As a philosopher, I'm just glad to not be the target for once.

by Civil_Comfortable616 1 week ago

My background is in Geology rather than Palaeontology specifically. Palaeontology is incredibly useful for understanding the Geology of an area especially for dating but understanding the stratigraphy & structures too. If you use any oil products, metals, stone, plastics, etc, Palaeontology has played a role in allowing you access to those materials. How the field is portrayed in popular culture is very different from reality & seriously underplays its role in industry. It really isn't all about dinosaurs, just people like to watch stuff about dinosaurs, the study of microfossils is rather less dramatic.

by Significant-Pin-166 1 week ago

I mean, at some point I guess this is just a difference of opinion. Scientifically, what we learn about ancient life helps to answer questions about life today, and that's not up for debate. However, most people also just implicitly realize that knowledge about the past has inherent value, and the feelings that it inspires in humanity are themselves valuable enough to warrant the trivial sum we spend on paleontology on a global scale.

by Waldoking 1 week ago

I know this is unpopular because it's anti-intellectual, anti-science Those things are (unfortunately) quite popular these days.

by Arnaldomayer 1 week ago

"It is knowledge for the sake of knowledge but without any potential for practically impactful discoveries." Hard disagree with this one, as you can't know what you don't know. We could find traces of old bacteria in dinosaur bones that help cure cancer and so on. Basic research always has a place in science and is never useless.

by Arnaldomayer 1 week ago

You are speaking like it is using a lot of our resources. How much % of funding do Paleontology get compare to other fields? I would argue that knowledge in Paleontology require relatively low cost and taking away those resources does not improve anything. Also, we don't know what we don't know. Climate change is not the only reason why animals go extinct and not the only threat we are facing. How do we know more about those unknown threats? We study them. Our food sources are mostly living creatures and we probably want to know every possible reason why a specie could disappear. We don't know what we don't know.

by New-Lemon-9335 1 week ago

Depends how you personally define value. I would argue that knowledge does have value even if it isn't monetary value.

by Anonymous 1 week ago