Democratic Control Of Science Research.

In general, when you want someone to pay for your work, you must convince them that they will benefit from that work. If we expect taxpayers to foot the bill for scientific research and technology development, we may end up having to convince those taxpayers that they will benefit. The problem we run into here is one of preparing those taxpayers to make complex decisions about what to fund and what not to fund.

It is a sad reality that success in selling products or services has less to do with the value of those products and services than it does with the buyer's perception of value. Just look at the junk filling your email account. You'll find there a ton of hype for products or services that are mediocre at best and completely worthless quite often. Why do you see these ads? Because they work. Now imagine what research will get funded if we let the general population decide based on what they have been told. The only way good research will get funded is if good researchers start employing the psychology of advertising the same way politicians do. I'm afraid, we'd see less educating the public to give them a chance to make informed decisions than we'd see convincing free energy charlatans and quack cure sellers telling us about the big conspiracies trying to keep us in the dark and prevent us from ever seeing all the benefits of pseudo-scientific research.

How, as a whole society, will we ever get past our own ignorance?

troy@starkeffects.com
http://www.starkeffects.com