Aeon in Motion
The theme of this issue is Movement. If the scientific ecosystem at large is truly underperforming relative to its full potential, as we at Project Aeon believe, then much is at stake. This underperformance would be responsible for robbing our present world of countless potential beneficial technologies. Among them could be the cure for cancer, a much-improved solution to the decarbonization of the atmosphere, a vastly improved method for recycling, a way to limit ocean warming, or new ways to fight disease and rid the world of illnesses.
Like other movements—the Save the Whales campaign of the 1970s, the climate movement of the last decade, the campaign against drunk driving, etc.—this begins with a vision of a better world.
Our vision imagines one where playing it safe as a scientist is no longer the vastly dominant way of operating—i.e., the way to achieve job security, the respect of your peers, and funding for your work. It imagines a world where the link between commercialization—technology at scale, out in the world, having an impact—and the lab is tighter, more seamless, more fruitful.
To get there, we're focused on some basic actions we would label as Movement 101. In the coming days, we will be rolling out measures to create a groundswell of support for this vision, starting with a Pledge that asks our Community to join us on this journey and to commit to a common set of beliefs and action items.
Stay tuned!
Resonance and Growth
"This is really cool stuff and it definitely needs to exist in the world. So keep me updated." - Venture Capitalist
Love it or it hate it, venture capital is a critical source of funding for the commercialization of existing and near-existing technologies. Interfacing with the VC ecosystem is critical to our success: while we plan to support science and technology much earlier than VCs do, eventually our investees will likely need to bring VCs on board.
"I do think that what you're doing is exciting in so many different ways. I think science is really, really interesting and many more people would be interested in it if they had the means to be interested in it." - Author, Speaker, Political Strategist and Movement Organizer
Much of the Aeon team comes from for-profit sectors—venture capital, entrepreneurship, investment banking, law, etc. Thus, learning from social innovators is an important step as we begin to build our movement and our community, and as we implement our theory of change.
The Idea Garden
Technological Stagnation Is a Choice - American Affairs Journal
Do we live in a world of “ever-increasing change” characterized by “disruptive innovation”? Is “technology moving faster than ever before”? Are these, in fact, “unprecedented times”? Contra the bromides of TED-talkers and Davos men, a growing chorus of contrarian scientists, scholars, and investors hold that the pace of innovation has slowed, not increased.
Trump Is Killing American Innovation: And China Will Reap the Benefits
Regardless of your normal-course political affiliations, make no mistake that the current Administration's drastic cuts to American science are reckless and may have massive, negative, generational impacts on American prosperity and global prosperity.
Does Peer Review Penalize Scientific Risk Taking? Evidence from NIH Grant Renewals | NBER
As usual, here is our academic paper selection for this issue. Peer review is much-maligned; almost everyone purports to hate it. But why, then, is it so dominant? Partly, of course, is that having your ideas reviewed in the court of your scientific peers is ages old and, in some ways, is "what is known to work." Even so, there is a growing body of evidence that suggests it has dramatic consequences for the type of science that gets funded (and, conversely, what doesn't get funded).