Comments on: Military Becomes a Major Funder of Synthetic Biology, and Scientists Are Mostly Fine With That http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2012/01/16/military-becomes-a-chief-funder-of-synthetic-biology-and-scientists-are-mostly-fine-with-that/ Wed, 19 Jun 2013 23:44:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: Bill Ries http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2012/01/16/military-becomes-a-chief-funder-of-synthetic-biology-and-scientists-are-mostly-fine-with-that/#comment-463 Bill Ries Sat, 18 Feb 2012 23:35:10 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/?p=880#comment-463 Any discovery that can be used for military advances, will be used by the Military. Are you willing to not make a great discovery that could be used by the Military? It is a scientist's job to learn and discover, you can not control all the uses of your discoveries. Take the grants where you can get them. The US Military protects this nation and our freedom. If politicians involve us in unjust military actions, we should address that problem for what it is. Any discovery that can be used for military advances, will be used by the Military. Are you willing to not make a great discovery that could be used by the Military? It is a scientist’s job to learn and discover, you can not control all the uses of your discoveries. Take the grants where you can get them. The US Military protects this nation and our freedom. If politicians involve us in unjust military actions, we should address that problem for what it is.

]]> By: Friday Edition: Augmenting Humans « boydfuturist http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2012/01/16/military-becomes-a-chief-funder-of-synthetic-biology-and-scientists-are-mostly-fine-with-that/#comment-462 Friday Edition: Augmenting Humans « boydfuturist Fri, 20 Jan 2012 22:18:43 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/?p=880#comment-462 [...] the private sector isn’t moving technology along rapidly enough, Discover Magazine reports that the US Military, through DARPA (the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency) and [...] [...] the private sector isn’t moving technology along rapidly enough, Discover Magazine reports that the US Military, through DARPA (the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency) and [...]

]]> By: Biology and Military Funding: A bad mix? | Andrew Hessel http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2012/01/16/military-becomes-a-chief-funder-of-synthetic-biology-and-scientists-are-mostly-fine-with-that/#comment-461 Biology and Military Funding: A bad mix? | Andrew Hessel Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:02:47 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/?p=880#comment-461 [...] as a recent post by Ericka Check Hayden on the Discover Magazine blog points out, at least one scientist isn’t comfortable with DARPA injecting cash into synthetic [...] [...] as a recent post by Ericka Check Hayden on the Discover Magazine blog points out, at least one scientist isn’t comfortable with DARPA injecting cash into synthetic [...]

]]> By: EricS http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2012/01/16/military-becomes-a-chief-funder-of-synthetic-biology-and-scientists-are-mostly-fine-with-that/#comment-460 EricS Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:39:23 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/?p=880#comment-460 "pondering the applications of their research" It is not the applications that will matter in the long run. It will be the unintended consquences. We have exceedingly convenient blinders when it comes to pro-valuating economy over survivability. Even if protocols were in place for comprehensive biospheric risk asssessment in R&D, the profoundly fundamental sparks we play with now have the potential to consume everything and render the eco-paradigm totally unrecognizable. "not with a bang, but a whimper." “pondering the applications of their research”
It is not the applications that will matter in the long run. It will be the unintended consquences. We have exceedingly convenient blinders when it comes to pro-valuating economy over survivability.
Even if protocols were in place for comprehensive biospheric risk asssessment in R&D, the profoundly fundamental sparks we play with now have the potential to consume everything and render the eco-paradigm totally unrecognizable.
“not with a bang, but a whimper.”

]]> By: yogi-one http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2012/01/16/military-becomes-a-chief-funder-of-synthetic-biology-and-scientists-are-mostly-fine-with-that/#comment-459 yogi-one Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:41:22 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/?p=880#comment-459 A point you touch upon but could be more fully brought out is the drying up of other (private sector) funding for this kind of R&D. In other words, a big part of this discussion is that the options for funding sources are shrinking. With companies all focused on the bottom line, and fewer and fewer of them willing to fund research that cannot be explained to a shareholder in terms of how it increases the profit in the next 90-day cycle, it may be that DARPA is one of the few big institutions that can shoulder the basic research today. If we are going to move forward in areas of critical research, corporations must find ways to get their research depts out of the tyranny of the quarterly-profit-or-die loop. A point you touch upon but could be more fully brought out is the drying up of other (private sector) funding for this kind of R&D. In other words, a big part of this discussion is that the options for funding sources are shrinking.

With companies all focused on the bottom line, and fewer and fewer of them willing to fund research that cannot be explained to a shareholder in terms of how it increases the profit in the next 90-day cycle, it may be that DARPA is one of the few big institutions that can shoulder the basic research today.

If we are going to move forward in areas of critical research, corporations must find ways to get their research depts out of the tyranny of the quarterly-profit-or-die loop.

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