"Kim Stanley Robinson - Forty Signs of Rain" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Kim Stanley)

idea what IтАЩm trying to ask.тАЭ

тАЬAlways here. Check out NSFтАЩs history pages on the website, youтАЩll learn some things you didnтАЩt
know.тАЭ



Anna hung up, and then did that very thing.

She had never gone to the websiteтАЩs history pages before; she was not much for looking back. But she
valued SophieтАЩs advice, and as she read, she realized Sophie had been right; because she had worked
there for so long, unconsciously she had felt that she knew the FoundationтАЩs story. But it wasnтАЩt true.

Basically it was a story of science struggling to extend its reach in the world, with mixed success. After
World War Two, Vannevar Bush, head of the wartime Office of Science and Technology, advocated a
permanent federal agency to support basic scientific research. He argued that it was their basic scientific
research that had won the war (radar, penicillin, the bomb), and Congress had been convinced, and had
passed a bill bringing the NSF into being.

After that it was one battle after another, with both Congress and the President, contesting how much
say scientists would have in setting national policy. President Truman forcing a presidentially selected
board of directors on the Foundation in the beginning. President Nixon abolishing the Office of Science
and Technology, which NSF had in effect staffed, replacing it with a single тАЬscientific advisor.тАЭ The
Gingrich Congress abolishing its Office of Technology Assessment. The Bush administrations zeroing out
major science programs in every single budget. On it went.

Only occasionally in this political battle did science rally and win a few. After Sputnik, scientists were
begged to take over again; NSFтАЩs budget had ballooned. Then in the 1960тАЩs, when everyone was an
activist, NSF had created a program called тАЬInterdisciplinary Research Relevant to Problems of Our
Society.тАЭ What a name from its time that was!

Although, come to think of it, the phrase described very well what Anna had had in mind when querying
Sophie in the first place. Interdisciplinary research, relevant to problems of our societyтАФwas that really
such a sixties joke of an idea?

Back then, IRRPOS had morphed into RANN, тАЬResearch Applied to National Needs.тАЭ RANN had
then gotten killed for being too applied; President Nixon had not liked its objections to his antiballistic
missile defense. At the same time he preemptively established the EPA so that it would be under him
rather than Congress.

The battle for control of science went on. Many administrations and Congresses hadnтАЩt wanted
technology or the environment assessed at all, as far as Anna could see. It might get in the way of
business. They didnтАЩt want to know.

For Anna there could be no greater intellectual crime. It was incomprehensible to her:they didnтАЩt want to
know. And yet they did want to call the shots. To Anna this was clearly crazy. Even JoeтАЩs logic was
stronger. How could such people exist, what could they be thinking? On what basis did they build such
an incoherent mix of desires, to want to stay ignorant and to be powerful as well? Were these two parts
of the same insanity?