I concur, its difficult to get funding for this type of research without having a tangible way to benefit your potential benefactors. From personal experience,

I concur, its difficult to get funding for this type of research without having a tangible way to benefit your potential benefactors. From personal experience, I've had to work on numerous applications that I didn't really care for but provided me with the funding to actually pursue my research. On another note, the subject matter Ewin & Professor Aaronson are talking about is pretty complex even for the average CompSci person; I'd wager if there was no mention of a corporate entity or real-world example this article would be met with so many questions about its applications to those same real-world problems. Rant concluded :P