this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2024
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Science Memes

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submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Capitalism isn't just about "things need funding" the point of the meme is that capitalists determine what gets funding. A socialist state might put economic force behind other scientific endeavors, ones driven by capital are intended to create profit. The profit motive drives innovation instead of the pure ideological pursuit of truth or any other driver.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Correct, capitalism is just a system intended to prioritize capital using markets. Science is a methodology of determining truth. As a method, it is tautologically "perfect" because all failures are to be accounted for by the very methodology. The choices that capitalist systems make and socialist systems would make may be different, but the decision-making process itself could be run scientifically.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

This is a fair point. It becomes a matter of which questions we're asking as a society, though. Of course we are not at a stage where capital is the only driving force for science (thank goodness for public funding) but it's not far fetched that we might be, and a world where questions are only asked in the context of profit generation (and unsatisfying answers are suppressed) is a dystopian world indeed.

It's fair to say capitalism is having a negative impact on science (e.g. journals) but it's not as dire as what's suggested