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Research is non-linear and criteria based evaluation is lacking in perspective. You might throw away the baby with the bathwater. Advancement of science follows
by visarga 5y ago
Research is non-linear and criteria based evaluation is lacking in perspective. You might throw away the baby with the bathwater. Advancement of science follows a deceptive path. Remember how the inventor of the mRNA method was shunned at her university just a few years ago? Because of things like that millions might die, but we can't tell beforehand which scientist is a visionary and who's a crackpot. If you close funding to seemingly useless research you might cut the next breakthrough.
- paulluuk 5y agoI don't really see why "being shunned" or "being a visionary" has anything to do with this, to be honest. If you set up a simple rule: "the results have to be reproducable", then surely it shouldn't matter whether or not the theory is considered "crackpot" or "brilliant"?
- visarga 5y agoReproducibility is 10x more expensive, you have to make sure you can replicate all the conditions exactly, and there are no thanks at the end for all that effort. The incentive is to publish instead of finding the truth.