| > There is a lot of value to be earned by closing the gap between cutting edge, but proven, science and easily understood training documents for contract workers. Oh absolutely! But those are two completely different things. > I would say most people would not care if we stopped using tax dollars to fund string theory research or finding 'habitable' planets, and a host of other luxury topics. I agree. And then all of those people will be shocked to see $SOMECOUNTRY do crazy stuff in a decade when the US will be reduced to rubble or decline to irrelevance. Something like that almost happened with Goddard vs von Braun during and prior to WWII. Then, the US suddenly faced rocket interceptors, ballistic missiles, and jet fighters. The whole of US research, and in particular the Air Force, was reorganized after that experience. > This standpoint is very specific to the world we live in today. No, it's just very specific to your personal opinion. I take it you wouldn't have funded a patent clerk in Switzerland in 190x when he studied what happens when you sit in a train going close to the speed of light. I'm glad someone in the US listened to him, because otherwise it would have been Nazi Germany to build the atomic bomb that came from his insight. The whole crux of the matter is that we don't know in advance what pays off. |
Yeah we all know that. My post was sensitive to that. You're not wrong, but there is a cost to that.
>I take it you wouldn't have funded a patent clerk in Switzerland in 190x
Please cite sources on Einstein getting funding for his research from the government. I do not believe that happened, at least not while anything was theoretical. His PhD advisor worked for free, and Einstein published multiple significant papers on his own accord.
He was later paid by the government to take his theory and make the most out of it in reality, which is what resulted in the development of the weapons that won the world war.
So before you dismiss what I am saying for being a bit counter to the typical narrative about science funding - please be aware that what you want is what Germany did in that situation. Which was continue to develop theories of new fringe ideas instead of taking the new golden goose egg that was discovered and making something useful out of it right away