In despair I had deleted all of this thread (and many others) -- until
colleagues asked questions this morning. I will say a couple more things
and then quit. Not that what I say has any value whatsoever -- There is
certainly no rule on this list that anyone pay even the slightest attention
to what I have to say.
There is a very awkward line to walk re expenditures for pure science. If
the federal government does it, I feel that there should be some shred of
hope that there might possibly be some benefit come out of it.
With great deference to Leigh (to whom I have expressed privately regret
for any offense he may have taken) I don't see this in the case of the
Hubble (sp?) But this is not an utterance from on high -- it is only my
vote from my little corner. I don't understand why there is so much clamor
on the list over my personal opinion!
In the case of nuclear weapons research, although it lead to terrible
weapons, it also lead to the end of the cold war. I don't have a firm
judgement here because I can't see what would have happened if we had not
done the research. Indeed it might still be necessary because now other
twits are threatening. I am willing to let the judgement of this with the
congress.
As to other research projects:
I am glad for the failure of the SuperColider -- cooler congressional
heads prevailed. Large projects such as this require the funding from
someone with that much money ie the feds. But as to the decision of which
large projects to undertake, I am willing to let my legislators know how I
feel and let them decide, BUT we all should let them know, however,
unanimity is not required in these cases. BUT, I will continue to worry
about pork barreling.
And I think that we have pretty much run our course with hot fusion. --
cold fusion too -- at least the State of Utah lost $5mllion and hopefully
learned its lesson.
HOWEVER, as has been pointed out by examples in other posts, decisions made
at lowest rank possible are likely to be the best. Even the US Army has
learned this. And if that morass has learned, we all should take note.