Yeah, idk anything about crops so I can’t comment on that. Except to say that I think we’ll still need food after the revolution.

But a lot of fundamental research is so far away from any kind of application I don’t think you can even say that it’s producing technology that people can’t afford, it’s not really producing anything but knowledge. And sure there’s an argument that we should focus resources on helping people rather than discovery for the sake of it but… It’s really a small amount in the scheme of things, I don’t feel it’s really fair to criticise while there is so much wasted on military and police etc.

Real science is like art, it takes place inside the political context and is constantly oppressed and shaped by it, but sometimes people do still manage to do work which isn’t in support of it. A lot of the natural sciences are like that, yes they attract funding because capitalists think they may be able to exploit it but most of it will never really be exploitable and it is often incredibly beautiful if you are someone who sees it that way.

Also, do you think e.g. climate science is not worth doing? I think it would be short sighted to say that just because we already know the climate is going to fuck us up we should stop trying to find out exactly what will happen…