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I have become a bit more pessimistic about it the state of discovery. Things have slowed despite the current generation having abundant access to overwhelming compute power and the internet, things that did not exist even 30 years ago. There has never been a better time to collaborate or prove out theoretical models, yet there has been a decrease in needle moving discoveries.

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Maybe the internet is an impediment to doing science. It certainly seems to shorten people's attention spans.

More importantly, the most brilliant minds (and there are still a LOT of them) are working for large companies on unimportant problems instead of doing research. Academia has lost all of its prestige, and companies pay ridiculously more.

I too worry this might be a big issue holding us all back. As well as poor diet and lack of proper exercise.

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