bigjeff5 comments on "Science" as Curiosity-Stopper - Less Wrong

54 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 03 September 2007 08:04PM

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Comment author: endoself 31 January 2011 07:17:20AM *  0 points [-]

Closer, but not quite.

Most theories require a Higgs boson. Almost all theoretical physicists would be shocked if it were not found eventually. Finding the Higgs boson would not tell us much about gravity or dark matter. The best we could hope for is finding multiple types of Higgs bosons, which are required by supersymmetry, though the LHC won't necessarily find find more than one, even if supersymmetry is true. Supersymmetry provides a possible explanation for dark matter and it is required by string theory.

Comment author: bigjeff5 01 February 2011 05:36:27PM 0 points [-]

Finding the Higgs boson would not tell us much about gravity or dark matter.

Indeed, that's what I meant by "might", without it though there isn't a whole lot of hope for the current theories as I understand them.

The Higgs boson is predicted by the Standard Model as well, isn't it? It could really cause a lot of trouble if it isn't found. That would be interesting!