[Peace-discuss] department of defense funding and scientific research

[Morton K. Brussel]

This is a tough call.

I have a son who just got a grant to do some very abstract pure math  
from the NSA (National Security Agency), math which can have no  
conceivable(?) relevance to anything that interests that department.  
When he told me, I was surprised and not quite elated, but it seemed  
innocent enough on the surface. There are many scientists doing pure  
research at the national labs (Los Alamos, Argonne, …) not at all  
related to military or intelligence  matters, but in working there,  
they do tend to support those labs and their general missions, i.e.,  
which is to support our defense and offense establishment.  For  
example, they would tend to be against closing down those labs. In  
other words, once you have a financial stake in the agency you work  
for, it colors your attitude to that agency. And it might color any  
militancy you might wish to engage in against government policies.  
Your grant or your job might then be at risk. Furthermore, there is a  
steering effect from the federal agencies; certain fields are  
supported, others left to languish; it is not innocent.  It is not  
hard to conceive that the research you will be doing may have an  
ultimate military application.

Also, I feel that much university academic research is too much in  
bed with the government's policies, and I feel that this makes  
academics more timid than they would be otherwise to speak our and be  
politically active. They could, after all , lose their grants if the  
agencies were displeased with what they had to say.

The government wants and needs to be close to the scientific  
establishment, and they allow scientists to do all sorts of things so  
that they can call on them if/when the need arises. This is part of  
the grand military academic industrial complex so often mentioned.

On the other hand, it all depends on your belief in your own  
independence, and only you can make the decision. It is not for  
others to advise you what to do in your best interest, even if they  
disapprove of these funding agencies (as I do). I can only say that  
if I had a choice—and that is important—, I would go with some grant,  
for example, from the relatively clean NSF rather than an outfit like  
DARPA. But some of my best friends have worked for DARPA, and at the  
beginning of my career, I got my summer salary from, and my research  
was supported by, the Office of Naval Research. One easily get caught  
in the web.

Perhaps in this day and age in the USA, one should not become a  
scientist if you want truly to be free of these moral/economic dilemmas.

Some thoughts.

Mort B.


On May 9, 2005, at 2:38 PM, <ppatton at uiuc.edu> wrote:

> I have a possible research opportunity studying the lateral
> line  sensory system in fish, and how it encodes information
> about water currents in the fish's environment.
> Unfortunately, the project is funded by DARPA (Defense
> Advanced Research Projects Agency).  It doesn't have any
> weapons related goals.  DARPA is presumably funding it for the
> sake of learning how to make artificial sensors that work like
> the fish's lateral line.  Does anybody have any thoughts about
> the ethics of engaging in Department of Defense funded research?
> -Paul Patton
> __________________________________________________________________
> Dr. Paul Patton
> spring semster 2005
> Visiting Assistant Professor
> Department of Biology, Williams College
> Williamstown, MA
> phone: (413)-597-3518
>
> Research Scientist
> Beckman Institute  Rm 3027  405 N. Mathews St.
> University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign  Urbana, Illinois 61801
> work phone: (217)-265-0795   fax: (217)-244-5180
> home phone: (217)-344-5812
> homepage: http://netfiles.uiuc.edu/ppatton/www/index.html
>
> "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.  It  
> is the
> source of all true art and science."
> -Albert Einstein
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