What I don’t like about academia — aside from the low pay!

In academia, researchers work hard to expand the frontiers of human knowledge and to understand our world better. Unfortunately, the hard work often ends up being (mis)used by large corporations or governments in ways that don’t really help everyone. Research projects are designed or “hijacked” to make more money or gain more control over people. Corporations focus on patenting new discoveries to secure financial gains, whereas governments use scientific data to enforce policies that consolidate their power rather than serve the public good. It is sad because the results should benefit everyone.

There are many instances — actually the majority of research project have “fruits” that are harvested by institutions who do not deserve that. I wouldn’t like to point directly to some research projects. Examples I can give as a “category”:

Biomedical research is often paid for with public monies are used by pharmaceutical companies. These companies patent discoveries derived from publicly funded research, leading to medications that are sold at high prices, limiting access to those who cannot afford them.

Using machine learning and psychological insights to build persuasive technologies, for example, that make users keep on coming back to the platform, in other words, to make them addicted — this is just some abuse of academic findings made for a better understanding of human cognition.

Governments have readily adopted academic advancements in machine learning and data analysis for surveillance purposes. Initially intended to improve security and human-computer interaction (e.g., facial recognition technology), these advancements are often repurposed into mass surveillance tools for policing and citizen monitoring.

While this would involve corporations, governments, and research institutions working together, the solution lies in finding something more important for them than the current money and power equations. That looks unrealistic and in contradiction with the philosophy of these organizations!