Aeon in Motion
The theme of this issue is History.
To some, it sounds like the mission of Project Aeon is take a to wrecking ball to the institutions that have supported science over the last 75+ years. To be fair, that isn't all wrong! We do think that unique, contrarian approaches have a place (maybe a big one) in the future of science funding and application. As the saying goes, what got us here won’t get us there—especially when it comes to confronting the greatest challenges of the 21st century, many of which will demand new technologies powered by breakthroughs in science.
But we also believe we can't critique the status quo without deeply understanding how we got "here." In many ways, today’s U.S. scientific ecosystem is still structured as it was in the aftermath of World War II. The architect of that structure was Vannevar Bush, a scientist with a direct line to President Roosevelt during the war years.
Bush didn’t get everything he wanted, but his legacy remains deeply influential. That legacy, however, came with baggage. For example:
- The Linear Model of Progress: Bush promoted a “linear” view of scientific progress: from fundamental research with no immediate aims, to applied research, to prototyping, and finally to engineering. This model still dominates policy and macroeconomic thinking, despite its mismatches with how science often unfolds in reality.
- Universities Frozen in Time: The perception of the university’s role has remained largely unchanged, even though universities themselves have transformed dramatically. Today’s institutions are “Multiversities” (a term coined by Clark Kerr, former President of the University of California)—part hedge fund, part entertainment company, part community service provider, in addition to their roles in teaching and research.
While we respect the historical foundations Bush and others established, the time has come to thoughtfully reimagine parts of this 75-year-old system. Project Aeon is not about demolition—it’s about evolution, enabling a diversity of approaches. By understanding where we’ve been, we can better chart where we need to go: toward a more dynamic, diverse, and adaptable scientific ecosystem ready to tackle the unprecedented challenges of our time.
Resonance and Growth
Here’s some of what we’ve been hearing in recent conversations about Project Aeon:
"Community is such an important part of what you’re trying to do. That’s what lasts longer than individual careers and that’s what makes the bigger dent in the universe." - Philanthropic Advisor
We couldn’t agree more. Community is at the heart of what we do. Unlike a fund with a defined lifespan, Project Aeon is being designed to last into perpetuity—serving as a steward and protector of open-ended, long-term scientific exploration.
"It’s this unique moment, where you can decide how ambitious you want to be and often you’ll pick something kind of safe… If there was a way to get support earlier, when it could actually make you more attractive to land your own lab, there would be a lot of people in that situation." - Post Doc Fellow
Conversations like these clarify where our support is most urgently needed: enabling scientists to pursue their most ambitious, high-impact work at critical junctures in their careers.
The Idea Garden
A Defense of Weird Research—Asterisk
"Weird" research has a bad reputation. Pinpointing when that became the case is difficult, but perhaps it started with the Golden Fleece Award, created by Senator William Proxmire in 1975, which highlighted what he thought was "wasteful government spending." Nevertheless, as the authors of this piece articulate, weird research continues to power important, impactful scientific discoveries.
Why One Geologist Thinks We Should All Pay More Attention to Rocks | Atmos
Long-termism is a critical piece of Project Aeon's DNA. But the idea is fuzzy-edged: what does that look like? How is it different? When does short-termism bleed into medium-termism into long-termism? Like the author and interviewee of this piece, we'd argue that greater understanding starts with a mindset shift and a new perspective. The act of centering oneself in the unimaginably-long timeline of our planet is a useful first step and rocks are a tangible manifestation of that temporal landscape.
Unbundling the University
Want to learn more about universities, their role in science, and the challenges they face in modernity as "Multiversities"? Our friends at SpecTech have written a great primer on this exact subject. While long, it's worth reading in its entirety.
Is Chain-of-Thought Reasoning of LLMs a Mirage? A Data Distribution Lens
For our academic paper this newsletter, we chose one with implications on the debate of what role A.I. will play in science in the coming years. While some—including Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, whose tract we shared in Issue 1 (by the way: you can go back and look at our archives!)—believe that A.I. will dawn a new renaissance through machine-led and machine-executed science, others believe we are a long way off and that the current architecture is incapable of these feats. This paper provides another interesting data point.