"This seems, unfortunately, to have been an own goal by Silicon Valley.
  Though the people who run Silicon Valley are almost all independent-minded,
  they've handed the aggressively conventional-minded a tool such as they could
  only have dreamed of."

This comes across as self-aggrandizing and a tad elitist.

  "On the other hand, perhaps the decline in the spirit of free inquiry within universities 
  is as much the symptom of the departure of the independent-minded as the cause. 
  People who would have become professors 50 years ago have other options now. Now
  they can become quants or start startups. You have to be independent-minded to
  succeed at either of those."

This is happening for economic reasons. Jobs outside academia pay more than they used to, the US no longer have a high income tax rate like we did in the 1950s, and there is more competition for academic jobs. Maybe at one point deciding to become a quant was independent-minded, but at this point it's a well worn path. Also, I'm sure there are some ideas that would be off-limits in quant circles