[FRIAM] Future Generating Machines...

[Steve Smith]

/glen sed:
> Well, again, if you claim the NIH "didn't work", then the burden's on you to say what "work" means. It would be reasonable to claim that the NIH's purpose is to save US lives. (I don't think that's true. But it would be reasonable to say such a thing.) And since so many died from COVID-19, the NIH failed. I think the bureaucracy to saddle with that purpose is the CDC, not the NIH.
>
> And it's important to recognize the Executive branch's role in the bureaucracy. Was the Obama CDC the same as the Trump CDC? If not, which bureaucracy failed? And why? If so, have we delineated its purpose well enough to say it failed?

And maybe more to the point, to the extent the T-CDC was *mostly* the
same as the O-CDC (moreso on day 1 than by year 3), it was definitely
under a significantly different "forcing function".   We also find
proving a negative problematic...  can we say we know how many other
(potential) pandemics have been averted by such a (mal?)functioning
bureacracy.

That said, I am sympathetic with Marcus' judgements of the natural
"thickening" (in a bad way) of institutional structures (not precisely
the same as a bureacracy, but related?).   I mostly notice this when *I*
try to navigate these systems and get something done within their
"alternate reality"..  I'm much more patient/accepting of all that than
I was when I was more busy "trying to get things done".

- Steve