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So.. maybe it's a good time to pause the collider and see if we can use this discovery for any practical purpose. If not, that money could go towards clean energy research or lab grown meat research, anti cancer or anti aging research... something that might do people some good.

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I understand the sentiment, but can't you imagine that advances in our understanding of fundamental physics could lead to advances in some of the areas that you mention? For example, new particles -> better models of chemistry -> better cancer drugs; or new particles -> better fusion models -> cleaner energy.

I think a species of 7.8 billion individuals can afford to do things in parallel.

I guess so, but there are not 7.8B scientists that can develop the next battery or solar breakthrough, which is actually what is needed in a very big way right now.

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