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Fun fact: Exactly the stipulation behind this excerpt, whether the President can hire/fire the head of the NSF, is exactly why Truman had vetoed an earlier vers

Fun fact: Exactly the stipulation behind this excerpt, whether the President can hire/fire the head of the NSF, is exactly why Truman had vetoed an earlier version of the NSF bill written under the close influence of Vannevar Bush that actively avoided providing for this extent of executive ‘weighing of the scales’ of science. Source: Bush, V. “Pieces of the Action”, 1970

mensetmanusman 1y ago
I’m so glad you know this, as I was going to comment on this topic of history. Bush was a wise man, Truman forgot that government power can be fickle.
- ricksunny 1y ago
  For The Tech minded, I wrote an guest column that touched on the autonomy of technical management aspect. https://thetech.com/2024/07/11/anniversary-vannevar-bush-passing https://thetech.com/2024/07/11/anniversary-vannevar-bush-pas... the “unchecked committee of technocratic experts appeared to be his preferred agency governance form.” refers both to his utterances illustrated in his only biography to date, and particularly to the would-be May-Johnson governance structure he promoted. Today we see the debate in full swing with discussion of technocratic elitism, (particularly this year more than last when I wrote the piece). I wrestle with the pitfalls & perceived benefits a technocratic elite sans much representative democratic oversight. But make no mistake, a ‘Vannevarian’ world would appear very different to the current one we prefer to think we live in. The closest example in pop culture to what I imagine is the Fallout franchise’s Vault governance & managed society.
  - mensetmanusman 1y ago
    This is great. I worked in building 13 and speak about V. Bush when I give talks to course 3 phd students occasionally :) William B. Bonvillian taught me the bit I know about the topic :)
    - ricksunny 1y ago
      The very namesake building I’ll keep sensitized to the STS Bonvillian name, I was unfamiliar prior, thank you. That’s great to hear you sometimes give talks to course 3 students, as maybe some of them will go on to study lattices like: https://www.sf-uap.com/materials-science https://www.sf-uap.com/materials-science , for which study under what governance structure we may not know. All the best.

mensetmanusman 1y ago

I’m so glad you know this, as I was going to comment on this topic of history. Bush was a wise man, Truman forgot that government power can be fickle.

ricksunny 1y ago
For The Tech minded, I wrote an guest column that touched on the autonomy of technical management aspect. https://thetech.com/2024/07/11/anniversary-vannevar-bush-passing https://thetech.com/2024/07/11/anniversary-vannevar-bush-pas... the “unchecked committee of technocratic experts appeared to be his preferred agency governance form.” refers both to his utterances illustrated in his only biography to date, and particularly to the would-be May-Johnson governance structure he promoted. Today we see the debate in full swing with discussion of technocratic elitism, (particularly this year more than last when I wrote the piece). I wrestle with the pitfalls & perceived benefits a technocratic elite sans much representative democratic oversight. But make no mistake, a ‘Vannevarian’ world would appear very different to the current one we prefer to think we live in. The closest example in pop culture to what I imagine is the Fallout franchise’s Vault governance & managed society.
- mensetmanusman 1y ago
  This is great. I worked in building 13 and speak about V. Bush when I give talks to course 3 phd students occasionally :) William B. Bonvillian taught me the bit I know about the topic :)
  - ricksunny 1y ago
    The very namesake building I’ll keep sensitized to the STS Bonvillian name, I was unfamiliar prior, thank you. That’s great to hear you sometimes give talks to course 3 students, as maybe some of them will go on to study lattices like: https://www.sf-uap.com/materials-science https://www.sf-uap.com/materials-science , for which study under what governance structure we may not know. All the best.