a series of bats

bruh that’s literally one of my 5,000 fears

i've been reading this recent report from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy titled "SCIENCE: A NEW GOLDEN AGE" first thing: it is all contradictions second thing: it is a detailed and accurate expression of what the powerful tech people think about science third thing: i don't think "the market" can replace the doge-cut science should you read it too? idk, maybe for knowing your enemy etc

i will attempt to summarize the report: science isn't profitable. science takes too long. scientists don't do enough groundbreaking work. scientists are bad at deciding who gets more funding. scientists have too much power over the world. too many "pointless" projects get funded. big projects require too many people for too few "big results". maybe scientists should try learning to do things with their hands. universities are expensive and wasteful. DEI is bad bc it distracts from making money today. things don't go fast and big anymore (like going to the moon). there are too many things to keep up with. why can't science go faster. why can't science produce results. unlike the slow and wasteful and small-brained scientists, AI can be trusted to produce results. In conclusion, let's do DIFFERENT things and be profitable. Easy.

the major offering of this report is that is tells you exactly what the current administration wants to hear from scientists. if i were in charge of a research group i'd make it required reading.

there is currently a trickle of federal funding for scientific research and i've been hearing from a lot of people that it might begin to increase in the near future but even if that happens, a point of caution: they will expect results. and yes, sometimes that will require working on science things but that's not what they're trying to fund. they don't care. they want the results. does any of that make sense? no. do they care? no.

Well that’s between me and my flesh

i only have a few different ways to explain to people that the entire edifice of mainstream western science is in favor of manipulating data to show that women, non-white persons, and the poor are irrational, beholden to animalistic instinct only, victims of their base impulses, etc and that the survival of multiple-billion dollar industries and indeed entire political systems are depending on the data to do this. and that you should perhaps not be so quick to carry their fucking water for them