@mattsheffield@mastodon.social
Post #4046442
2026-07-23 21:16 UTC
@knutson_brain@sfba.social These are fair points. And I think you are right to assert that biology and its disciplines has been very fertile. It's a stark contrast to fundamental physics or cognition, which have been stalled in many ways. Generative transformers have been a major breakthrough in computer science as well.
Still, it is at least somewhat fair to be concerned about plateaus in certain fields. But these things are not government failures, and they have been known about for decades.
Replies (1)
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@knutson_brain@sfba.social 2026-07-23 21:27
@mattsheffield@mastodon.social Fair enough -- physics (etc) is not my bailiwick. But claiming that public science should be defunded because it hasn't made "enough" progress is a misuse of these arguments at best and completely ungrounded at worst. From a policy standpoint makes sense to quantify and weigh the outcomes of different alternatives and adopt that with the greatest expected value. (unfortunately, I fear that the agenda of these bad actors is the opposite)...