On some level I can see how HEP and quantum mechanics are "fundamental" in that they describe the "building blocks" of the universe.
But these branches of physics really only describe matter at very small scales. In terms of being actually useful to understand the vast majority of physical situations encounted in practice, HEP and quantum physics are mostly useless. "Classical" physics is more "fundamental" in the sense that it is more useful in a wider variety of contexts.
Or at least this is my view, as a fluid dynamicist. Turbulence is far more important than HEP, but unfortunately it receives far less media attention and far less attention from the brightest people. (I think turbulence has HEP beat in funding, though. :-)
maybe ("importance" is somewhat subjective and I think it's totally valid to have that opinion), but I would argue HEP and maybe early universe cosmology are more fundamental meaning they study the most fundamental building blocks of physics itself. But "fundamental" is not the same as "important" so I'm not trying to suggest these fields are more or less important than others.
"fundamental" is very different from "useful". ...and I don't even agree that turbulence is more useful. It's only more useful right now. ...but understanding the building blocks of all matter is probably more useful for humanity in the long run.
Let us not forget that Heisenberg did his PhD thesis on turbulence, probably found it too difficult, and then went to do easier things: winning a Nobel for the creation of quantum mechanics, building the Leipzig L-IV atomic pile, etc. etc.
I am not saying fluid dynamics is boring, but a lot of people are really interested in small and large things - on whole other level than turbulence. This is not just pr, i think people really care. Of course i could be wrong...
On some level I can see how HEP and quantum mechanics are "fundamental" in that they describe the "building blocks" of the universe.
But these branches of physics really only describe matter at very small scales. In terms of being actually useful to understand the vast majority of physical situations encounted in practice, HEP and quantum physics are mostly useless. "Classical" physics is more "fundamental" in the sense that it is more useful in a wider variety of contexts.
Or at least this is my view, as a fluid dynamicist. Turbulence is far more important than HEP, but unfortunately it receives far less media attention and far less attention from the brightest people. (I think turbulence has HEP beat in funding, though. :-)