[908B64B197]

> Even if you have a government dept. of 10x geniuses

In Government? I chuckled.

> it will just become another grant vehicle for academics in the publish-or-perish regime

I can already see the selection committee, all from non-technical backgrounds, getting clear instructions on who to fund and who to reject based on the demographics the party wants to appeal to and existing donors.

[mattkrause]

Not sure it's impossible.

DARPA lists biographies of its newest program managers. All but one has a doctorate in a relevant field; the lone exception has a master's degree and aerospace work. They turn over every few years too, so it's not like their experience is stale.

https://www.darpa.mil/work-with-us/new-program-managers

[hardlianotion]

That's not how current government funding for projects currently works - why is this so fundamentally different?

[908B64B197]

This one is exempt from FOI.

So the public will never know why a project was selected over another. Or why it failed, or what happened to the money.