The Oil Drum

87 comments on Monday Open Thread

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step back on December 5, 2005 - 10:09pm

There is no cabal.
There is however,
a limit to how
"happy" they are
to spend money
on R&D:
http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/databrf/sdb99357.htm

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Leanan on December 6, 2005 - 11:04am

I think the government, especially, will be spending more on R&D. It's what societies facing diminishing returns do (as long as they can afford it). The right wing is already talking about it. Government funding of an Apollo program for energy. A PR effort that would make energy researchers as glamorous as astronauts were in the '60s. That's the "free market" solution.

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step back on December 6, 2005 - 12:23pm

I think the government will be spending more on R&D.

The "government", if there is such a singular creature is a political animal. It does as those at the top dogmatically dictate:

Read here on Bush & benzene fracturing:
http://democrats.reform.house.gov/features/politics_and_science/example_oil_and_gas.htm

More:
http://www.csicop.org/doubtandabout/sciencewars/

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-02-20-bush-science_x.htm

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Leanan on December 6, 2005 - 12:45pm

Bush is a lame duck. He's history.

If his science policies outlast him, however, I will be forced to conclude that we are further along Tainter's curve than I thought.

A society feeling the pinch of diminishing returns begins to engage in "scanning behavior." People feel dissatisfied, and begin looking around for alternatives. Foreign customs may become the vogue, new religions may arise, ideological strife intensifies, governments invest more on R&D.

But once a society reaches the point where investments in further complexity no bring any return, scanning behavior ceases. The government instead enforces strict behavioral controls, in hopes of increasing efficiency. And they can no longer afford R&D.