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Cats are (almost) liquid

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253 points lnyan | 2 comments | 17 Oct 24 11:43 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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joshuamcginnis[dead post] ◴[17 Oct 24 14:56 UTC] No.41870262[source]▶
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loloquwowndueo ◴[17 Oct 24 14:59 UTC] No.41870305[source]▶
The early networks that evolved into the modern Internet were mostly paid for with public funds, and they’re used nowadays mostly to watch cat videos. I don’t see anyone complaining about that /)
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joshuamcginnis ◴[17 Oct 24 15:02 UTC] No.41870339[source]▶
Comparing the advent of the internet with a study on the flexibility and agility of cats in tight spaces isn't exactly apples to apples.
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exe34 ◴[17 Oct 24 15:05 UTC] No.41870366[source]▶
no, it might lead to better surgery robots, search and rescue robots, and countless things that I'm not even capable of imagining.

you are the one comparing apples to oranges - the internet has been around for 50 years and has shown its value - this one has just been published!

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joshuamcginnis ◴[17 Oct 24 15:08 UTC] No.41870382[source]▶
What I'm trying to call out is that not all studies are equally valuable nor should they all be publicly funded. Would you at least agree me on that?
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fluoridation ◴[17 Oct 24 15:34 UTC] No.41870633[source]▶
But how can you know ahead of time which studies are valuable and which are less so? What about metastudies? How do you quantify their worth?
replies(1): >>41870754 #
1. joshuamcginnis ◴[17 Oct 24 15:45 UTC] No.41870754[source]▶
Those are great questions worthy of debate. But we shouldn't just give up on those hard questions and say that all research is worthy of public funding should we?
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2. fluoridation ◴[17 Oct 24 15:51 UTC] No.41870808[source]▶
Eh. It's not like research funding is unlimited. Institutions get a budget and they spend it on research projects how they see fit.