Probably the best analogy for scientific inquiry I ever heard was this one:
Science is like a candle in a dark room; it gives you light but it also shows you how much darkness there is around you. The corrolary is that as you increase you candles (knowledge) the more you'll find out that you do not know, and how much there is to know.
It is similar with studying Dark Matter. We cannot just shelve the matter until we 'are in a better position'. Having a better idea of how the universe will end up helps scientists better figure out how the universe works. Yes, none of us will be alive to appreciate either the end or the start of the universe, but it does have some relatively short term benefits.
Study in one scientific field or the other usually translates into benefits for other fields. So potentially, studying Dark Matter can helps us find better energy production methods; better propulsion; better scientific standards.
Having a good model of how the universe works can better help us in the next 200-400 years where space navigation, even in our local space, is going to be crucial. A think a fitting analogy is the European explorers and cartographers of the 14th and 15th century. Without the searches and time they expended on finding out how the world looks around them Europe would not have been in a position to become a giant of science and master of the world in its time. By taking that a bit further we could say that without those cartographers we'd not be using email right now because the industrial revolution was delayed 100 years.
So our 'useless' studies of Dark Matter might be the stepping stone into a new Era for humans.
Slashdot Mirror
Hold on there feller.
Probably the best analogy for scientific inquiry I ever heard was this one:
Science is like a candle in a dark room; it gives you light but it also shows you how much darkness there is around you. The corrolary is that as you increase you candles (knowledge) the more you'll find out that you do not know, and how much there is to know.
It is similar with studying Dark Matter. We cannot just shelve the matter until we 'are in a better position'. Having a better idea of how the universe will end up helps scientists better figure out how the universe works. Yes, none of us will be alive to appreciate either the end or the start of the universe, but it does have some relatively short term benefits.
Study in one scientific field or the other usually translates into benefits for other fields. So potentially, studying Dark Matter can helps us find better energy production methods; better propulsion; better scientific standards.
Having a good model of how the universe works can better help us in the next 200-400 years where space navigation, even in our local space, is going to be crucial. A think a fitting analogy is the European explorers and cartographers of the 14th and 15th century. Without the searches and time they expended on finding out how the world looks around them Europe would not have been in a position to become a giant of science and master of the world in its time. By taking that a bit further we could say that without those cartographers we'd not be using email right now because the industrial revolution was delayed 100 years.
So our 'useless' studies of Dark Matter might be the stepping stone into a new Era for humans.
Better Red than Dead