Interesting interview, and a fascinating guest! (A string of excellent episodes, by the way; I especially liked the #73 Letter from Shanghai.) Three things now have reminded me of a comment that I'll write here.
(1) In this episode, Lottaz's presence in Japan, which gives him an interesting perspective on world events, was launched by a high school exchange program;
(2) You note in your previous podcast and others that traveling to places like China is invaluable for getting a deeper and more accurate sense of what the world is like; I certainly agree;
(3) Earlier this week I spent two days in Berkeley, giving the Physics colloquium and chatting with people (mostly not in Physics, an interesting point in itself), which was of course an "official" seminar visit.
Note that #1 and #3 are facilitated by programs run by institutions. I would think, given #2 and the rise of China in particular, that there would be a large benefit for something like NSF-funded visits of researchers from and especially *to* China -- not only to get a sense of how science/technology in particular are being done, but how things like scaling up institutions (creating an enormous STEM educational infrastructure, fast) are being done. Thoughts?
Yes, this is unfortunate. Ideally, one could imagine a world in which China hawks would be in favor of engagement like this, if only to better see what the "other side" is doing. But instead we're ruled by "optics."
Interesting interview, and a fascinating guest! (A string of excellent episodes, by the way; I especially liked the #73 Letter from Shanghai.) Three things now have reminded me of a comment that I'll write here.
(1) In this episode, Lottaz's presence in Japan, which gives him an interesting perspective on world events, was launched by a high school exchange program;
(2) You note in your previous podcast and others that traveling to places like China is invaluable for getting a deeper and more accurate sense of what the world is like; I certainly agree;
(3) Earlier this week I spent two days in Berkeley, giving the Physics colloquium and chatting with people (mostly not in Physics, an interesting point in itself), which was of course an "official" seminar visit.
Note that #1 and #3 are facilitated by programs run by institutions. I would think, given #2 and the rise of China in particular, that there would be a large benefit for something like NSF-funded visits of researchers from and especially *to* China -- not only to get a sense of how science/technology in particular are being done, but how things like scaling up institutions (creating an enormous STEM educational infrastructure, fast) are being done. Thoughts?
The problem is all China-related stuff is very politically risky right now. NSF could be subject to attack by China hawks in Congress, etc.
Even many venture capitalists are afraid to invest in China, despite the obviously dynamic tech scene there, bc of optics risks. 🙁
Yes, this is unfortunate. Ideally, one could imagine a world in which China hawks would be in favor of engagement like this, if only to better see what the "other side" is doing. But instead we're ruled by "optics."