The Lightcone thing sounds a lot like how university tenure used to be in the UK, at least at Oxford & Cambridge. When I was a student there were academics with lifelong tenure who had had no formal responsibilities for decades, lived in comfortable college rooms in beautiful surroundings, with free food and unlimited intellectual stimulation & company. Some used this privilege to continue their research unhindered, wrote books, lectured etc.; others did little or nothing for the rest of their lives, and were rarely even seen. (Which is not to criticize the system; some wastage is inevitable.)
The Lightcone thing sounds a lot like how university tenure used to be in the UK, at least at Oxford & Cambridge. When I was a student there were academics with lifelong tenure who had had no formal responsibilities for decades, lived in comfortable college rooms in beautiful surroundings, with free food and unlimited intellectual stimulation & company. Some used this privilege to continue their research unhindered, wrote books, lectured etc.; others did little or nothing for the rest of their lives, and were rarely even seen. (Which is not to criticize the system; some wastage is inevitable.)