In the last few years, a small group of researchers have advanced a theory of change in American politics that they call “metascience.” Their thesis is straightforward. The US government is the single largest source of science funding in the world, and yet we know shockingly little about how science actually works.102 Our laws, rules, and habits have accreted over decades without much of a grand strategy. A national invention agenda ought to operate from the first principle that if we don’t understand the science of invention at all, we should do what scientists do. We should run experiments.
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