this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2023
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People are like why do X when Y is still a problem?
I get that but the world is big why not do both?
Comedians and similar people who make content out of stuff they see in the news seem to be especially prone to this kind of thinking. They see an article about a phyics discovery or a math theorem or a sociology experiment and say something about science should focus on solving world hunger or curing cancer instead.
Seemingly ignorant of the facts that
a) Science isn't a monolith, and a sociologist or mathematician isn't a virologist or oncologist or whatever else would be needed for the problem they're ranting about.
b) Even if someone happened to be in the correct field for the problem the idiot is ranting about, they often couldn't help with the problem anyway because they're lacking the required experience and knowledge and just throwing people at the problem doesn't help if those people are grad students or barely postgrads.
If we want to solve global warming and survive as a society, extraplanetary research is crucial. When we look outward, we learn about things that apply inward. NASA has something like a 17-1 return on investments. Every dollar we put into NASA returns so much more in tech and knowledge we can apply to help people here. It's always a good investment.