I recently discovered a remarkable science fiction story
by a distinguished theoretical physicist Leó Szilárd called The Mark Gable Foundation. It was written in 1948 (published in
1961).
A scientist who woke up in the 21st century after 90 years of cold-sleep is asked
by a billionaire how to slow down scientific progress. The answer given by the
scientist is this:
I think that shouldn't be very difficult... You could set up a foundation with the annual endowment of thirty million dollars. Research workers in need of funds could apply for grants, if they could make out a convincing case. Have ten committees, each composed of twelve scientists, appointed to pass on these applications. Take the most active scientists out of the laboratory and make them members of these committees. And the very best men in the field should be appointed as chairmen at salaries of fifty thousand dollars each. Also have about twenty prizes of one hundred thousand dollars each for the best scientific papers of the year...
How would that retard the progress of science?
it should be obvious... First of all the best scientists would be removed from their laboratories and kept busy on committees passing on applications for funds. Secondly, the scientific workers in need of funds would concentrate on problems which were considered promising and were pretty certain to lead to publishable results. For a few years there might be a great increase in scientific output; but by going after the obvious, pretty soon science would dry out. Science would become something like a parlor game. Some things would be considered interesting, others not. There would be fashions. Those who followed the fashion would get grants. Those who wouldn't would not, and pretty soon they would learn to follow the fashion too...
The National Science Foundation of USA was created in 1950, although National Institutes of Health and U.S. Atomic Energy Commission existed before. Today the NSF is the only U.S. federal agency with a mandate to support all the non-medical fields of research...
I think that shouldn't be very difficult... You could set up a foundation with the annual endowment of thirty million dollars. Research workers in need of funds could apply for grants, if they could make out a convincing case. Have ten committees, each composed of twelve scientists, appointed to pass on these applications. Take the most active scientists out of the laboratory and make them members of these committees. And the very best men in the field should be appointed as chairmen at salaries of fifty thousand dollars each. Also have about twenty prizes of one hundred thousand dollars each for the best scientific papers of the year...
How would that retard the progress of science?
it should be obvious... First of all the best scientists would be removed from their laboratories and kept busy on committees passing on applications for funds. Secondly, the scientific workers in need of funds would concentrate on problems which were considered promising and were pretty certain to lead to publishable results. For a few years there might be a great increase in scientific output; but by going after the obvious, pretty soon science would dry out. Science would become something like a parlor game. Some things would be considered interesting, others not. There would be fashions. Those who followed the fashion would get grants. Those who wouldn't would not, and pretty soon they would learn to follow the fashion too...
The National Science Foundation of USA was created in 1950, although National Institutes of Health and U.S. Atomic Energy Commission existed before. Today the NSF is the only U.S. federal agency with a mandate to support all the non-medical fields of research...
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