There is this thing about modern physics that has always bothered me. It is closely related to the atheist assertion that people tend to invent new gods every time they come across something they do not understand (this assertion is true). Many ancient civilizations had Sun gods, Moon gods, various weather gods, and even fertility gods (or typically goddesses, but it is the same). Now, I am not bashing religion. Personally I believe in God, but I do not use my belief in God to explain away things that I do not understand. Frankly, I love science, and I enjoy reading about new discoveries. What bothers me is that modern particle physicists seem to be obsessed with inventing new particles every time they hit something they cannot explain. Instead of inventing new gods all the time, modern scientists invent new particles all the time. These are, in my estimation, little more than small gods. Now, I will admit that on occasion, they are right. It turns out, however, that sometimes they are epically wrong. Recently, a large group of these small gods died.
Small gods interfere with real physics. They lead us down paths that will ultimately turn out to be a colossal waste of time and money. Supersymmetry is a theory that suggests that every known particle has a symmetric sibling with a higher mass. This symmetric set of particles were invented to explain away why Higgs interactions do not cause a runaway increase in mass. They also happen to explain some of dark matter theory. They also happen not to exist. At least, the LCH has not detected even one of them, and particle physicists think that it should have. Supersymmetry has been a prevalent theory for a long time (invented in 1966 and seems to have gotten popular in 1981). Since its inception in 1966, we have wasted 48 years on it. Almost half a century of wasted work of at least thousands of physicists. Of course, some parts of the theory seem to be correct, but those parts could easily have been discovered as parts of other theories. Ultimately though, half of the particles of modern physics have turned out to be false gods.
All of the new theories also involve new particles, and who knows, maybe there are a few particles responsible for the effect. This should be a learning experience though. Just because inventing a whole bunch of new particles can easily explain a phenomenon does not mean that it is the right choice. New particles are convenient because they add mathematical variables that can be manipulated to fit observations. Sadly, this is much like inventing a Sun god (with a chariot and everything) to explain the observation of the huge ball of light in the sky. In science, there are often unnoticed variables, and they may even be associated with unobserved particles. Assuming that every inconsistency is the result of an unobserved particle is just bad science though. Given how often we prove ourselves wrong, the initial assumption should be that we have missed a property of at least one existing particle. Speculations about new particles are definitely appropriate. Dedicating most of our resources to them, however, is probably a bad idea so long as we have not eliminated other less invasive explanations.
Overall, when small gods die, scientists should feel humiliation. All of the scientists that have wasted half a century of work on supersymmetry should feel like a majority of their time was wasted. They should feel like their worship of these small gods was pointless. They should feel humiliated and embarrassed that they did not spend more time looking at alternatives that did not involve the invention of so many new gods. I am not saying that they should stop doing physics. They need to recognize their invention of new particles for what it is though: the invention of gods to explain nature. This does not mean they should stop trying though. Sometimes inventing new gods works out. After all, the invention of the idea of anti-particles was another instance of almost doubling the number of known particles (of specific classes, anyhow), and it has been very well proven since. While they should feel some amount of humiliation when they fail so epically, scientists should not allow themselves to get discouraged by failure. They should learn from their mistakes, and then get back up and try again.
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