What is the difference between love of knowledge and “advancing the field”? Most researchers seem to focus on questions that are some combination of (i) interesting personally to them (ii) would bring them fame and (iii) would bring them grants. It would be awfully convenient for them if that is literally the best estimate you could make of what research will ultimately be useful, but I doubt it is case. Some research that “advances the field” is actively harmful (e.g. advancing AI capabilities without advancing understanding, improving the ability to create synthetic pandemics, creating other technologies that are easy to weaponize by bad actors, creating technology that shifts economic incentives towards massive environmental damage...)
Love of knowledge can drive you to engage with questions that aren’t addressable with the current tools of a field in a way that brings the field forward.
Work that’s advancing the field is work on which other scientists can build.
In physics scientists use significance thresholds that are much more stringent then 5%. If you would tell nutrition researchers that they could only publish findings that have 5 sigma’s they would be forced to run studies that are very differently structured. Those studies would provide answers that are a lot less interesting but to the extend that researchers manage to make findings those findings would be reliable and would allow other researchers to build on them.
I’m not saying that this is the only way to move forward for nutrition science but if I think the field would need to think much better about how progress can be made then running the kind of studies that they run currently.
Safety concerns are a valid concern and increase in capability in certain fields like AI might now be desirable for it’s own sake.
I think we probably use the phrase “love of knowledge” differently. The way I see it, if you love knowledge then you must engage with questions addressable with the current tools in a way that brings the field forward, otherwise you are not gaining any knowledge, you are just wasting your time or fooling yourself and others. If certain scientists get spurious results because of poor methodology, there is no love of knowledge in it. I also don’t think they use poor methodology because of desire for knowledge at all: rather, they probably do it because of the pressure to publish and because of the osmosis of some unhealthy culture in their field.
What is the difference between love of knowledge and “advancing the field”? Most researchers seem to focus on questions that are some combination of (i) interesting personally to them (ii) would bring them fame and (iii) would bring them grants. It would be awfully convenient for them if that is literally the best estimate you could make of what research will ultimately be useful, but I doubt it is case. Some research that “advances the field” is actively harmful (e.g. advancing AI capabilities without advancing understanding, improving the ability to create synthetic pandemics, creating other technologies that are easy to weaponize by bad actors, creating technology that shifts economic incentives towards massive environmental damage...)
Love of knowledge can drive you to engage with questions that aren’t addressable with the current tools of a field in a way that brings the field forward.
Work that’s advancing the field is work on which other scientists can build.
In physics scientists use significance thresholds that are much more stringent then 5%. If you would tell nutrition researchers that they could only publish findings that have 5 sigma’s they would be forced to run studies that are very differently structured. Those studies would provide answers that are a lot less interesting but to the extend that researchers manage to make findings those findings would be reliable and would allow other researchers to build on them.
I’m not saying that this is the only way to move forward for nutrition science but if I think the field would need to think much better about how progress can be made then running the kind of studies that they run currently.
Safety concerns are a valid concern and increase in capability in certain fields like AI might now be desirable for it’s own sake.
I think we probably use the phrase “love of knowledge” differently. The way I see it, if you love knowledge then you must engage with questions addressable with the current tools in a way that brings the field forward, otherwise you are not gaining any knowledge, you are just wasting your time or fooling yourself and others. If certain scientists get spurious results because of poor methodology, there is no love of knowledge in it. I also don’t think they use poor methodology because of desire for knowledge at all: rather, they probably do it because of the pressure to publish and because of the osmosis of some unhealthy culture in their field.