[readthenotes1]

"Deeply embarrassing as a US citizen."

Agreed. The US has squandered so much money over the decades that they're now over $300k/taxpayer in debt, with interest to that that being the fourth largest cost, and two of the top three being insufficiently funded programs that simply steal from the grandchildren.

It would be even more embarrassing if we didn't cut back on non-essential spending.

U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time https://share.google/adgsGnl43Yk8S0zDq

[apical_dendrite]

Yeah, let's cut back on the relatively small investments in science that actually grow the economy, particularly at a moment in time when our geopolitical competitors are making enormous investments, and when leadership and talent in science is more important than ever.

Just walk around the Boston area and look at how much of the economy is driven by federal research funding attracting global talent to universities, which then generates ideas and the next generation of talent, which feeds the biotech companies, which grow the economy.

Letting all of that happen in China instead of the US just to make a tiny dent in the deficit (and to punish progressive institutions and prevent cultural change from immigration) is unbelievably fucking stupid.

[Gud]

Being at the forefront of science is not ~non-essential~.

It is literally one of the most important things to make a nation great.

[philipallstar]

This retroactive stuff is pointless. The US can't do anything right, but if it stops doing anything it's doing it's a catastrophe.

[mcphage]

> It would be even more embarrassing if we didn't cut back on non-essential spending.

Boy are you going to feel bad as you watch what happens to the debt over the next few years.

[wpm]

Perhaps this pain would be worth it if we also cut back on non-essential tax-cuts for the rich.

Instead, we're cutting cheap scraps like this from the budget while the fattest fucks at the table get to gorge themselves for another two years.

[ujkhsjkdhf234]

Trump just added 4 trillion more in debt funding tax cuts for billionaire. The amount of money science research gets in the US is pennies compared to that. Investments in science always returns on investment in the form of technology. The internet was a research project mind you.

[herbst]

A research project from Cern in Switzerland mind you. And a English guy who created all the protocols there

[JPLeRouzic]

HTTP is an Internet protocol; it is not the Internet. Moreover, it relies on other protocols such as TCP, which itself uses UDP.

TCP was invented in the US 20 years before HTTP.

[herbst]

That's like saying whoever invented the wheel also invented the car (For reference likely Iran & Germany)

[PostOnce]

VoIP and games and IM clients and non-web apps and "cloud storage" and all sorts of other things exist and evolve on the internet separate to the web.

It's not as though the rest of the non-web internet is a historical curio or abandoned obsolete technology.

[gary_0]

Not to mention almost all the breakthroughs on top of the initial Web happened in the US: Mosiac, Netscape, Apache, Yahoo, Google, etc. Many of them started out as "non-essential" research projects.

[philwelch]

Your point is like saying whoever invented the car also invented the wheel.

[b0rat]

That doesn't defeat the point. It makes the point that research benefits all. That research can't happen in vacuum. It needs to be funded and culture and institutions build around it.

For a technology forum, the sheer volume of pettiness and anti-science and technology attitude is confounding.

People here sounds like the most mediocre managers I've ever worked with in my life.