There used to be BA-level research positions, to get your feet wet in industrial research for a couple years, and possibly to help one get into a PhD program on advantageous terms. The problem is that those BA-level research positions, while they still exist, are now all fucking filled with PhDs.
The public sector (politicians more than bureaucrats) is short-sighted and the private-sector is worse. Basic research has been shuttered, and I think that's largely because of the anti-intellectual culture of the US. Basic research is seen as something "eggheads" do, and the mainstream distrusts people like us for, you know, believing the universe is 13.7 billion years old based on science rather than 6,000 years old based on a book.
Notably, most of these investments occurred during wartime. It appears that government support of scientific research surges during war, and declines in peace. This is a paradox that needs to be resolved in order to make better use of the nation's intellectual resources.
This is sad, but accurate. Average people respond more to the carrot than the stick, but the sorts of people who tend to acquire power respond more strongly to the stick, and only an existential and violent threat can bring them to do the right thing. Societies seem to degrade until war of some kind (international, or an internal revolution) is inevitable. War is the worst way of resolving those building-up tensions and corruption, but no one has come up with anything that works better. We're about 25 years away from a violent revolution due to internal inequality in the U.S. and, while I'd love to see a reversal of course that avoids bloodshed, I feel like the odds are against it. We just suck as a species.
However, the nature of technological progress has turned academia into a place where intelligent people maintain a holding pattern prior to beginning their careers. The issue with this is that, not only are they poorly paid, but they may also be contributing to a system that is looking more and more like a pyramid scheme.
At its root, this is a government funding problem. Particularly in the US, the dysfunctional state of the government has caused science funding to be cut at all levels. This may be a reflection of the American public's preferences, as it appears science is no longer a prime policy objective in Washington DC.
In my opinion, government has a few responsibilities that it needs to carry out well:
- Infrastructure (including healthcare, sanitation, power, education, etc.)
- Defense
- Upholding the Rule of Law (police, courts, etc.)
- Basic Scientific Research (Academia, research labs, etc.)
It increasingly appears that the U.S. no longer believes the last point falls within the realm of the government. This is an interesting development, as one of the key contributors to American economic success in the past century has been the massive state investment into scientific and engineering research (WWI, WWII, Manhattan, Apollo, NASA, ARPA, etc.).
Notably, most of these investments occurred during wartime. It appears that government support of scientific research surges during war, and declines in peace. This is a paradox that needs to be resolved in order to make better use of the nation's intellectual resources.
As much as I love commercial programming, I would rather be doing basic research, and I'm sure many on HN feel the same.
I honestly hope that a group of wealthy and powerful entrepreneurs such (PG, Elon Musk, Ellison, Zuck, etc.) band together and start advocating for a scientific research initiative whose funding is constant (inflation adjusted) over at least twenty years, and is focused on basic scientific breakthroughs.
A model worth studying would be Janelia Farms, funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute [1].
1. http://janelia.org/