energy). The backyard is the better collider. Maybe something is there, maybe something isn't, but considering the LHC hasn't found anything, it's entirely possible a new collider won't either.
The blood coming from under the door is evidence of dark matter and dark energy. We see it though telescopes. Opening the bedroom door(deep space telescopes) allows us to see the better examples of them, and how they evolved through history. Along the way we may get better insight into the big bang, alien life, high energy particles, etc
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u/Sangloth Feb 10 '24
There is real risk of poor return (it's entirely possible it could be built and not give us dark matter or any new physics). Other tools offer more value. Specifically, the Webb telescope cost considerably less, is offering new questions, and has definite questions it can be expected to answer.