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I'm not sure how to feel about this. If the purpose of science research is to build the understanding we have, teaser articles seem more like a way to put a nam

I'm not sure how to feel about this. If the purpose of science research is to build the understanding we have, teaser articles seem more like a way to put a name on a creation without actually contributing to our understanding of something. I guess this is an artifact of how cutthroat academia is and how vital it is to have credit for being first.

eynsham 4y ago
So long as it doesn't slow or otherwise impede the dissemination of the full paper I don't mind personally.
sweettea 4y ago
But it is a long principle of academia to avoid being scooped by putting out priority-proving work. Consider US patents; or, further back, I read here yesterday that Galileo published anagrams of his results and Kepler took great delight in reverse-engineering them, accidentally finding other true facts other than Galileo's intended discovery.
zitterbewegung 4y ago
If they were able to complete it in a week then it is a big deal… especially about wording if that they would be scooped.
- mattkrause 4y ago
  Three days! The Deep Mind paper came out on the 5th of October; the first version of this on the 8th.
TheRealPomax 4y ago
> If the purpose of science research is to build the understanding we have. It's not. It never was. It's always been "to build the understanding that I or this small group I am part of has, that gives us an edge for a while until we share it with the world because it looks like someone else might otherwise pretend to have discovered it". The idea of a noble science, diligently working towards the betterment of mankind, has always been a romantic fantasy at best.
- golem14 4y ago
  "The Double Helix" by James Watson is still a surprisingly accessible read that's very relevant here.
Beldin 4y ago
> I guess this is an artifact of how cutthroat academia is and how vital it is to have credit for being first. In fairness, academia has improved much in this regards since the days of Newton. That man was such an arse... even the Wikipedia article about his feud with Leibniz glosses over... everything. Basically, not only was he a donkey about things, he used all sorts of underhanded tactics to win and reveled in devastating his rival's good standing.
klyrs 4y ago
I think I'm alright with it in this case. Here, they've given the result and a full proof that a keen undergrad could follow. The future reference is about the method they used to find it. People can hit the ground running with their accelerated matrix multiplication today, should they want to. But if they want to apply that method to find 17x17 multiplication formulae, they'll have to wait.

eynsham 4y ago

So long as it doesn't slow or otherwise impede the dissemination of the full paper I don't mind personally.

sweettea 4y ago

But it is a long principle of academia to avoid being scooped by putting out priority-proving work. Consider US patents; or, further back, I read here yesterday that Galileo published anagrams of his results and Kepler took great delight in reverse-engineering them, accidentally finding other true facts other than Galileo's intended discovery.

zitterbewegung 4y ago

If they were able to complete it in a week then it is a big deal… especially about wording if that they would be scooped.

mattkrause 4y ago
Three days! The Deep Mind paper came out on the 5th of October; the first version of this on the 8th.

TheRealPomax 4y ago

> If the purpose of science research is to build the understanding we have. It's not. It never was. It's always been "to build the understanding that I or this small group I am part of has, that gives us an edge for a while until we share it with the world because it looks like someone else might otherwise pretend to have discovered it". The idea of a noble science, diligently working towards the betterment of mankind, has always been a romantic fantasy at best.

golem14 4y ago
"The Double Helix" by James Watson is still a surprisingly accessible read that's very relevant here.

Beldin 4y ago

> I guess this is an artifact of how cutthroat academia is and how vital it is to have credit for being first. In fairness, academia has improved much in this regards since the days of Newton. That man was such an arse... even the Wikipedia article about his feud with Leibniz glosses over... everything. Basically, not only was he a donkey about things, he used all sorts of underhanded tactics to win and reveled in devastating his rival's good standing.

klyrs 4y ago

I think I'm alright with it in this case. Here, they've given the result and a full proof that a keen undergrad could follow. The future reference is about the method they used to find it. People can hit the ground running with their accelerated matrix multiplication today, should they want to. But if they want to apply that method to find 17x17 multiplication formulae, they'll have to wait.