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21 sats \ 13 replies \ @Undisciplined 1 Jun \ parent \ on: Trump’s assault on science will have dire consequences econ
I'm definitely not going to argue that they haven't made a mess of all of that sort of stuff. I have sufficient exposure to know you're describing a widespread issue.
It will cost us. Also, great researera are going to the UK and France.
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I'm highly skeptical of both of those claims.
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Your skepticism is fine, but it is literally my jobs to know. And what I'm saying is pretty easily verifyable. But think about it. The UK is trying to recover talent from Brexit and the U.S. Is freezing visa appointments for PhD researchers. Where would you go for the next 4-5 years?
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Perhaps we're talking past each other, a bit. I won't be surprised if what you're talking about happens on the margins.
I'm skeptical that the US will significantly slip from its dominance in research and development. The best minds in the world come to American institutions. I don't see them choosing to go to less prestigious, lower paying, higher cost of living places, in any meaningful numbers.
I'm also skeptical that what's being funded by the government is very valuable. I have no doubt there are individually valuable projects, but on balance I don't think government research is worth much.
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Yeah, but it is all a partnership. So a government grant allows us to buy certain equipment and fund technicians. Then a company - say Plug Power who needs some advanced ion battery research - can contract with us to do the advanced science and engineering that helps them get the next gen product to market.
I guess most don't know how it works so they attack it. I'm not saying there isn't B.S. research, but B.S. research is only B.S. until that particular crisis hits and we need to start somewhere.
I'll give you an example. All the work you see now in hypersonics and advanced propulsion - is mostly dusted off and updated 60 year old government research.
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So, you are talking about defense research, right? That research is buried so deep into budgets and appropriations that a normie will never see it. In fact, some of this research is so far into the black hole, that it is only an addition to the other black hole development projects. I don’t quite think they are getting cut, somehow. They won’t cut defense, no matter how much we would like them to.
We work in very different fields. I promise you that there's a lot of completely BS research. Although, I'll grant that my field's research doesn't cost nearly as much to conduct.
It would be worth much more if the private economy were investing in that research, unsullied by government largess.
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Yes, but private industry can't justify these investments until the research makes it to the transitional phase. That's after governments and NGOs have invested - millions sometimes.