Stepping away from science (research) for a minute, I think a far more silent “machine” that we implicitly depend on is the idea of industrial organization (a s

Stepping away from science (research) for a minute, I think a far more silent “machine” that we implicitly depend on is the idea of industrial organization (a subtle blend of economics & technology) — industrial knowledge production (research), industrial engineering/technology from knowledge, industrial commercialization (startups, etc) — where “scaling” specialized entities becomes the paradigm, and hardly anyone understands the systemic complexity, or do much for themselves. The lacunae in this model are far more subtle, and it is difficult to gauge when or how this might break down.