I was asked to keep this confidential [Physicist speaks out against useless government funded research]

YouTube ^ | February 15, 2025 | Sabine Hossenfelder

[grundle]

I was asked to keep this confidential

[grundle]

Physicist Sabine Hossenfelder says that a lot of government funded research is useless, and exists only to keep people employed so they don't have to actually do anything that's useful in the real world.

[HYPOCRACY]

I like her Youtube channel.

[The Duke]

She’s a believer in man caused climate change. FWIW.

[HYPOCRACY]

I’ve bever seen her talk about it. Then again I don’t click on anything with that in the title.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

bttt bump bookmark

[ClearCase_guy]

A huge percentage of government work is essentially “Welfare for smart people”. And some of it is “Welfare for stupid people”.

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

Einstein was working in a patent office while he worked on his theories such as relativity, I know that.

Was Nikola Tesla funded by the government? Edison? The Wright brothers? Jonas Salk? Henry Ford? Gates? Jobs? I don’t think they were, I could be wrong about some.

To me it seems these scientists today are being funded by our tax money so they can be extorted into pushing bullcrap that fits the leftist agenda like man made global warming. “Say it’s real or your funding will be cut”

This is why the free market is so vitally important, it takes leverage away from the left.

[Reily]

I thought she had backed off that?

[simpson96]

She’s (sort of) formally exposing what we all knew and have grumbled about.

She’s one of the good ones.

Maybe Elon would like to have a conversation with her.

I bet she’d like that.

[montag813]

TLDR from Gemini AI:

The video is about an email that the author, Sabine Hossenfelder, received seven years ago. The email was from someone who worked at a top institution in the United States and who was concerned about the state of scientific research, particularly in the foundations of physics. The emailer argued that much of the research being done in this area is useless and that taxpayers are being misled about the importance of this work. He also criticized the academic system for rewarding conformity and punishing independent thinking.

• The emailer argues that much of the research being done in the foundations of physics is useless and that taxpayers are being misled about the importance of this work.
• He criticizes the academic system for rewarding conformity and punishing independent thinking.
• He also argues that the only way to fix the problem is to stop paying for this research.
• The author of the video agrees with the emailer and argues that the academic system is broken.
• She also argues that the public needs to be more aware of the problems with scientific research.
• The author of the video concludes by saying that she is glad that she is no longer involved in this area of research.

 

[Carry_Okie]

I am reminded of a scene in Brave New World in which Mustapha Mond shows Bernard Marx drawers full of drawings by creative engineers of inventions that will never be tested, much less mass-produced. It's just to keep them busy you know.

At the time I read it I was twelve years old. This scene really stunned me. I couldn't imagine a world that didn't need better tools.

Only in the last decade or so have I seen the need for a new industry, one that will challenge the limits of material science and engineering: Comfortable portable or even mobile habitation and equipment as infrastructure for an economic cohort dedicated to supporting low impact land management. You can read about the rationale for that industry here.

[asinclair]

Thomas Alva Edison was a telegrapher for the railroad, entrepreneur, and owner of a private-sector lab facility in Menlo Park, New Jersey. I studied his life while in school, and do not recall a time when he worked for any public sector outfit. He invented the voting board that was installed in the New Jersey house, but did it as a private sector inventor. Indeed, it was one of his first inventions that was turned down by the public sector because it was "too efficient" and downplayed the back of the hall negotiations done during the votes.

Of the others on the list:

• Wright Brothers: bicycle shop
• Jonas Salk: https://www.salk.edu/about/history-of-salk/jonas-salk/ very much involved in medical research at NGOs. Part of his work on the polio vaccine was funded with a $20 million grant from the National Science Foundation.
• Henry Ford: private sector, invented the production line for building cars
• Bill Gates: a chip off the old Edison. He built traffic counters for government, but as a private sector person. Microsoft was definitely not public sector.
• Steve Jobs: also a chip off the old Edison. Garage entrepreneur with Steve Wozniak.

[bertmerc1]

I wonder what government agency funds their grants. Elon?

[Karl Spooner]

All of those funded medical studies, too. “Conclusion:............,”but more studies (money) are needed”.

[T.B. Yoits]

There is a strategy to keep wrong-thinking people employed but out of the way of industry. If not, they end up in places like Veridian Dynamics.

[Whatever Works]

She is not lying, but I can’t talk about it except to say that many of the DEI forced hires are unable to do the work but what they do is passed along anyway.

[logi_cal869]

Gee. I don’t have her credentials and in reading scientific papers for 25+ years...

...I came to that conclusion YEARS ago. /s

[cgbg]

Thomas Edison was a classic “flood the zone” guy.

He did not overthink whether something would work or not (unlike so many Freepers).

He just tried stuff.

If it didn’t work he tried something else—without skipping a beat.

That was a critical part of his genius.

[monkeyshine]

Maybe she has to say that to qualify for taxpayer grants.

[SuperLuminal]

Precisely what I, as a physicist, postulated in 1986 when I retired...