I agree with everything you said and I wondered... Isn't this just the next level of the concentration of discovery in universities and science labs? Centuries

I agree with everything you said and I wondered... Isn't this just the next level of the concentration of discovery in universities and science labs? Centuries ago, going perhaps only as far as 19th century, much of science was done as a hobby by people who had the smarts and the time (which was a luxury). Over time, the cost to do science increased gradually. What required just a few hours of free time started requiring many hours. Then money to make small machines. Then big machines... Then it became out of reach for almost any private individual. Now it's out of reach for anyone who doesn't have data centers full of GPUs, even major universities depending on the field.