[FRIAM] NOW IS: Oh, Woe, Academia! WAS: gene complex for homosexuality

[Marcus Daniels]

Nick writes:

< I long for the days of the egg-head professor with the elbow patches in the tweed jacket, taking his summer vacations in an unplumbed shack in the Adirondacks with his Remington Upright.  Yes, the sixties university was institutionally classist, racist, sexist, cis-ist,  and probably a bunch of other -ists.  But, nostalgic old fart that I am, I still think something has been lost. >

Maybe it is just me, but the world of investor-fueled Theranos type companies don't seem like a sustainable way to do research.   The investors are often ignoramuses for one thing.   Maybe when they have a lot of money, and maybe if you are on the winning side of such an investment it is great for long enough to become independently wealthy.   But it seems psychologically damaging too, even to the winners.  Yeah, I like to rail on academics and SFI-type academics especially, but there is something about the greedy search algorithms inherent in the startup world that just doesn't get to the bottom of things, or even try​ to start from the bottom.   It is opportunistic.  And indeed "big science" is great for some types of questions with their particle accelerators, neutron imaging, and so on, but someone needs to fret over the basic questions on a longer horizon.  I don't think they should probably be The Elites as they sometimes fancy themselves, but they are needed.

Marcus
________________________________
From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> on behalf of thompnickson2 at gmail.com <thompnickson2 at gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2022 12:27 PM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' <friam at redfish.com>
Subject: [FRIAM] NOW IS: Oh, Woe, Academia! WAS: gene complex for homosexuality

Eric,

Oh, I think it would be an interesting topic to discuss, if we took it on directly, allowing each critic to entertain the possibility that their critique is tainted by sour grapes.

 There are many people in this group whom I would  like to see hired by my university or any university.  I think  Academia would be better for it.  I wish the glory days of academia -- the sixties -- could have gone on for ever.  I wish that academic Reaganism had not taken over.   I wish that we worshipped at John Dewey's tomb, rather than at Clark Kerr's.   I may even wish that academics had not come to think that they should be paid large salaries for doing what they would, probably,  have done in any case.  (On the other hand,  to whom, other than such people, would I want to give large salaries?)  I long for the days of the egg-head professor with the elbow patches in the tweed jacket, taking his summer vacations in an unplumbed shack in the Adirondacks with his Remington Upright.  Yes, the sixties university was institutionally classist, racist, sexist, cis-ist,  and probably a bunch of other -ists.  But, nostalgic old fart that I am, I still think something has been lost.

For me, I think FRIAM comes the closest to capturing that essence.  For many of the most avid contributors to this list, every 30 seconds spent savaging me for my naivete, is literally a dollar of income not earned. That's commitment to academic values!  Back at Clark, I get the sense that they are all  too busy meditating, doing good, not giving offence,  massaging editors at "high impact" journals, and winning awards as teachers to THINK any more.

But I digress.

Nick

Nick Thompson
ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com
https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

-----Original Message-----
From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of David Eric Smith
Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2022 12:34 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam at redfish.com>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] gene complex for homosexuality


> I also wish EricS would not encourage this group to rail on academics.

That’s a reasonable request.

I was going to say it is interesting to consider where it comes from or what it is doing there.

But it actually isn’t.

E




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