Thing is, you can't draw your inspiration from eras where information was scarce, and all intellectual production enjoyed essentially a blank slate/green field condition to work with, with just a few sacred monuments with labels like "aristotle" scattered about the landscape
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Okay another point. Besides subversion, there is an element of deep solipsism to how we produce. This is why the focus on "debate" and "conversation" feels like missing the point. I'm happy to debate where that helps, but generally, I'm off on an exit bunytrail, not voice
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The QA function of conversation/peer review, which is highly ceremonialized in academia is turned into a conscious risk management choice in internet mode. Do you want to go out on a limb on your own, or derisk early. Former is not a choice in academia.
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Because of deep ties to the way university research is funded, academic mode production has a ceremonialized fail-fast aspect to it. Going off on your own spirit quest on a topic for 5 years is career suicide. Publish and get past ornery peer reviewers frequently or perish.
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This may be why the dream of institutionalizing independent research is wishful thinking. If you want others to pay, you're going to be subject yourself to early, conservative QA. No funding source will pay for a world of extended solipsistic questing.https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1195789557465153536 …
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I can kinda see a parallel to R&D/applied research in the physical sciences. A company like Tesla or Dyson isn't inventing new kinds of motor – they're collecting, synthesising and weaponising existing research. Their goal isn't to enlighten but to win.
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Academia is explicitly anti-meme. You don't cite whatever stuck in your memory, you cite everything. It wants to stay above the Darwinian meme royale. Using The Office to get your point across is throwing a memetic elbow: a cheap win. But, much like a real elbow, still a win.
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