zlacker

So only opportunities with a path to economic profitability should be researched?

That is a very narrow view of advancing society

>>jswny+(OP)
Research anything and everything on your own dime. if it's taxpayer's money, then yes, it has to have at least a probability of profitability.

>>tw6000+r1
generating private profits are the best use of public money?

>>tw6000+r1
And if there is a probability of profitability then there is a market to sell that opportunity for capital.

But in a high interest rate environment some ideas just arent worth exploring.

>>tw6000+r1
So absurdly myopic to restrict research to what may be profitable in this moment. Why are you wasting time researching number theory bro, that'll never be useful. Why are you studying y^2 = x^3 + ax + b if it can't be turned into a SaaS unicorn tomorrow? So fucking stupid. The whole point is that commercial R&D can find the immediate to short term gains and make billions, while the long shots get funded without putting anyone at risk.

>>tw6000+r1
If it could be profitable, the private sector would fund it.

Government funding can help with things that we decide are good for society, but not quite profitable financially.

Examples: CDC lead exposure research, Earthquake Early Warning System… even the tech we use today came out of non-commercialized funding (NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography and ARPANET).