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This is why I was careful with my words about where the research would end up, and where the funding would come from. These examples along with government fund
by tensor 13y ago
This is why I was careful with my words about where the research would end up, and where the funding would come from.
These examples along with government funding are distinct in that they are not motivated by profit, the overall theme of the discussion. Suffice to say, if people won't support science via government funding, I suspect they are equally if not more unlikely to do it via nonprofits. And I say that based on observations of opt-in vs opt-out that come from behavioural economics (which ironically may never have been discovered without public funding).
In short, I don't see these ever sustaining the amount of scientific work that is currently going on.
- dnautics 13y agothe objection to government funding science is quite simple - it's not a voluntary contribution, and is immaterial to what people would like to "see money go to" There are other motivations for funding science besides money. It's good publicity, for example, if you're running a private research university, which is how quite a bit of research got funded in the pre-1960s era. Finally, "good basic science" fundamentally runs counter to "good governance". "good governance" requires accountability and milestones; "good basic science" requires the practitioner to be free from accountability besides the basic one of "don't lie".
- tensor 13y agoThat same objection to government funding of science can be applied to everything the government does.
- dnautics 13y agoabsolutely. For that reason it would be really nice to have an enumerated list of things that government should do, and a second list of prohibitions that say what lines it shouldn't cross when doing those things it has the authority to do, don't you think?