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This feels a lot like a headline that appeals to the prejudices of readers of The Atlantic. But, even setting aside whether I buy the statistics they gesture to
by karaterobot 5y ago
This feels a lot like a headline that appeals to the prejudices of readers of The Atlantic. But, even setting aside whether I buy the statistics they gesture toward (without citation in most cases), they need to provide an argument that they are relevant. For example, might the lack of new colleges signal instead that colleges are less relevant in the age of the internet, or that existing colleges have expanded in size, or all the new college created in the last century were part of a post-war boom, rather than the baseline that the future should always be judged by? I'd also like to know why any of this is a uniquely American problem, and not a wider trend.
And, you can't get away with just saying "sure, CRISPR and mRNA and AI and solar energy and smartphones are cool, but if you ignore examples like that, there really hasn't been much innovation."
- mayormcmatt 5y ago> And, you can't get away with just saying "sure, CRISPR and mRNA and AI and solar energy and smartphones are cool, but if you ignore examples like that, there really hasn't been much innovation." What have the Romans ever done for us!
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- JohnWhigham 5y agoThis feels a lot like a headline that appeals to the prejudices of readers of The Atlantic. Objective reporting is dead (whether it was a thing to begin with is a different argument). Magazines/news outlets now are just products catered to their primary demographic. Overt bias is absolutely everywhere even though they pretend to be objective. It's virtually impossible to get a balanced take on an issue nowadays without doing a lot of research for oneself.
- mtberatwork 5y agoWhat's your point here? The Atlantic is a political commentary magazine.
- scelerat 5y agoFirst, "objective" reporting is a very subjective concept! Even if rhetorical bias is suppressed, there is always an editorial bias. What stories get run? What is the shape and focus of stories that do run? All news organizations have biases, and they are all more nuanced than "left vs right." Second, The Atlantic magazine has functioned as a voice of commentary and analysis since its inception, so of course it's going to have more of an opinionated take than more "objective" outlets like AP or Reuters.
- fnord77 5y ago> colleges are less relevant in the age of the internet, Can I get a law degree or a chemistry degree from a MOOC? Lately it seems like MOOCs are written off as failures
- asdff 5y agoSeems that state schools everywhere are expanding in the past few decades. UC added merced in 2005. More people are enrolled in a cal state school than ever before. Its almost a meme how common new dorm construction is on college campuses.
- jeffreyrogers 5y agoAI and solar energy are decades old at this point (continually improving, but they aren't new ideas). Smartphones have definitely had a huge impact on the world but they are almost entirely a system integration problem. Biology is maybe the one field that still has a lot of novel advances coming out of it. The other thing is look at the number of people it takes to sustain those advances. There are probably 1000x more scientists and engineers in 2020 than in 1920. So even if the absolute number of technological advances is roughly constant, the productivity is way lower.
- thehappypm 5y agoOddly enough we rode the highs of WW2 R&D for decades. Nothing even close to that level of R&D has happened since, even the moon missions are a fraction.