While there will naturally be a suspension of data collection, much of the work is around crunching the numbers of the huge amount of data already collected which will continue. Expect further breakthroughs in the next 2 years.
Also, I can highly recommend going on a tour. If you're going to be anywhere near Geneva, book early as they fill up quickly. It's not possible to see the collectors while the LHC is running so this is an opportunity to do so. I went after the last (unscheduled) shutdown - serious tech porn.
I'm booked for a tour in April and had no idea it was scheduled to be shut down. What a stroke of luck! Here's hoping we get a more in-depth look than we would have during normal operation.
That's an interesting idea. What if, culturally, we get tired of rapid change? In many ways, this has happened before. After Zheng He returned with the Chinese trading fleet, a change in leadership caused China to turn back in in itself for centuries. The ships were burned in the docks. After a fashion, the Middle Ages in Europe was step-back from progress for several hundred years. Islamic culture is currently in the middle of an event like this right now. (Yes, controversial. I'd be happy to share my thoughts on why if anyone asks.) Lots of contributing reasons add in to these events, but the net result is the same.
It's not impossible that we could see a regression again that takes a long time to recover from in the future.
I don't think computer and collider technology necessarily correlate. The ISR collider was built over 40 years ago. People aren't generating exotic subatomic particles in their backyard quite yet.
That is a most impressive machine, and quite sad we won't have data for two years, but I hope that this time it really become possible to reach 14 tev.
Not really. Currently, the LHC produces data at a rate far greater than it can be analyzed. I'm sure that backlog will keep the world's high energy physicists busy for quite some time.
just for the record, in order to warn any non-western members:
"The cost [...] has been evaluated, taking into account realistic labor prices in different countries. The total cost is X (with a western equivalent value of Y) [where Y>X]
Also, I can highly recommend going on a tour. If you're going to be anywhere near Geneva, book early as they fill up quickly. It's not possible to see the collectors while the LHC is running so this is an opportunity to do so. I went after the last (unscheduled) shutdown - serious tech porn.