> There's some scepticism going round about a model of technological innovation where academics invent an idea and engineers implement it. While I accept that affine types were known to academics, I recall a precursor to them existed in the form of C++ unique pointers.

There feels like an implicit value judgment here, that the work of "academics" isn't needed because "engineers" figured it out themselves.

> I'm wondering whether the Rust creators reinvented affine types independently, instead of learning of them from the academic literature.

Why would this ever be a good thing? Is it "cool" somehow to be proud of not taking advantage of the hard-won knowledge of other people who actively hoped their work would get used?