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Do read djf Re Is Science Hitting a Wall - it's not just about science
From: "Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>
Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2018 20:22:58 -0400
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From: Joe Touch <touch () strayalpha com> Date: April 8, 2018 at 8:20:41 PM EDT To: dave () farber net Cc: ip <ip () listbox com> Subject: Re: [IP] Re Is Science Hitting a Wall - it's not just about science Hi, Dave, A few observations: - saving more lives means fewer opportunities to save lives, so all such metrics result in decreasing returns for two reasons: fewer big-impact diseases to cure and un-cured diseases affect a smaller population. A good economist would have taken that into account. - science has always occurred as punctuated advancement rather than as a continuous stream, so it’s easy to find sciences that are in their stable phases - as others have noticed, however, the metrics used do not measure scientific advancement, but rather industrial development Many of our biggest advancements took many years to yield fruit - decades each for quantum mechanics, electricity, and even the Internet. Expecting short-term gains ensures incremental and largely inconsequential advancement. To put it another way, science is always hitting a wall, and always leaping over, breaking through, tunneling under, or going around that wall. The former defines the lack of vision of those who fail to support science over useful timescales; the latter defines the scientists who actually accomplish something. To give a few examples: - science doesn’t happen “one grad student at a time” (yes, I’m talking to you, NSF) - science doesn’t yield predetermined objective metrics in 18 months (to DARPA) - science doesn’t yield return on investment in 5 years (to Google/MS/Intel/etc) Nearly every example of science we all celebrate failed to fit the above expectations. Perhaps that’s the only place where there is actually a wall. Joe This message was sent to the list address and trashed, but can be found online.
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- Do read djf Re Is Science Hitting a Wall - it's not just about science Dave Farber (Apr 08)