It is kind of a sad commentary on the state of things when so many of the brightest and creative minds of a generation are squandering the most productive years of their life writing software to enhance marketing and targeted advertising. And that these are efforts valued on the order of hundreds of billions of dollars.
the false assumption is that all effort in the sciences is not similarly squandered. I assure you, most of it is. At least when you're making a better platform for cat pictures, you are presumably giving someone what they want and making their life marignally lighter. So much science is basically just politically connected higher ups getting money thrown at them for pursuits that if you stopped and thought about you would realize they were not.even.worth.it, or, being chased after by the wrong researcher. And in the process, the poor grad student (or postdoc) is having the best years of their life ground down. In 97% of cases, I'd say the cat pictures are of better social benefit.
I'm getting a lot of this feeling these days. This is an interesting post by the OP. I am going to investigate this more, it might up some avenues to explore further.
And yet, by doing so, large piles of rational cash can be allocated to scientific research. See, for example, Gates Foundation, Rockefellar Foundation, Calico, etc.