Re:The mathematics of science’s broken reward system
by tdaltonc on Thursday November 17, 2016 @02:47PM
(#12980783)
Specifically: The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present – and is gravely to be regarded.
Re:The mathematics of science’s broken reward system
by bzbarsky on Thursday November 17, 2016 @02:50PM
(#12980802)
Indeed. Since then it has gone from "prospect" to "it's been this way for decades"...
There's lots more in there that usually doesn't get quoted (unlike the bit about the military-industrial complex) and is spot-on prescient.
Our need for "objectivity" here is to a large extent driven by the centralization of the funding allocation that http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/ike.htm warned about and has since come to pass. If funding were more decentralized, lack of objectivity in any particular funding source would be _much_ less of a problem.