Capitalism in one picture

[IIVI]

People spin these childish stories that capitalism magically diverts the most resources to the most fruitful endeavors. And it's all such total bullshyt. Imagine what research and innovation in almost any field would look like without government funding, there'd be fukk-all improvements anywhere outside of maybe web apps and biotech....and even there, 90% of the advances are built off of infrastructure that was all developed via government grants first before anyone with profit motive was willing to touch it.

Back when I first got "woke" in college, I started hassling the administration and faculty about how they needed to start actually practicing their claimed values and direct their instruction towards ethical engagement in the sciences, rather than just helping students develop skills and sending them off to wherever they make the most money. But those admins do really love how much money their alumni make. I didn't think about it again for a long time, but about 3-4 years ago I got motivated and began hassling certain professors and committees that I thought might be receptive. They're talking about making certain changes, but they're not willing to go as far as they need to go to make any real difference. Still, I got one professor to read a lengthy letter on the subject out loud at a committee meeting, and several university voices claim they're engaged in transformation on the issue, so we'll see.

Scientists, lawyers, engineers need to realize that they can't trust policy makers and government officials to do jack shyt. They NEED to chose to be ethical or the future is fukked. Looking at the banking crisis, look at all the damage social media has done, look at how AI is about to runaway to some bullshyt (and I don't trust CRISPR either, for that matter)....if they don't put the breaks on this profit-motive-at-all-costs thing, who will?

Completely agree. It's really a shame. These universities will hype up their alumni and programs based on their salary after college. It's the main draw and they're basically saying: "Why go into this field? So you can make more money!" Literally, go to many colleges and look at their STEM program websites: many of them have it right there the expected salary to make after attending their college's program.

I'm wondering once A.I gets stronger if some of these quant/finance fields get completely cleaned out of humans since it's 100% math with some software.


Awesome post here by Terence Tao:

Embracing change and resetting expectations

unlocked.microsoft.com

I don't know how you can make people not chase the money as that's such a driver for people to go to college (literally why parents tell their kids to go to school). I'm just hoping whatever high-salary field replaces quant (eventually these corporations will know when A.I is than any single individual), that it's something "woke" and drives the human race forward so that less people are hurting.

 

[Professor Emeritus]

Completely agree. It's really a shame. These universities will hype up their alumni and programs based on their salary after college. It's the main draw and they're basically saying: "Why go into this field? So you can make more money!" Literally, go to many colleges and look at their STEM program websites: many of them have it right there the expected salary to make after college.

I don't have to go to the website, my alma mater sends out press releases when the rankings come out, mass emails, everything. They brag about the average starting salary of offers for every new graduating class. They brag about the 5-year salary and mid-career salary every time US News and World Reports or whoever it is does their annual update. They're obsessed with spotlighting that shyt.

 

[bnew]

It turns out the development of smartphone,as with most technology, was born out of socialism and gov't subsidy. would you look at that
for the "posted using smartphone and technology built by capitalism" folks

american companies capitalize on EU funded research faster than EU companies do.