We want to encourage intellectual endeavors that are desirable to society as a whole but which otherwise face barriers. Making them monetarily favorable is an easy way to accomplish that. Similar to how not speeding is made monetarily favorable, or serving in the military is made monetarily favorable, etc. Surely you don't object to the government using monetary incentives to indirectly shape society? The historical alternatives have been rather brutal.

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beepbooptheory 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Right I think we all understand the idea here, its not a misunderstanding. I just think people, reasonably, don't actually see the mechanism working.

It's weird to lump ever other possible idea in one category. These are complex issues with ever changing contexts. The surface of the problem is huge! Surely with anything else we wouldn't be so tunnel visioned, we wouldn't just say: "well we simply _must_ discount everything else, so we can only be happy with what we got." It would literally sound absurd in any other context, but because we are trained to politicize thinking outside of market mechanisms, we see very smart people saying ridiculous things!

	▲	fc417fc802 20 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Not at all? It's reasonable to point out issues with the implementation as it currently stands (those are abundant and blindingly obvious). However it is also clear that the underlying mechanism works extremely well. A claim to the contrary is quite extraordinary. Sometimes people do talk about alternatives. State funding and patronage are two of the most common. Both have very obvious drawbacks in terms of quantity and who gets influence over the outcome. Both also have interesting advantages that are well worth examining.

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measurablefunc 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Monetarily favorable artificial intelligence gets you pornography & 6 second animated slop. You're confused about what money actually enables.

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chezelenkoooo 3 hours ago | parent [-]

And all the other benefits of the world around you at large. Come on dude.

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measurablefunc 2 hours ago | parent [-]

I guess you haven't heard about all the microplastics in newborns.

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coldtea an hour ago | parent [-]

"Small price to pay to have smartphones and EVs" /s

	▲	measurablefunc an hour ago \| parent [-]
		That seems to be the standard argument, "Sure, not everything is ideal but look at longevity & all the cool toys we have now thanks to [money\|billionaires\|fossil fuels\|etc]".