3 ms·

I see it as they can't control technology and academia without stifling it in the process

chii 4y ago
I suspect that they will "merely" need to instill enough propaganda and "brainwashing" politically onto academia such that those who have the knowledge and skill would not go against the CCP. This effectively restricts the talent pool - those who are smart are likely able to see thru any propaganda. And those that are smart are also more capable of emigrating overseas where you make more money anyway. So it's not about stifling, but more about slowness. But with a large enough population, even a smaller % of talent is still a huge number.
- tsimionescu 4y ago
  > This effectively restricts the talent pool - those who are smart are likely able to see thru any propaganda. This is rarely true. People can be, and often are, extremely smart in one field and idiots in others. The fact that they think otherwise is often part of the problem. Especially since propaganda is often layered - everyone knows something is propaganda, but that doesn't help you understand the truth, and there is often subtler propaganda that guides those who see the blatant propaganda to the "right truth".
inglor_cz 4y ago
The weakest link is the actual application of a discovery in real life. Brilliant scientists can be apolitical and so isolated from the rest of the society that they don't even realize what's going on. Notably, the Soviet Union produced a lot of excellent results in mathematics and physics. But when it comes to designing and selling actual products based on the theoretical discoveries, the inefficiency, stupidity and mendacity inherent in the authoritarian systems really comes to the fore and can't be dodged.
- nobodyandproud 4y ago
  That reminded me of Archimedes: https://datatorch.com/life/Archimedes_faced_death_with_courage https://datatorch.com/life/Archimedes_faced_death_with_coura...

chii 4y ago

I suspect that they will "merely" need to instill enough propaganda and "brainwashing" politically onto academia such that those who have the knowledge and skill would not go against the CCP. This effectively restricts the talent pool - those who are smart are likely able to see thru any propaganda. And those that are smart are also more capable of emigrating overseas where you make more money anyway. So it's not about stifling, but more about slowness. But with a large enough population, even a smaller % of talent is still a huge number.

tsimionescu 4y ago
> This effectively restricts the talent pool - those who are smart are likely able to see thru any propaganda. This is rarely true. People can be, and often are, extremely smart in one field and idiots in others. The fact that they think otherwise is often part of the problem. Especially since propaganda is often layered - everyone knows something is propaganda, but that doesn't help you understand the truth, and there is often subtler propaganda that guides those who see the blatant propaganda to the "right truth".

inglor_cz 4y ago

The weakest link is the actual application of a discovery in real life. Brilliant scientists can be apolitical and so isolated from the rest of the society that they don't even realize what's going on. Notably, the Soviet Union produced a lot of excellent results in mathematics and physics. But when it comes to designing and selling actual products based on the theoretical discoveries, the inefficiency, stupidity and mendacity inherent in the authoritarian systems really comes to the fore and can't be dodged.

nobodyandproud 4y ago
That reminded me of Archimedes: https://datatorch.com/life/Archimedes_faced_death_with_courage https://datatorch.com/life/Archimedes_faced_death_with_coura...