Freedom of Science

Physicists are faced with the same problem as Madonna.¹ They are exploited by a giant organism who takes their professional product without just compensation. The difference is in degree only.

The situation can be expressed mathematically like this

Madonna feels that the Big Label shortchanges her. Madonna wants Big Label to pay her $N but Big Label pays Madonna $N-epsilon.

Physicists would die to have what is epsilon to Madonna. What physicists get from Big Publisher is not even epsilon. It is zero. Physicists give away their product to Big Publisher for free.

Someone who does not own his labor is a slave. Physicists are the slaves of the Big Publisher.

No physicist can do what Madonna has done and dump the Big Orgus to gain their freedom. Note that Madonna did not start a Wiki² to protest the Big Label. She dumped them.

In the physics industry the analog of Madonna would be Brian Greene or Lisa Randall. Neither would bite the hand that feeds them by refusing to publish in journals owned by Big Publisher.

The allegiance of a physicist is to his career. Nothing else matters. This is how the scholastic hierarchy works. If a physicist ignores her career she could not do research. Then what is the point of being a physicist? Tough situation.

There is a way out. Quit physics. To paraphrase Paul Graham 

There is an enormous latent capacity in the world’s physicists that most people don’t even realize is there.

Even physicists do not realize this. Just declare your freedom from institutionalized physics controlled by unhuman organisms who use your product against humans. Give up your doctoral authority given to you by Big Orgus and become an amateur and serve humans.

1. Music industry and physics industry are structured the same way. Practioners give up the ownership of their products to the Orgus for the promise of fame. [↩]
2. I personally support the Eureka Wiki, it is a step in the right direction. [↩]

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