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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   37396 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 27, 2025

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Reuters:

Trump orders sweeping freeze for federal grants and loans

Trump order set to halt supply of HIV, malaria drugs to poor countries, sources say

Apparently based on this memo (pdf).

This seems very... crude. The question is if it's purposefully crude, if there's some structural reason it can't be better implemented, or if the person in charge is incompetent.

Also, impoundment? We'll see?

I think part of the problem with the federal government is that ~all expenditures look very reasonable if you go and talk to the program manager for half an hour. There are very, very few "no duh this is stupid" cuts to be made, unless you are RonPaulLaserEyes.gif or have either an in-depth investigation or literally magical awareness of government inefficiency.

If you think the feds are spending too much (they are, obviously) then from a certain standpoint it is best to slash everything and then closely reevaluate which good stuff we should be spending cash on. By changing the status quo from "spending insane amounts of cash" to "spending next to zip" you can shift the burden onto the would-be spenders instead of on the would-be slashers.

~all expenditures look very reasonable if you go and talk to the program manager for half an hour.

Hoooo buddy. At multiple levels. I've just read some BAAs. I've read a variety of papers from labs who cite their federal funding on all of said papers. And I've even talked to folks about their publications and been told, "Yeah, this is pretty dumb, but it's what the BAA called for and what the PM said he wanted us to do." And yes, I've even spoken to PMs who are totally out to lunch.

The problem is that understanding such requires significant domain expertise, and if you're a high-level politician, you have \approx no way of distinguishing between advisers who actually have such expertise and will be honest with you, versus those who are out of their lane or riding a grift.

Yeah, it's sort of interesting - you run into this problem sometimes with "civilian control of the military" where the military tries to bamboozle Congress, but I suspect "civilian control of SCIENCE" is an even harder nut to crack. At least there are a lot of Congresscritters who are former servicemembers.

Right. But unlike the military, there isn't actually a need for Congress to fund any science. Let it all be done by the private sector publicizing their breakthroughs as patents and citizen-scientists who want to spend their own time and effort and money doing research. Burn academia to the ground.

Who is funding fundamental research into topics like quantum mechanics that don't yield an immediate benefit but is still highly useful for society? The private sector probably wouldn't fund this research because the benefits accrue to a lot of competitors as well. Citizen-scientists can't fund it.

is still highly useful for society

Is it? Honest question.

I'm only slightly embarrassed to admit that I based my opinion on this ChatGPT answer:

Quantum mechanics (QM) underpins much of modern technology, especially in semiconductors, computers, and electronics. Here’s how:

  1. Semiconductors & Transistors Transistors, the building blocks of computers, rely on quantum effects like electron band gaps in semiconductors. Quantum tunneling and electron energy levels determine how silicon chips function, enabling microprocessors and memory storage.
  2. Lasers & LEDs Lasers work because of stimulated emission, a QM principle where electrons in atoms jump between energy levels. LEDs (light-emitting diodes) rely on QM to convert electrical energy into light efficiently.
  3. Computers & Microelectronics Quantum mechanics dictates how electrons move in circuits, affecting everything from chip design to data storage (like flash memory). Modern processor fabrication (like Intel’s 7nm and 3nm chips) requires quantum tunneling models to control electron behavior at microscopic scales.
  4. Magnetic Storage (Hard Drives & MRI) Quantum mechanics enables Giant Magnetoresistance (GMR), a phenomenon used in hard drives to read data from magnetic disks. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) exploits nuclear spin states, a QM property, to create detailed images of the body.
  5. Quantum Computing (Future Impact) Unlike classical bits (0 or 1), quantum bits (qubits) use superposition and entanglement to process information in new ways. This could revolutionize fields like cryptography, AI, and simulations for materials science. So, while QM started as abstract math in the early 20th century, it now drives the technology behind modern life.

Okay...but all that I read here is "This stuff already worked before the current iteration of quantum theories, now we just understand it better" and not "novel quantum theories improved our ability to do this stuff". I'm not saying that's how it is, but that's all I gather from this chatbot response.

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