3 ms·
In terms of dollars that’s fine. But on a societal level I think you have to think about alternative cost: The problem is not the money wasted on string theory.
by bjornsing 6y ago
In terms of dollars that’s fine. But on a societal level I think you have to think about alternative cost: The problem is not the money wasted on string theory. It’s all the other research that those researchers could have done.
- lifeisstillgood 6y agoThat ultimately is their choice - using money as a forcing function to get the research we want is a poor approach to picking fruitful areas of research (although not uncommon)
- kortilla 6y agoSure, but the point of government funding is to encourage things we want for society. If some researcher wants to pour another 20 years of salary into more string theory, maybe we shouldn’t pay for that. Perhaps rather than prescribing areas of research, we should just ban or severely limit areas that haven’t shown any promise.