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pkaodev | 8 months ago

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bdbenton|8 months ago

It's a controversial observation, but it is very true. I work with AI models and have to read recently published research to work with the latest developments in the field.

Do a quick keyword search on papers related to the subject. So much of it is completely useless. It is clearly written to keep people busy, earn credentials, boost credibility. Papers on the most superfluous and tangential subjects just to have a paper to publish.

Very little of it is actually working with the meat of the matter: The core logic and mathematics. It is trend following and busywork. Your sentiment is controversial because people are religiously loyal to the intellectual authorities of these credentialed systems, but a lot of published research does not push any boundaries or discover anything new. This paper seems to be an exception.

I would argue that a lot of the research published in the social sciences also falls under this category. It is there so that someone has a job. I'm not discrediting social sciences in general, am just pointing out that there is a lot of ways to creatively take advantage of academia to secure a paycheck and this is certainly exploited. The kneejerk reaction to reasonable criticism just proves this point even further.

tracerbulletx|8 months ago

This is a good thing. This is where the economy surplus went. Not to 5 days of leisure for everyone. But to jobs that keep us occupied, engaged, and motivated but aren't strictly required. The alternative is just either starving everyone to death, except for a few elite and their slaves, or everyone being bored out of their minds and wondering what the point of life is.

inimino|8 months ago

If the solution is ever more manuscripts that solve no interesting problems and that nobody will ever read, let's find another solution.

superb_dev|8 months ago

Is this a joke or so wildly out of touch? Both of your alternatives sounds very much like the world today, but we’re all still working anyways

4ndrewl|8 months ago

Can you cite your sources please?

NL807|8 months ago

Sabine Hossenfelder has a few comments on this topic in her YT channel.

LPisGood|8 months ago

There have been countless academics who have discussed this topic, occasionally not behind closed doors. Regardless, it’s certainly my observation as well.

johnisgood|8 months ago

Most jobs are really not important either, they just keep people busy. Do you need sources for this claim, too?