Re:A new replication crisis: Research that is less likely to...
by ZeroGravitas on Saturday May 22, 2021 @05:41AM
(#27245013)
Open source and Free Software is (despite it being a cliche for programmers to over apply it) a good model to compare with.
You have big companies making Billions with the work of relatively poorly paid nerds. But as soon as you make it possible for the nerds to claim all the profits of the work then you have a whole class of people whose job is to insert themselves as middlemen and ruin it for everyone, both customers and developers.
So basically the aim is to limit the degree to which you can privately profit from science, and expand the amount of science you can easily build on. You still get enough incentives for progress, the benefits accrue to society as a whole, and competition and change is enabled without powerful gatekeepers controlling too much in their own interests.
You have big companies making Billions with the work of relatively poorly paid nerds. But as soon as you make it possible for the nerds to claim all the profits of the work then you have a whole class of people whose job is to insert themselves as middlemen and ruin it for everyone, both customers and developers.
So basically the aim is to limit the degree to which you can privately profit from science, and expand the amount of science you can easily build on. You still get enough incentives for progress, the benefits accrue to society as a whole, and competition and change is enabled without powerful gatekeepers controlling too much in their own interests.