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Like any other bureaucracy, the academia strives for its own self perpetuation. Left to its own device and funded by coercion (taxation) via government or government endorsed church (tithe), the academia would quickly revert to the study of scriptures, a field that is entirely controlled by peer review instead of market validation, therefore the senior scholars can always control the flow of state/church funding for the institution, never having to worry about displacement by upstarts. The global warming theology is the tip of the iceberg. Just like back in the late mid ages, the French had the bigger universities, but the leading scientists came out of Britain, where there was more market validation instead of sheer peer review.
"PRincely endorsed scientists" model is better than big federal monopoly on big science. However, the market validation process is better at directing resources towards what's most useful immediately. For example, the basic mechanics of the steam engine had been discovered and rediscovered numerous times in history by various tinkerers, sone of whom were princes / sovereigns themselves, but never found the need for sustained development before the messy beast found itself dozens of feet in coal pits pumping water to enable sustained coal extraction. The rest, as they say, is history, the beginning of the first industrial revolution.
Rin
2014 Dec 31, 1:24pm
the market validation process is better at directing resources towards what's most useful immediately
The so-called market and its venture capitalist routes, will take of themselves. I don't worry about that.
It's the ability to preserve the individualistic free thinkers, who don't need academia to validate their ideas, is what's needed to be preserved.
Today, the academy is the enemy. It's reduced a relatively bright group of ppl, into a class of "white collar" indentured servants, to serve the goals of tenured principal investigators.
When I'm independently wealthy, upon leaving this hedge fund work, I will be one of those independently wealthy investigators, who won't require the academy, to further my work.
Yes, the academic bureaucracy is enemy to real innovation nowadays. They are the hangers-on, just like any other bureaucracy.
What's desperately needed is not independently wealthy investigators per se, but independent sources of funding for investigations.
Btw, someone like Richard Feynman was in academia back in the 50's and 60's not only because his love for scientific investigations, but also it was a growth industry with many professorships to fill and new textbooks to be written. I doubt someone as assertive and self-driven as him would stay in academia for long today.
Peter P
2015 Jan 1, 2:28am
Knowledge discovery ought to be privatized. This would keep the entitled, knowledge-denying academia at bay.
Not all of academia is bad though, mostly just the part that worships Scientism. Philosophers are still being innovative.
Rin
2015 Feb 7, 3:52pm
http://wallstcheatsheet.com/personal-finance/50-jobs-that-may-be-replaced-by-technology.html
Ok, this article says 47% of jobs can be automated. My prediction is ~80%.
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Here's a guy trying to quell the flames of the fear of A.I.
http://techcrunch.com/2014/12/13/what-artificial-intelligence-is-not/
Now, here's my question ... why is everyone so hyper-focused on a so-called emerging consciousness of a computer vs the actual notion that automation will render much of the jobs out there, obsolete?
For me, this is a perplexing conundrum. The potential for a Skynet is so remote and so out there, in terms of a future timeline, that it ceases to make a dent in my day to day life for at least another century. On the other hand, if the jobs of diagnostic doctors, actuaries, auditors, truck drivers, paralegals, pharmacists, janitorial services, and pretty much 80-90% of the work out there are handled by automatrons, then we'll have a true collapse in our society.
At the same time, education will NOT solve this issue. Does anyone remember when they were a kid? I do and I was told that electrical engineers (EEs) will be in demand forever, because the demand for electronic goods is ever growing. Well, fast forward a few decades and many EEs have switched to IT programming or some other area of work. In reality, much of what the EE industries needed was either outsourced or automated. The so-called predicted headcount shortage never came to fruition.