- 07 Dec 2013 20:24
#14338409
It is well known that at many world class universities especially in the United States major corporations work with universities by paying for lab equipment, facilities, etc and get in exchange top graduate students to work on r&d for the corporation, etc. In my opinion this constrains scientific inquiry, because it constrains free inquiry into lines of exploration that would otherwise be pursued in favor of that which is most economically profitable for the respective corporations involved. This has moved science from a paradigm of exploration of phenomena that is unexplained to one of utilization of resources for organizations (whether they be political or economic) in an efficient and profitable manner (or at least that is the supposed stated intention). So what do you think, do partnerships between business and science curtail scientific inquiry? I believe capitalist pressure reduced the number of resources for the arts and humanities because they were seen as economically useless though I believe they provide something valuable to the society that we have lost and now there is similar pressure on the sciences which are seen as more "useless" economically. Eg. (psychology & philosophy [personally I have little penchant for these, but for those of you who value them I am sure you have noticed the pattern as well], theoretical physics {those with less than top marks are simply transferred to wall street or the department of defense}, biology, anthropology, and I am sure a host of others that escape my mind at this moment). Ironically enough, the conservative narrative in the US is that there is a "liberal scheme" in control of academia that influences society to reject the conservative worldview when in my opinion since the rise of corporatism especially post-1980s science has become a subsidiary or lapdog to corporate interests because students know that in order to get the top research positions and funding they must tailor their research to solving problems that are economically valuable to corporate interests. Top researchers are looking to patent something so that they can create their own startup or get royalties from the manufacture of something they have done research on.
Physics is like sex. Sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it.