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A comment on List of Unsolved Scientific Problems with Large Monetary Prizes. Parent comment

Re:List of Unsolved Scientific Problems with Large Monetary ... by logicallee on Wednesday May 13, 2015 @01:35AM (#9536966)
At the bottom there is a list of "solved problems". I was surprised to read,

  Brexit Prize
  by Institute of Economic Affairs

  2013 - 2014

  €100,000
  Find the best plan for a UK exit from the European Union.
I was surprised, because my own personal opinion is that that's a pretty stupid idea (UK exit from the EU). Since I'm a super, super open-minded guy I decided to embetter my worldview and read the paper, since, you know, if it's in company like the "longitudinal prize" then hell, maybe 1) I'm wrong and 2) I'll learn something.

So I looked for the plan. Here it is:

http://www.iea.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/files...

Folks, this is 15,000 words. That means he got paid $6 per word to write that. I personally skimmed the PDF, didn't find anything that caught my eye or even a point, based on the the abstract or the section titles and the whole framing, and wasn't left with the impression that the author even believed it. Perhaps his 15,000 word PDF won simply because nobody else bothered to put a plan together, not because there's anything great or wortwhile about such a plan.

So forget "lander on mars". Win a prize that consists of a meaty term paper on some stupid proposition. A+ as a term paper, though.

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Re:List of Unsolved Scientific Problems with Large Monetary ... by viggity on Wednesday May 13, 2015 @08:36AM (#9538419)
I was surprised with that entry too, however not because of the specifics (UK exit from EU, which I happen to agree with), but rather that it is the only prize with some sort of political outcome. All of the other prizes have some basis in math, science and technology with well defined criteria for winning. A political outcome is almost by definition subjective.
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Re:List of Unsolved Scientific Problems with Large Monetary ... by kitd on Wednesday May 13, 2015 @11:43AM (#9539784)
The remit is here (PDF): http://www.iea.org.uk/sites/default/files/Info%20flyer%20for...

The competition wasn't really about whether the UK should go or not, which is the main political part. Rather, the starting point is that a referendum has decided "go", and the competition was to find the best way of extricating the UK from existing institutions/agreements, what should replace them, and how.

However, the remit is very unclear on the criteria used to judge entries.

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