Pineapple on pizza

 

Yes, there is a crisis in science. Deal with it! Sabine Hossenfelder is back in force. No law of diminishing returns here!

First, Hossenfelder argues that there actually is a crisis in science. Or, more precisely, that science requires more funding and more staff to reach results that could previously be done with less of both. So in a sense, there is still "progress", but it eats up (progressively as it were) more of our resources than before. The whole thing reminds me of fracking for oil. Yes, fracking did work. And then there´s the fine print, yes? Hossenfelder also points out that much of the breakthroughs in today´s science are applications of ideas or technology that has existed for decades, perhaps generations. So what happens when we run out of old wine?

Second, Hossenfelder discusses various theories about why progress in science is stalling (but without mentioning her own). In her estimation, science started to stall already during the 1960´s and 1970´s. One reason often mentioned by entrepreneurs and the scientists themselves is the absurd bureaucracy surrounding research grants, new inventions, and so on. A clip shows Elon Musk claiming that his company SpaceX had to run tests on how their space ships would affect whales and sharks (!). 

Another reason is that scientists have gotten increasingly risk-averse and therefore only do research on "safe" topics which won´t jeopardize their grants. This has led to a lot of "boring" (but really bullshit) research. Hossenfelder fears that this will trigger a backlash among the paying public sooner or later. You don´t say!

Finally, there are those who claim that science either becomes more difficult as most "low hanging fruit" are plucked, or that science only ever can pluck "low hanging fruit". Hence, the "end of science" is baked into the cake from the start. I suppose this *could* be true, but if so, it means that humanity as a whole is stalling, since there is obviously *a lot* we don´t know or understand yet. So this is hardly a convincing apologia for modern civilization´s lack of progress.

Maybe we have to do with pineapples on pizza? Forever.