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It sounds like you're saying that this is a step in the direction of "fixing" academia. I don't see any evidence of that, all i see is fewer scientists receivin
by ixtli 8mo ago
It sounds like you're saying that this is a step in the direction of "fixing" academia. I don't see any evidence of that, all i see is fewer scientists receiving decreasing funding in a state where weve already been slashing basic research investment for generations. Also, there is no evidence that the ones that are leaving are the least productive. Intuitively it's likely the opposite: the ones who have the most potential will find work elsewhere and will be the first to leave.
EDIT: I would also like to say that i have never seen evidence that we can measure the performance of 10k PhDs in a single dimension at all. So a claim that this could be good for scientific research and development seems unprovable at best.
- sheikhnbake 8mo agoIt also flies in the face of China's currently accelerating pace of research and breakthroughs by producing insane numbers of STEM majors and PhDs
- JuniperMesos 8mo agoChina is famous for low-quality research and bad papers, which is exactly what you'd expect from a system that grants an expanded number of formal credentials to people who aren't actually doing good scientific research.
- roughly 8mo agoChina was famous for low-quality products as well.
- layer8 8mo agoWhile there have been substantial improvements, it still deserves its fame.
- bigyabai 8mo agoBe that as it may, China also has persistent threat actors outfoxing American cybersecurity in the form of Salt Typhoon. The cards are on the table, and the US is already undoubtedly losing several fronts of asymmetrical warfare.
- ixtli 8mo agoI have a friend who, to explain it simply, worked medium high up in the CIA for 8-12 years during Bush and Obama. The only time he gets serious about talking about his time there is on this topic. Chinas cyber security is, according to him, light years ahead of the US to the point where its embarrassing.
- Zigurd 8mo agoIf I understand Salt Typhoon correctly it's a masterpiece. The descriptions I've seen indicate that they penetrated lawful intercept. Lawful intercept operates outside network operators network management systems because it was designed not to trust the network operators. I am skeptical of claims that Salt Typhoon has been eliminated from US networks. Any such implicitly claim to detect lawful intercept traffic and ensure it isn't nefarious, which traffic that system is designed to hide.
- ixtli 8mo agoYes. I think well meaning people in the west are looking for a silver lining and in the process overcomplicating a rather simple issue: the US government is cutting spending everywhere while its electorate demands even deeper cuts. The money has dried up and people are leaving. (One of my best friends was a nuclear medicine phd who left his cancer research lab after covid to work at a VoiP company, so i too have anecdotes)
- sheikhnbake 8mo agoSigh. The US is in a weird spot. The electorate does not generally want education and research cut. Republicans here have convinced their base that education and the educated are bad, which has fed their desire to cut academic funding and research at all levels. That is to say, the federal government doesn't have a popular mandate to do any of this. They simply hold all levers of power through a slim majority of the voting populace.
- ixtli 8mo agoAnd lets not forget that its only 22% of the total amount of people who live here. A large minority of potential voters are disenfranchised and do not vote. The government isnt just without a mandate it is extremely unpopular.
- krona 8mo agoWhich breakthroughs, specifically? There are no Chinese institutions pumping out nobel prizes. Zero.
- triceratops 8mo ago10 years ago were no Chinese companies pumping out world-class cars either. But here we are.
- krona 8mo agoI'm honestly not sure what you're referring to.
- dragontamer 8mo agoGeely owns Volvo and IIRC a significant portion of Volvos are Chinese made now. There's a number of companies or brands that are now Chinese owned. China knows that home grown brands (like Geely) don't work on an international stage, so they buy well known brands like Volvo. It's a bit of a silent behind the scenes takeover but I'd say that China is now seriously making competitive cars. If you can follow the brands and notice.
- kelipso 8mo agoLol, the fully homegrown BYD is destroying Tesla everywhere outside the US where it’s basically banned and you’re taking about Geely and Volvo and behind the scenes. It’s all out there on the stage.
- dragontamer 8mo agoI don't really give a shit about Tesla though. Or BYD for that matter. By my eye, Volvo / Geely cars are the most impressive.
- kelipso 8mo ago
- JuniperMesos 8mo agoI'm not claiming that this is a step in the direction of fixing academia; I'm claiming that, because academia is currently broken, we shouldn't assume that the ~10k people who got PhDs under the current system are people doing actually-valuable work for the federal government and ultimately the American people.
- rwyinuse 8mo agoKnowing current administration anti-science approach to things like climate and health, I wouldn't be all at surprised if many of those who left academia were ones producing quality work that just didn't align with Trump admin's ideology.
- decremental 8mo ago[dead]
- michelsedgh 8mo agothe unscientific stuff was actually past administrations which told us cheetos is more healthy than eggs and meat lol
- clutchdude 8mo agoTurns out, if we feed data in and query it in the right way, we can come to charts that allow bad conclusions just like any other. https://www.snopes.com/news/2023/01/16/lucky-charms-healthier-than-steak-food-pyramid/ https://www.snopes.com/news/2023/01/16/lucky-charms-healthie...
- yesb 8mo agoIf anyone is curious, as I was, where this misinformation came from: it appears to be a criticism of the Food Compass rating system from Tufts University. The connection to "past administrations" seems to be added by the person I'm replying to. They've also swapped Cheerios with Cheetos. >On social media, I have seen graphics showing certain breakfast cereals scoring higher than eggs, cheese, or meat. Did Tufts create these graphics? >No. Food Compass works very well, on average, across thousands of food and beverage products. But, when this number and diversity of products are scored, there are always some exceptions. These graphs were created by others to show these exceptions, rather than to show the overall performance of Food Compass and the many other foods for which Food Compass works well. But, as objective scientists, we accept constructive criticism and are using this to further improve Food Compass. We are working on an updated version now – see our versions page for more information. https://sites.tufts.edu/foodcompass/ https://sites.tufts.edu/foodcompass/ https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-021-00381-y.epdf https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-021-00381-y.epdf
- ReptileMan 8mo agoPeople start being inventive when tight on resources, so a bit of evolutionary pressure is not a bad thing.
- yobbo 8mo agoYou are assuming there is meaningful work for them in the federal government. There might be more productive work for them in industry. Their contribution to the workforce could put pressure on inflated salaries, if that is the case. If their credentials exceed their defacto responsibilities in the government, they might be blocking someone else from being promoted or otherwise "growing" or whatever.