Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!cert!netnews.upenn.edu!grad2.cis.upenn.edu!aaron From: aaron@grad2.cis.upenn.edu (Aaron Watters) Newsgroups: comp.databases Subject: Re: Comment on the "Third-Generation Database System Manifesto" Message-ID: <30441@netnews.upenn.edu> Date: 2 Oct 90 20:03:59 GMT References: <30205@netnews.upenn.edu> <1990Sep28.173803.15043@odi.com> <7798@star.cs.vu.nl> Sender: news@netnews.upenn.edu Reply-To: aaron@grad2.cis.upenn.edu.UUCP (Aaron Watters) Distribution: comp Organization: University of Pennsylvania Lines: 29 In article <7798@star.cs.vu.nl> roelw@cs.vu.nl (Wieringa j Roel) writes: >Manifestos, Beach reports and reports from invitational NSF workshops are >ostensively only about the objectively best definition of concepts and >promising research directions. In addition to this, IMHO they must also >be viewed as moves in a game of power and money: which projects get >funded, who determines which projects are worth their money, and in >general who has the clout to make his definition of what is the case and >what should be the case stick. What is wrong with that? If the people who disagree can't mount a convincing counterargument, perhaps they shouldn't be funded. Or are you arguing that administrators of funding sources are stupid and easily mislead? This last seems to be a common assumption among academics, perhaps because they are occasionally denied funding. There is a pervasive tendancy within academia to view any attempt at value-judgment as evil -- this, I think, is the source of people's problems with manifestos. The idea is that `ignorant outsiders' (to be read, `anyone who doesn't agree with me') should not influence the `direction of research.' This is nonsense. I think a large number of researchers would be reinvigorated if they were wrenched off their tired toilings and forced to consider some hairy industrial problem. There may be one or two geniuses who would not benefit from such an experience, but I'm willing to risk it and hypothesize that the overall effect would be for the better. -aaron.