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Imagine if, back when we thought the sun revolves around the earth, some great king wanted to better understand astronomy. So he established a National Science
by xamuel 7y ago
Imagine if, back when we thought the sun revolves around the earth, some great king wanted to better understand astronomy. So he established a National Science Foundation to pump out hundreds of trillions of dollars to scientists to study astronomy and better understand it. What would be the result? The result would be ever more sophisticated treatises on geocentrism, with ever more complicated gymnastics to explain observations based on flawed models. It would actually make it harder to challenge geocentrism, because there would be so much more financial momentum behind geocentrism.
- comicjk 7y agoThis is historically doubtful. The most famous anti-heliocentric researcher, Galileo, was a professor at the University of Padua. This university relied on the Church at least as much as a modern US university relies on the NSF. Furthermore the Church had vastly more power over publication than any institution in any free country today. Yet, the truth still shone through. If Renaissance Italian research funding had been greater, we would have gotten more empty treatises on heliocentrism, but also more chances at a Galileo.