Gold Fish Tank

I am trying to figure out the oddest part of this story. Nuh, fail.

From the Industry Minister of Australia: “We have put science at the centre of industry policy as it is integral to supporting Australia’s future growth and prosperity.”

Which is sort of odd since science is just so 20th century. We are in the IT century boys! Let me explain it clearly – IT technologies are driving changes to every aspect of human life at a rate never ever experienced before. The massive investment in IT technologies is actually slowing investment in scientific technologies so I expect that the impact of science on our lives in the 21st century will be less than it was in the 20th century in real terms and orders of magnitude less than IT technologies in relative terms.

And Australian ‘industry’ is 69% (as measured by GDP) in the services sector. Not a whole lot of science is needed there Ian! But, oh boy, do they love all that IT.

The quote above was part of an announcement that “the Government has begun the process of finding a successor to current Chief Scientist.”

Still no Chief Technologist though…

But the best bit comes last … “The Government has engaged Odgers Berndtson Australia to conduct a national and international search to find a replacement.”

Googling, I find that “Odgers Berndtson is an established brand, representing one of the most successful global executive search entities in the world. Known as as Ray & Berndtson until 2009, our change of name reflects our commitment to work even more cohesively to find the highest calibre of individuals throughout the world.”

Gee, I might just change the name of BT Imaging to BT Odgers just so that people automatically know of our commitment to work even more cohesively to keep our customers happy and fat.

What they ought to do is a reality TV show. Just like when INXS did that show to replace Michael Hutchence. Make it a sort of public bake-off for all the want-to-be Chief Scientists and Chief Technologists. That’d sort out the light-weights from the egomaniacs. And there might actually be a little bit of general interest in the candidates and the role. which would be a nice change from the current situation.