Einstein Would Fail Modern Grant Applications | David Deutsch

Modern grant application systems are heavily biased against fundamental research, impeding groundbreaking discoveries like those of Einstein or quantum computing, and prioritizing incremental work and bureaucratic procedures over passion and true intellectual merit.

• Modern grant systems stifle fundamental research by prioritizing incremental projects and bureaucratic rules.

• True scientific progress is driven by passion and curiosity, not by predefined categories or distant prophecies.

• The Many-Worlds Interpretation was crucial for the conceptualization and development of quantum computing.

The current academic grant system is fundamentally flawed, hindering true scientific progress by favoring incremental research over fundamental discoveries. Bureaucratic rules, such as anti-nepotism policies and standardized application forms, prevent experts from identifying and funding exceptionally creative individuals like Einstein or Higgs. This system forces passionate researchers to pursue less ambitious projects for funding, dedicating their spare time to groundbreaking work, which stifles the growth of knowledge and prioritizes administrative convenience over genuine intellectual exploration.

Modern Grant System Flaws

• 00:00:24 The modern grant application process is critically flawed, particularly for fundamental research. It is structured in a way that would disadvantage pioneers like Einstein, who would struggle to clearly articulate nascent ideas to panels lacking expertise in cutting-edge fields. Applications for fundamental work are often overlooked in favor of incremental research problems that appear to have more immediate merit to reviewers, despite their lesser impact on the 'bigger picture' of scientific advancement.

Anti-Nepotism's Drawbacks

• 00:02:49 While seemingly positive, anti-nepotism rules in academia have significant negative consequences. They prevent individuals who possess personal knowledge of a candidate's exceptional abilities from participating in the selection process. This policy inadvertently leads to 'enormous unfairness' by ensuring that only those unfamiliar with a candidate's true potential can make funding or hiring decisions, thus excluding some of the most qualified and insightful evaluators.

Purpose of Research Grants

• 00:03:47 Many contemporary professors complain frequently about the grant system, unlike historical figures such as Einstein or Feynman. Grants are often required not just for equipment or lab space, but to reduce teaching loads, preventing professors from being relegated to full-time teaching, which many find creatively restrictive due to regimented curricula. The university typically takes a significant cut of grant money, further complicating the allocation of funds for actual research and student support.

Bias Against Fundamental Research

• 00:13:34 The entire research landscape, including grant criteria, career structures, and university departmental organization, is heavily biased against fundamental discoveries. This bias results in groundbreaking work being conducted in researchers' spare time rather than being directly supported by grants. While incremental research is not inherently bad, the system's structure actively disincentivizes foundational exploration, leading to a 'death of the fundamental' in favor of the incremental.

Funding Sources and Criteria

• 00:14:54 A major issue with the current research funding setup is the limited number of funding sources and their shared, flawed criteria. Government involvement has crowded out other funding avenues and private charities often adopt the same ineffective committee-based evaluation methods. These committees struggle to judge truly novel applications, especially for things not yet invented, and are prohibited from consulting colleagues who might recognize deserving, unconventional candidates, leading to a lack of support for truly new ideas.

Quantum Computing's Genesis

• 01:46:56 The development of quantum computing was 'completely crucial' to the Many-Worlds Interpretation (MWI), as a collapse-based understanding of quantum theory would have precluded the idea. Early resistance to quantum computation stemmed from a collapse interpretation, viewing quantum error correction as impossible. However, the MWI provided the conceptual framework to envision solutions to these 'technical problems,' demonstrating how foundational philosophical shifts can directly enable scientific breakthroughs.

Nature of Free Will

• 02:03:18 Free will does not contradict the laws of physics, nor does it necessarily require quantum theory. The perceived problem of free will often stems from a misconception that it involves overriding physical laws. Instead, free will is about bringing 'new knowledge' or 'explanatory knowledge' into the world, such as Einstein's creation of general relativity or an individual's decision for dinner. This 'newness' operates at an emergent level of knowledge, not at the level of electron trajectories, thus not violating fundamental physical laws.

Advice for Researchers

• 02:09:08 The most general advice for researchers is to pursue what genuinely excites them, rather than what they predict will lead to future benefits or align with long-term prophecies. Making decisions based on distant future outcomes is highly prone to error, as the landscape of ideas is constantly evolving. Instead, individuals should follow their immediate passions and curiosities, working on problems that interest them in the present, as this short-term focus aligns with the dynamic nature of knowledge creation.