Society should set scientists free

Our innovation engine has stopped working properly. Scientists will only restart it when they are released from the pressures imposed by institutions both inside and outside science.

Huge sums of money are invested in R&D in countries worldwide, but whether this produces growth, breakthroughs and disruptive technology at the rate it once did is unclear. Proponents of the current model might argue that revolutionary change arises out of incremental innovation, meaning that patience is important; or that the major discoveries now happen at the micro, nano and atomic levels, where ordinary people are unable to observe the real breakthroughs.

Nonetheless, our cars, planes and houses are much the same as those that our parents had. In recent decades, incremental changes have not led to social and economic revolutions. There has been impressive technical progress, and we have produced fancy stuff such as smartphones and 3D television. But these pale in comparison with the social and economic transformations of the last two centuries. In 2011, the economist Tyler Cowen called our era the Great Stagnation.