Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Technology => Topic started by: opportunity on 06/03/2018 08:27:20
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It's a question I've been asking myself. We have science, we have technology, and we have trade. Much of what inspires development depends on finance, which obviously would be a factor of technology....I'm thinking.
If it is a technology, and there's a science to it, there's codes in play regarding finance I'm also thinking, such as being transparent, referencing activity, documenting, taking account of supply and demand, interest rates, and honouring debt.
Has anyone considered finance as a process of technological development as a "part" of technological development, earning it's own status in line with technological development?
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Sure - money (and finance) allows specialisation in society, so everyone doesn't have to produce all their own food.
Some can be blacksmiths, some scientists, and some doctors.
Probably the thing that made cities possible and safe was the plumbing - clean drinking water and a segregated sewage system. It is said that plumbers have saved more lives than doctors.
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All right, money then appears to measure the value of exchange of need. In time with the big developments of technology that we all depend on, we would grow in confidence with the idea of money.
What if we decided to hide money, those trades? Would that make the idea of not just trading what was once a trusted thing a doubtful thing? Worse still, can anyone thrive, as those who know no better about finance, in a hidden financial world with tech in the condition of hidden trading?
Could that deter good tech development for a people, entire, and maybe even a planet?
We see it today....upcoming trade tariffs, nothing hidden. No nationalism, no hidden agenda, tariffs. Is that fairer than some other clandestine "foundation" approach? Countries being open about their value and the tariffs they want to impose as opposed to money under the table.
Isn't that how trade started? Besides, doesn't a "tarriff" become apparent when other issues are factored in, like "global security".....preventing rogue nations believing in their own rhetoric, that sort of thing? Who foots the bill for global security, and can that become a tariff?
Or, beter question, in the world of finance, a third cousin of science, where's the social order with a new scientific discovery that changes how we develop technology?
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Money and finance is necessary to do science, at least for most people. The reason is this is the easy way to do science. If you are fortunate to work in a well stocked lab with considerable resources, anything you do will be published. Science does not typically generate its own revenue source, but rather is usually beholden to Government and Private sector finance.
For example, Climate change science would hardly exist without the outside finance given by government. Which private investment firm would finance this? Solar might try but it is not large enough to underwrite the loan. Since finance is so necessary to science, finance often plays a lead role in science. The boy who brings the ball; money, can make the rules or he will take his ball home. For example, each administration has certain social priorities and access to money to invest in science. Politics will influence finance, and finance can be used to influence science, based on investment goals in politics. President Trump likes energy independence, so he will invest and finance science in this way. He sees this as a good investment in terms of imports and exports and national security; saves tax payer money in other ways.
When financial institutions make investments in science and technology; loans and grants, they have a certain vision to the future and expect a rate of return. It is never just for charity. We invest in cancer research. This may sound altruistic. However, business does this for future profits and government may do this to decrease future health costs or to influence voters. NASA funding and space exploration goes through investment cycles because the headquarters are in Republican territories.
Money is an organic abstraction that is alive and can grow like a tree. Science is a means to an ends; fertilizer for money. In the case of President Obama, he invested in climate change, with the hope of generating sufficient fear to induce the need for a world government, which can control energy, with him sitting pretty. Science can become the axle grease, needed to help a bandwagon move from here to there. Or it can be the horse.
Say you are a scientist, who feels he/she is doing important research. You need finance to run experiments that others can respect as science. The best ideas without experiments is considered less than the worse ideas with data. This means you need to make a proposal to a money person, to play the game, sort of like trying to getting a car loan. You need to make the financier, see you are good for the money, and the bank also needs to see this is a good investment, with a rate of return. To a University money manager, this may mean university prestige, even without any practical utility; pure science. Or if this is a government politician investing in universities, the government rate of return may involve investing in science and liberal arts that can brain wash young people, to see it their way; pawn army who can no longer be open minded.
Finance is like the umbilical cord of science. The little fetus is self sufficient in many cellular ways, but he is still being fed by the mother; finance. If you threaten to cut the cord, you can make the fetus more compliant. In terms of climate change, real objective science looks under all the rocks. Money manager based science, especially based on one sided politics, only allows one to look under one set of rocks; data stacking. In climate change science, try to get finance from government to look under rocks that conflicts with the original money manager vision. But as Administrations change, the pendulum can swing allowing science to to become more balanced; neutral, as science is intended.
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finance is what to science....a "friend"....? Somone who has done the yards? What about investment?
Gold for science I'm thinking is what works.
Think of it this way......we trade, bla bla bla, and then someone says they have a great idea that can go above and beyond the commodities being traded.....everyone thinks what?
"prove it".
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finance is what to science....a "friend"....?
Finance is the umbilical cord of science. It is needed for its growth. However, the diet of the financial mother; from altruism to greed to politics, can have an impact on child development. If the mother of science is a drug addict; compulsive, the fetus may develop birth defects through assimilation; climate change.
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If something fails it fails. If something works it works. I'm happier to prove reality closer to home.
In saying that, is finance a techological entity?
The thing is, its a social mechanism im thinking, and thats close to home, especially if we are all trying to do the right thing by each other. Your analogy with the mother is a good one. Im thinking thiugh that politics need not be a problem....the onus is on the person.