Freeman Dyson on the topic: http://michaelnielsen.org/blog/freeman-dyson-on-invention-and-phds/ http://michaelnielsen.org/blog/freeman-dyson-on-invention-an...

Freeman Dyson on the topic: http://michaelnielsen.org/blog/freeman-dyson-on-invention-and-phds/ http://michaelnielsen.org/blog/freeman-dyson-on-invention-an... Brand: One of the things I got from Infinite in All Directions – it was a delight to me, and I’ve been quoting it ever since – is that you honor inventors as much as scientists. Dyson: It’s as great a part of the human adventure to invent things as to understand them. John Randall wasn’t a great scientist, but he was a great inventor. There’s been lots more like him, and it’s a shame they don’t get Nobel Prizes. Brand: Is it the scientists who are putting them down? Dyson: Yes. There is this snobbism among scientists, especially the academic types. Brand: Are there other kinds? Dyson: There are scientists in industry who are a bit more broad minded. The academics look down on them, too. Brand: Is that a weird British hangover? Dyson: It’s even worse in Germany. Intellectual snobbery is a worldwide disease. It certainly was very bad in China and probably held back development there by 2,000 years. Brand: How would you stop this intellectual snobbery? Dyson: I would abolish the PhD system. The PhD system is the real root of the evil of academic snobbery. People who have PhDs consider themselves a priesthood, and inventors generally don’t have PhDs.