From: Technotranscendence (neptune@mars.superlink.net)
Date: Tue Mar 05 2002 - 17:40:07 MST
On Tuesday, March 05, 2002 12:48 PM Dickey, Michael F
michael_f_dickey@groton.pfizer.com wrote:
> However, the field of research has been only limited to plasma hot
fusion,
> various other methods are not government funded, but you can think the
> carter administration as much as the physicists in the field for that,
> limiting nuclear related research to only one field whichever one
physicists
> thought most promising at that time.
>
> I would hotly disagree the accusation that physicists are
intentionally
> delaying acheiving a break even reaction merely to continue research,
as
> this would have to involve mutiply nations, governments, and not to
mention
> scores of private companies and individuals. This is tantamount to
saying
> that nanotech researchers are delaying making an assembler so they can
keep
> the research money coming in. If you want to know more about the
politics
> of fusion research pick up 'Man made sun, the quest for fusion power'
and
> enjoy.
I don't think one needs a conspiracy to say there might be things
holding back research. In this particular case, it might not apply, but
special interests do influence how science is done. In the case of big
projects, there are only so many things that can be done with the
funding and a small number of people are going to divide up the grants
and facilities. Unlike Mike, I don't see this as damning the DoE's
fusion research funding per se. However, it could mean turf wars and
personal conflicts get in the way. This, however, can happen in private
labs. (Empirically, it's hard to tell, since most big science
experiments are done with some degree of government funding
[inclusive-]or oversight. Theoretically, though, government funding of
science should lead to all sorts of inefficiencies... These are not
because of conspiracies but because certain institutional settings make
some outcomes more likely and some processes less efficient if not
unworkable.)
Cheers!
Daniel Ust
http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/
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