10-06-2016, 08:44 AM
Let the scientists do science. Let them manage science, because science can't violate Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) badly enough that minor adjustments by low-level accountants can't correct. Science has controls that remove personality, partisan politics, and bureaucratic power out of the decision-making process. If anyone thinks that science can get in the way of profits, then think again: scientific reality can show that a procedure is unprofitable and unworthy of the effort. I know of one retired professor of chemistry who made huge money into his nineties (he was a contemporary of FDR, so he's not around anymore) as a consultant for deciding whether a process could turn a profit based upon chemical reality (energy costs).
It made eminent sense back then and still does. Objective science can keep people from making some unprofitable investments, especially in the production of energy.
Science is very good at policing itself. Double-blind tests and peer review ensure that fakers get the chance to seek careers somewhere other than science. For its intellectual demands, science pays badly enough that it doesn't attract narcissists. Self-promoters invariably find marketing far more promising than science or engineering for achieving the good life of high-priced vehicle marques, trophy spouses, and the like. Those scientists who have the talent for showmanship (like Bill Nye, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and the late Carl Sagan) know well enough to let science provide the show.
It made eminent sense back then and still does. Objective science can keep people from making some unprofitable investments, especially in the production of energy.
Science is very good at policing itself. Double-blind tests and peer review ensure that fakers get the chance to seek careers somewhere other than science. For its intellectual demands, science pays badly enough that it doesn't attract narcissists. Self-promoters invariably find marketing far more promising than science or engineering for achieving the good life of high-priced vehicle marques, trophy spouses, and the like. Those scientists who have the talent for showmanship (like Bill Nye, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and the late Carl Sagan) know well enough to let science provide the show.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
