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> Unless you're proposing that universities abolish all departments except medical research Doesn’t follow, and I’m sure you’re not proposing that funds/time/a

> Unless you're proposing that universities abolish all departments except medical research Doesn’t follow, and I’m sure you’re not proposing that funds/time/attention spent in one place can be double spent in another. It’s reasonable to criticize a waste of resources since there’s always a real opportunity cost

lapcat 3y ago
> It’s reasonable to criticize a waste of resources I don't believe it's a waste of resources. > there’s always a real opportunity cost Pitting cancer research vs. psychology research is a false dichotomy. (And again, the article author didn't appear to receive any extra funding for this research aside from his regular professorial salary.) Society spends vast sums of money on a vast number of things. If you want to talk about a waste of resources, I could list a million things that are worse than this research, not just worse as in less useful, but worse as in actively harmful to society.
- tombert 3y ago
  > I could list a million things that are worse than this research, not just worse as in less useful, but worse as in actively harmful to society. The thing that comes to mind is the “manufactured ewaste” that people buy on AliExpress and Wish.com and Temu. The products on there are enticingly cheap, but are often so crappy that they rarely even get a single use, and end up in a landfill. Plastic waste is bad, but I am even more concerned with potential problems with lithium batteries piling up in landfills, not even considering the potential ethical issues with mining the resources for the battery. It’s one thing to me if the device you are actually using was made with dubious labor, it’s another if it’s a device that will immediately become waste.
- photonthug 3y ago
  Just to establish a base line.. can you give any example of a specific kind of academic research that would qualify as a waste of resources? Or is everything worth it by definition? I get that as a process science and the pursuit of knowledge require us to prove some “obvious“ things because hey, it might not be as obvious as you think and you might learn something. But with that attitude how do you even want to establish the boundaries or the agenda of what we ought to research?
  - lapcat 3y ago
    > Just to establish a base line.. can you give any example of a specific kind of academic research that would qualify as a waste of resources? I don't have an example off the top of my head. This isn't an issue that I track or have a particular concern with. > But with that attitude how do you even want to establish the boundaries or the agenda of what we ought to research? I would generally leave those judgments to the academic community, who I don't consider infallible by any means but do consider significantly less fallible in their judgments of the value of academic work than, say, anonymous commenters on Hacker News.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]

lapcat 3y ago

> It’s reasonable to criticize a waste of resources I don't believe it's a waste of resources. > there’s always a real opportunity cost Pitting cancer research vs. psychology research is a false dichotomy. (And again, the article author didn't appear to receive any extra funding for this research aside from his regular professorial salary.) Society spends vast sums of money on a vast number of things. If you want to talk about a waste of resources, I could list a million things that are worse than this research, not just worse as in less useful, but worse as in actively harmful to society.

tombert 3y ago
> I could list a million things that are worse than this research, not just worse as in less useful, but worse as in actively harmful to society. The thing that comes to mind is the “manufactured ewaste” that people buy on AliExpress and Wish.com and Temu. The products on there are enticingly cheap, but are often so crappy that they rarely even get a single use, and end up in a landfill. Plastic waste is bad, but I am even more concerned with potential problems with lithium batteries piling up in landfills, not even considering the potential ethical issues with mining the resources for the battery. It’s one thing to me if the device you are actually using was made with dubious labor, it’s another if it’s a device that will immediately become waste.
photonthug 3y ago
Just to establish a base line.. can you give any example of a specific kind of academic research that would qualify as a waste of resources? Or is everything worth it by definition? I get that as a process science and the pursuit of knowledge require us to prove some “obvious“ things because hey, it might not be as obvious as you think and you might learn something. But with that attitude how do you even want to establish the boundaries or the agenda of what we ought to research?
- lapcat 3y ago
  > Just to establish a base line.. can you give any example of a specific kind of academic research that would qualify as a waste of resources? I don't have an example off the top of my head. This isn't an issue that I track or have a particular concern with. > But with that attitude how do you even want to establish the boundaries or the agenda of what we ought to research? I would generally leave those judgments to the academic community, who I don't consider infallible by any means but do consider significantly less fallible in their judgments of the value of academic work than, say, anonymous commenters on Hacker News.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]