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Comment by picafrost

2 days ago

This is classic EU. An announcement of an effort to collect collaborators to discuss doing something that they might do in the future.

>This is classic EU. An announcement of an effort to collect collaborators to discuss doing something that they might do in the future.

It should be done in secret? How did they manage to create CERN? maybe there was no reddit like people commenting back then?

  • No, but collaboration comes with a cost too.

    As a European myself, I would prefer them to put less emphasis on collaboration and more on actually doing something's with the resources available to them and making that freely available. Collaboration will happen naturally and without having to coordinate.

    But as they said, this is less about producing value then it's about signaling

    • I don't get this. At the beginning of the press release they cite eurohpc. Before eurohpc, it was probably announced with a similar press release. And then it existed

    • Collaboration brought us peace. Peace is underrated these days.

      (NB: I mean the good kind of collaboration of course, on science and industry - it's a loaded word in French at least)

      2 replies →

  • > It should be done in secret?

    No?

    > How did they manage to create CERN?

    I have no clue. It appears that was 70 years ago.

    > maybe there was no reddit like people commenting back then?

    Huh?

    The EU is often criticized for its lack of competitiveness due to its highly regulated environment, low investment numbers, risk aversion, and slow moving bureaucracy. This announcement hits all of these points. I am European as well, and it just makes me sad? It is more of the same. This doesn't look like a serious effort to propel Europe to the cutting-edge or even the conversation. It's just enough to say we're doing something, without a high risk of calling it a failure if nothing ends up being delivered.

    Europe doesn't lack talent or initiative. If you look at the top AI research institutions out there, a great many of them are composed of researchers who originated from Europe. What is the US offering them that Europe is not? That is many things, none of which are are actively being addressed in the EU. There's a high likelihood that academic beneficiaries of these funds will end up in the US due to the absurd salaries and cutting edge positions.

    I prefer the regulated EU environment. I value my privacy and think the EU is doing the right, long-term thing. I don't mind the reduced salaries here -- I worked in the US for years but returned back to Europe because I share its values. But there's no point in pretending the EU will be a serious contender in this environment.

  • It probably should not be number 2 on Hacker News, unless Hacker News has a lot of readers who might contribute to this effort

    • > unless Hacker News has a lot of readers who might contribute to this effort

      But it obviously does? Maybe not people who "want" but definitely many who "might".

      If anything this is one of the better places to advertise, and certainly more interesting than another "Hooli (YC99) is hiring to democratize breathing".

    • >It probably should not be number 2 on Hacker News, unless Hacker News has a lot of readers who might contribute to this effort

      I agree, but some EU people want to share it and USA guys and EU skeptiks want to shit on it. Probably we should post a wikipedia article about CERN and have Elon fanboys explain how Elon can do it it better while his bit* Trump could make our eggs cheaper.