Some of these innovations were directly funded. Others build upon basic research funding by the US government. If you haven’t seen Engelbart’s 1969 “mother of all demos” (where he introduces the mouse, word processor, collab editing, video conf, etc.), watch it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ8Z...

I teach “Foundations of Human-Computer Interaction” and we spend a significant portion of that class exploring how US gov funding (ARPA, DARPA and NSF) helps lay the foundations of the internet, most of the personal computing paradigm, search engines, virtual worlds, wearable tech, AI, etc.

13. And anyone who has been part of this grand humanist tradition is someone who will not lie down and cower before these sad bullies.

I don't know what happens to science in the US over the next four years, but I have no doubt as to where the arc of history bends.

We aren't going anywhere.

fin

12. Like art, music, philosophy, and literature, science is literally part of humanity's heritage.

My colleagues and I have had the amazing opportunity to be part of something vastly larger than ourselves, with meaning that transcends any state, regime, or generation.

They can't take that away.

11. Attacks like Vought describes may make cowards and grifters of his ilk want to stay home, but they make us all the more determined to show up and fight.

Science is bigger than Vought, bigger than Rufo, bigger than Musk, bigger than Trump, bigger than the United States of America.

10. This is the reality of being an academic in the United States today.

But Vought and Rufo are missing something.

We aren't cowards.

And we know we are not the enemies of the American people either, much as these ideologues might like to claim that.

5. But right now my job doesn't feel like the best job in the world. 

Targeted attacks on university funding have put every US institution into a severe crisis. As of now, there is no way we will be able to continue doing the biomedical research, the conversation science, etc. that we always have.