One of my favorite authors, Neal Stephenson, has a piece in Slate on how the historical development of a particular technology can lead a society to a development pattern that is nonintuitive and clearly not the best solution to that particular problem. The example he uses is rocket technology, which is enormously expensive (in its current form, to say nothing of the trillions of dollars spent in its development), and does not really provide a viable platform for actual space exploration/colonization. Furthermore, the circumstances that permitted its development were quite specific, and one can easily imagine myriad scenarios in which this would not have come to pass. But now, it is extremely difficult for governments or the free market to countenance alternative technologies.
When we think about the many illogical policies our University, our governments, or our society undertake, it is valuable to consider the impediments to clear thinking that arise in such situations. It's actually quite hard to embark on radically different courses, because human nature is so predictably conservative.
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