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> Do we want the fruits of scientific progress to be made publicly available and shared by all of society [...] or for it to end up privatized as part of patent
by wolfgke 10y ago
> Do we want the fruits of scientific progress to be made publicly available and shared by all of society [...] or for it to end up privatized as part of patent portfolios to go to the highest bidder and to serve those with the most capital?
Of course the former - but only as long as I can live from doing the research. As the German writer Bertolt Brecht put it in Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera): "Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral." ("Grub first, then ethics.").
- throwaway98237 10y agoIn a capitalist society one can receive grub for work on ethics. We need, as a society, to decide that it's worth investing in ethics, in basic research, etc, rather than trusting that market incentives will trickle out of these companies.