To paraphrase another Shakespeare character, "the Devil can quote Bush for his purposes." I highly recommend the biography of Vannevar Bush by G. Pascal Zachary to get a sense of the man and his own connections to various industries and institutions (academic or otherwise).
Plenty has been written about that. The point of this piece is that center-left DC policy wonks have been repurposing Bush for decades and it’s come back to bite them.
The use of the Shakespearean metaphor overcomplicates a straightforward policy change.
Kratsios’ report signals a clear pivot away from public funding for open academic research. In its place, the new proposal aims to redirect federal science dollars out of universities and into venture capital and private industry—replacing independent peer review with a combination of commercial profit motives and political oversight. Given Kratsios's background as a Principal at Thiel Capital and Chief of Staff to Peter Thiel, this shift toward a Silicon Valley venture framework is not surprising.
That reallocation of public funds is the real story.
Research is funded nearly exclusively for profit. Bad students are allowed to pass to fill quotas and provide income for next year. The system needs to change. On top there is the obvious political bias, which may be ok sometimes (after all it is a place for reflection, debate and study), but absolutely not when politics is used to suppress others in an undemocratic way.
To paraphrase another Shakespeare character, "the Devil can quote Bush for his purposes." I highly recommend the biography of Vannevar Bush by G. Pascal Zachary to get a sense of the man and his own connections to various industries and institutions (academic or otherwise).
Agreed.
Plenty has been written about that. The point of this piece is that center-left DC policy wonks have been repurposing Bush for decades and it’s come back to bite them.
Really enjoyed the piece and this line of thinking! I focused in on the Bush/linear model of innovation critique in a post here. https://engineeringoutcomes.substack.com/publish/posts/detail/208849992?referrer=%2Fpublish%2Fhome
The use of the Shakespearean metaphor overcomplicates a straightforward policy change.
Kratsios’ report signals a clear pivot away from public funding for open academic research. In its place, the new proposal aims to redirect federal science dollars out of universities and into venture capital and private industry—replacing independent peer review with a combination of commercial profit motives and political oversight. Given Kratsios's background as a Principal at Thiel Capital and Chief of Staff to Peter Thiel, this shift toward a Silicon Valley venture framework is not surprising.
That reallocation of public funds is the real story.
Research is funded nearly exclusively for profit. Bad students are allowed to pass to fill quotas and provide income for next year. The system needs to change. On top there is the obvious political bias, which may be ok sometimes (after all it is a place for reflection, debate and study), but absolutely not when politics is used to suppress others in an undemocratic way.