> I wonder if national, institutional, or otherwise "eccentric" sponsorships (encouraging a similar migrant-madman approach to academic cultivation) of some of the folks on HN wouldn't lead to meaningful discoveries in CS.

The problem is that Paul Erdos was eccentric but he was also Paul Erdos. I'm not saying you're implying that, but I feel it's a similar line of thinking to how popular culture often romanticizes autism and Asperger's because some very smart people are (allegedly) affected. The same group includes people who need 24/7 care.

Computer science at the frontier is as specialized and hard as mathematics, you need years of study to truly understand a field well enough to make meaningful contributions. You can try sponsoring me if you really want, but I don't think you'd be spending your money wisely in expectation.

FWIW I've worked in two different academic labs, both of which would have benefited from a runaway worker barreling down random paths, as long as they were being productive in some capacity.