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A comment on The crisis in physics is not only about physics. Parent comment

Re:The crisis in physics is not only about physics by theossuary on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @09:03PM (#21404707)
I'm not 100% convinced. I think it's hard to get really smart people to work on problems that aren't interesting. Asking a team to make food preservation 10% better won't invite the creativity and determination that asking them to preserve food to Mars would.

I think, when you take humans into account, you're better off setting interesting and challenging goals, with many useful byproducts.

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Re:The crisis in physics is not only about physics by roca on Wednesday October 30, 2019 @09:11PM (#21404748)
That is the best argument for "spinoffs" that I've heard. Well done.

I still think it's pretty weak though; the inspiration benefit seems unlikely to overcome the lost efficiency, in general. And different people find different problems inspiring; some people can be inspired by practical problems (e.g. "how can we lighten the backpacks of trampers").

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