This seems like the beginning of a very good discussion, but:
I want to be clear that I’m not a member of the LW community, and I don’t want to take up space here.
There are complex and interesting ideas in play on both sides that are hard to communicate in a back-and-forth, and are perhaps better saved for a structured long-form presentation.
To that end, I’ll suggest that if you like we chat offline. I’m in NYC, for example, and you’re welcome to get in touch via PM.
What I’m talking about is a system of moral duties and obligations connected to an explicitly academic mission. Academia is older than the corporation, and is a separate world. It’s very important not to confuse them, and I wish that corporations (and “research labs” associated with corporations) would state very clearly “we are in no way an academic institution”.
To be clear, my own organization is a nonprofit. We are not interested in making money, nor in doing other things of low moral value.
I currently think emulating the culture of normal companies is a better starting template than academia or other research nonprofits (many of whom have strong positions that they want to believe and research that oh-so-interestingly happen to justify their pre-existing beliefs), though of course different cultures have different poisons that are more or less salient to different people.
This seems like the beginning of a very good discussion, but:
I want to be clear that I’m not a member of the LW community, and I don’t want to take up space here.
There are complex and interesting ideas in play on both sides that are hard to communicate in a back-and-forth, and are perhaps better saved for a structured long-form presentation.
To that end, I’ll suggest that if you like we chat offline. I’m in NYC, for example, and you’re welcome to get in touch via PM.
To be clear, my own organization is a nonprofit. We are not interested in making money, nor in doing other things of low moral value.
I currently think emulating the culture of normal companies is a better starting template than academia or other research nonprofits (many of whom have strong positions that they want to believe and research that oh-so-interestingly happen to justify their pre-existing beliefs), though of course different cultures have different poisons that are more or less salient to different people.
But yeah, let’s take this offline.