Who Cares? Dude, it is all about spin-off applications. Even false trails can yield useful applications. Magnifying impractically tiny results until they yield every day applications is a major part of what engineering does for us.
Pure research has always asked questions that almost no one cared about, and it has always been the big source of new useful things. Now a lot of paths down to the big cosmology questions don't seem likely to yield applications, but that doesn't mean that no route of exploration in that direction will.
no subject
Dude, it is all about spin-off applications. Even false trails can yield useful applications. Magnifying impractically tiny results until they yield every day applications is a major part of what engineering does for us.
Pure research has always asked questions that almost no one cared about, and it has always been the big source of new useful things. Now a lot of paths down to the big cosmology questions don't seem likely to yield applications, but that doesn't mean that no route of exploration in that direction will.