3 hours ago, Danijel Gorupec said:

I sometimes take the ELT (Extremely Large Telescope) as an example. I certainly support investing money into it, even if I know investing that money into sewage systems in Africa might be a better investment.... But I forgive myself easily.

There's nothing to forgive, really. Any guilt you might feel is built on a False Dilemma fallacy, that we can only do one of these things, or that these are the only options. It's also wrong to think if we didn't invest in one, we'd automatically invest in the other. But it's a commonly used argument since it narrows available choices, which is often the reaal agenda.

On 5/7/2020 at 11:05 PM, Strange said:

Does that mean that pure research (such as detecting gravitational waves to confirm GR and find out more about black holes) has little or no benefit, in your terms?

 

On 5/8/2020 at 9:58 AM, Carrock said:

My favourite example is Faraday's apocryphal responses to Gladstone's question "What use is electricity?"

"What use is a new born baby?"

or

"I don't know, but some day you will tax it."

On 5/8/2020 at 12:46 PM, swansont said:

Professor Milgate:That's because great achievement has no road map. Well, the X-ray's pretty good. So is penicillin. Neither were discovered with a practical objective in mind. I mean, when the electron was discovered in 1897, it was useless. Now we have an entire world run by electronics. Haydn and Mozart never studied the classics. They couldn't - they invented them.

Just to contribute another example of how so-called 'fundamental science' pays off: Einstein-Bose discovery of stimulated emission. Originally was just motivated by studying the quantum properties of photons. Went on to completely change the face of the world when Maiman came up with LASER. It may take decades, but pays off by mega-factors.

8 hours ago, StringJunky said:

Do you spec out the bits you want and get them made if they aren't off the shelf?

Basically. We designed a bunch of electronics and got the boards printed and got someone to assemble them. The optics layout was all done in-house, with a mix of off the shelf and custom components.

On 5/8/2020 at 4:52 PM, swansont said:

Bill Phillips, who won the Nobel in 1997 for laser cooling and trapping, has not been shy about how the Office of Naval Research funded his work, without knowing if there was going to be any benefit.

I'm glad my discsussion thread has taken a milder turn.

Since 'The Hydrographic Office of the Navy' has long been located near me, the local library is exceptionally well supplied with its own cartography section.
Amongst their books is a history of the US hydrographic service.
This is a fascinating story of up and downs, establishment, growth, financial cutbacks, regrowth, more cutbacks.........

48 minutes ago, swansont said:

Basically. We designed a bunch of electronics and got the boards printed and got someone to assemble them. The optics layout was all done in-house, with a mix of off the shelf and custom components.

I had an inkling you might.