supporting independent researchers

[damabo]

Hi all.

Since independence of thought is crucial to correct and ethical science, why is there still no funding for independent researchers?
We should get sign petitions so governments in all countries approve of independent research as legitimate, money making business. This way, the monetary rewards of academia are less interesting, possibly eventually resulting in a world with only independent researchers. Of course independent does not mean 'alone', but rather that there is freedom to chose paradigms, freedom to chose whom to cooperate with.
Still, there has to be some kind of restriction, so that not everybody can indeed become an independent researcher. And this is again where peer-review seems crucial. Is there no way out of this? Can we assure quality of research more with independent research than with academic research? Actually, I doubt this very much if there are no strict rules;
So: which rules should be made?

[Phorce]

Petitions may help in their own way. Better would be to study what science actually is. How it developed and how and why it's part of society much like cooking or making music is. The institutionalisation and government control of science has been allowed by those who think that science is something separate and pursue the misguided aim of "objectivity" or "dispassionate" science. A bit like asking a musician to play with no feeling.