From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Message-ID: <0f76743b5fdb5d2fa541ec70d00ff13e@bellsouth.net> To: 9fans@9fans.net Date: Wed, 18 May 2011 21:04:38 -0400 From: blstuart@bellsouth.net In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: [9fans] crazy idea - drawterm in javascript? Topicbox-Message-UUID: e6a69832-ead6-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 > How useful a research could be which is not backed by a business idea? That's kind of the point I was getting at. Asking how research is useful isn't asking the most telling question. Research isn't always about utility; it's about intellectual contribution. Of course, it's great when research results find their way into application, but not having direct application (yet) doesn't devalue the research. > Who will fund such projects, why and for how long? Although this seems to have been systematically ignored for the last 30 years or so, I would argue that an enlightened organization will recognize that to be innovative in the future, they must ask the questions no one knows the answers to now. Some fraction of those questions will lead to practical applications and some won't. Whether you are measuring success in competitive advantage or in papers published, that's why an organization will invest in research. One way I've described it before is that if you gather together smart people, give them resources and freedom, you won't know ahead of time what they'll come up with, but you can count on them coming up with something. In some cases, what they come up with is driven by application, like with the transistor. In some cases, the main applications will be discovered later as people study the results. To some extent the LASER falls into that category. And in some cases, the result has little or no practical application, but it becomes part of what defines us and our understanding of ourselves. I'd count the discovery of the cosmic background radiation in that. IMHO we would all be diminished had any of those avenues of research been cut off because they were a "cost" that didn't have a short-term ROI. > OTOH, nobody is going to stop anyone going his/her own way; everyone has > a right to beat his/her drum and that too either at any rhythm or no > rhythm at all ;) Absolutely, and from where I sit, that's a key part of the 9fans ethos. If someone has a good idea, then they are encouraged to implement it and report on what they learn. The results might get ignored, or they might spark somone else's creativity to take it further. If it's a practical application that sparks the idea, great. If it's pure curiosity, that's great too. BLS