dir (03/16/83)
A peculiar paradox: The US is currently in a struggle to keep itself technologically afloat. This is evidenced by the very high salaries industry pays to get and keep creative people. (Shall we have a representative salary survey from those of us in industry? I would think the average salary is around $30 - 40K.) Our technological future depends on a constant flux of new ideas, new techniques, new materials, etc. Ideally, this means that all sorts of wierd and wonderful ideas should be pursued because many true innovations seem downright deviant until they are better understood. A problem arises, however, because we cannot afford to spend time investigating areas that are TOO deviant -- the payoff probability is very low. Economic realities are as true for academia as industry, thus practically no one investigates potentially interesting anomalies or radically new concepts. No one, that is, except independent researchers (they are not in the scientific mainstream, so they're ignored), people at small colleges (ditto), and people doing secret military work (who can't talk about the really interesting stuff). As a result: All sorts of fun topics are not studied or are purposely ignored by mainstream science, thus such topics are considered taboo (i.e. no one is seriously considering them, therefore they are taboo), and innovation is stultified before it gets off the ground. Whatever happened to unbridled creativity? Read "The Turning Point" by Fritjof Capra and find out. I'm sorry, but I am ANGRY. D. Radin - BTL Columbus