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falcor84 | 6 days ago

What does this have to do with anything? We as a culture decided that science is worthwhile, and that it's worth funding it with public money, which I personally strongly support. With that in mind, I want us to continue contributing to making scientific research and the benefits that it provides to be disseminated freely, while also paying good scientists with actual dollars that they could spend in restaurants.

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DiggyJohnson|6 days ago

Individuals and small groups make decisions in their own interest. The same is not true of society. That’s the issue that the GP is asking you to respond to

falcor84|6 days ago

I suppose I might not be understanding your and the GP's intent correctly, but I thought that the question was based on the following sentences:

> I think it would be good service to use AI tools to bring open source alternatives like sympy and sage and macaulay to par.

> It would be really nice to have better software written by strong software engineers who also understands the maths for mathematicians.

And my response is that I think that this sort of work, which is in the public scientific interest should be funded by tax money, and the results distributed under libre licenses.

jazzyjackson|6 days ago

So if as a culture we decide scientists are worth paying to do research, why should Wolfram not be paid to build the tool scientists use?

inigoalonso|6 days ago

Nobody is saying "don't pay the developers". Some of us advocate for "pay the developers to develop free and open source software". Rent-seeking is not good for society.

bryanrasmussen|6 days ago

>We as a culture decided that science is worthwhile, and that it's worth funding it with public money, which I personally strongly support.

what country are you in, and what percentage of the public purse goes to funding science? In the U.S about 11%, and with that number I often read articles, linked to from this site, about U.S Scientists quitting and going into private sector work or other non-scientific fields to get adequate compensation.

>while also paying good scientists with actual dollars that they could spend in restaurants.

see, my admittedly vague understanding of how things are structured tells me this part isn't what is happening.