• bouh@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    3 days ago

    And Newton and Einstein had none of these motivations. Galileo neither.

    You compare with your situation, but it has nothing to do with befote. Not because we’re not at war, but because we live in a capitalist distopia. Because capitalism won the war.

    All the discoveries you’re talking about could be motivated by the thirst of knowledge or making the world a better place. But the only single motivation we have left today is making money for our overlords, that is the key change.

    It is not that war fuels discoveries, it is that greed does not, and greed is the only allowed motivation in our society. The only one that will receive money anyway.

    Take Internet as an example : it was funded because of war and fear, but those who made it only had hope and naivity to make it, which is why it is so insecure, and why so much is done since 20 years to lock and dominate it.

    • boonhet@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      3 days ago

      All the discoveries you’re talking about could be motivated by the thirst of knowledge or making the world a better place. But the only single motivation we have left today is making money for our overlords, that is the key change.

      Huh? Plenty of people still doing R&D for free (open source software folks for one; scientists without grants are also nearly working for free sometimes). Capitalism hasn’t killed innovation, only biased it towards things that generate money, but there’s still plenty of innovation just because they have a thirst for knowledge.

      But say you’re already working on something you find interesting. Now you’re told that if you keep going at it, you could save millions of lives. Are you not going to put in 10x effort? I know I would. I reckon most people would.

      You act like I said that war is the only motivation for research besides capitalism. I did not. I said it accelerates scientific advancement. The direness of the situation is what fuels people to go beyond their usual limits. A lot of people just work better under pressure. You can do things that are not in any way healthy for you long term if you’re under enough pressure.

      • bouh@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        3 days ago

        I’m pretty sure there’s no evidence of war accelerating research beyond the effect of funding research more.

        • boonhet@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          3 days ago

          War itself doesn’t, pressure and motivation does. War causes pressure and motivation. Humans thrive under pressure. It puts you in hyperfocus mode, which makes you way faster at getting anything done.

          • bouh@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            3 days ago

            No. Humans don’t thrive under pressure. This is merely a totalitarian idea.

            • boonhet@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              2 days ago

              Where’d totalitarianism come in now?

              I like how you’re downvoting each of my comments as if that makes your arguments more valid. I’ll go ahead and do the same to you now.

              Look, a relatively massive chunk of research is done by people who aren’t neurotypicals. In particular, nearly every good software engineer has ADHD and so do a LOT of scientists, etc.

              Without deadlines, nothing would ever get done because we’d all be working on 50 other projects instead of what needs to be done

              • bouh@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                1 day ago

                When so many people have adhd you should question whether it’s a mental condition or a societal condition.

                And you’re just saying bullshit. Just because you can’t work without deadlines doesn’t mean deadlines are necessary. That’s just management lies to extract “productivity” at the expense of everything else.

                Free softwares wouldn’t exist if your theory had any truth to itself. Art wouldn’t exist either.

                That is a totalitarian idea because it only leads to totalitarian behaviours. Like the ones we have in so many companies where engineers are monitored like they’re children and given unrealistic deadlines under the pretense they’re lazy or procrastinate. None of this actually work. There is absolutely zero evidence it does.

                You are generalising over something that’s wrong. That is the problem of your thesis.