Plausability Check: Nation of Science

Is it possible for there to be a nation that has scientific pursuit as it's major goal?

What I mean is, a nation {regardless of size but preferably not a tiny Switzerland-like nation} that while seeking to protect it's borders does not try to become a regional/major power? Instead, said nation would invest most or all of it's resources into science and infrastructure?

My first thought was that the U.S.A did this but then remembered the Mexican-American war and the Monroe Doctrine {among other things}.

Anyway, it's really an idea for a sci-fi story rattling around in my head and I just wanted to know if it was/is possible for any nation to do this and survive.

Thanks. :)
 
Well there are some fields, like aeronautics (particularly jets), which are both scientific, and have military applications. It would help to be geographically isolated, but economically powerful, and quite liberal with regards to religion, skin-colour, etc.

Edit: good access to resources is also pretty essential, and in some fields you'll want large areas of desert so that you can perform energetic experiments without blowing up anyone more than you have to.
 
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Perkeo

Banned
Well there are some fields, like aeronautics (particularly jets), which are both scientific, and have military applications. It would help to be geographically isolated, but economically powerful, and quite liberal with regards to religion, skin-colour, etc.

Japan comes close to that, doesn't it?
 
Well there are some fields, like aeronautics (particularly jets), which are both scientific, and have military applications. It would help to be geographically isolated, but economically powerful, and quite liberal with regards to religion, skin-colour, etc.

Edit: good access to resources is also pretty essential, and in some fields you'll want large areas of desert so that you can perform energetic experiments without blowing up anyone more than you have to.

It seems a rather accurate description of Australia.
 
By throwing in infrastructure you confuse science with economic wealth/power.

Pursuing economic well being, leads naturally into economic power, and if that's part of what you looking for, than as others have said you have OTL examples in Japan and others.

Hard to image a nation with high tech that doesn't try to translate this into economic gains for it's people, which soon translates into economic power.

If that works for you, a ATL Canada that focused on spectacular national projects to try to overshadow a ATL less R&D heavy US could work.

Mmm, I remember during the stem cell research "ban" when South Korea had a big stem cell breakthough. THere was thought that the US would be left behind and others would take the lead.

Turned out to be a hoax and then they found how to make Adult cells return to stem state but...

That seems like a good template for something useful.

USA goes populists, decides not to waste money on space, Canada or some other midsized nations hires unemployed scientists and takes the lead,

or the cliche of a US going "anti-science" and passing laws against certain types of research (human genetics enhancement?) and this gives alt CHile a chance to dominate the world in science?

Have to have similar decisions taken in the rest of the First World of course, if you want one mid or smaller sized nation to get significantly ahead.
 
Stalin's USSR?

Best Regards
Grey Wolf

In a way, yes. Stalin saw the role of the communist party as being "engineers of the human soul", who would guide the USSR to a more efficient future. Francis Spufford argues that, whereas the US leadership was from a nation of lawyers (concerned with constitutionalism and suchlike), the Soviets were one of scientists (maximum possible efficiency.) This went over into their economic planning, and for a time (until they decided to scrap it and copy IBM) a fairly impressive electronics industry. It could be said that their Five Year Plans, as they tried to modernise the USSR, were also part of this.
 
The countries you've listed are all valid, except for the U.S because while it invested in science, tech, and infrastructure, it also tried to expand its power around the globe and was engaged in multiple wars.

The USSR also fails for kind of the same reasons.

I'm looking for a nation that invests large sums {large being large in a percentages term, not just dollar amounts} in science/tech/infrastructure.

I think that Japan fits the bill rather nicely {after they got stomped in WWII, they weren't left much of a choice}.
 
The 'Dictatorship of the Air' in H.G. Wells' The Shape of Things to Come was such a government, but a planet-wide one.
 
Apparently Salvador Allende attempted to create "Cybersyn", a scientifically managed socialist system, prior to his ouster by General Pinochet in 1973.

Unfortunately, considering that this is the Cold War, and with Richard Nixon in the White House, the chances of the "scientific state" are slim to nill...
 
What about a Singapore like city-state? Have it just one huge city the size of Singapore and but have like 20,000,000 people in it and have it solely focused on Science and technology.
 
Best technocratic utopia- Mars series, Kim Stanley Robinson

Oz, Canada, and Japan have their merits, but ultimately, the economic and political dimension has to be subordinated to technical progress for it to be a nation of science. You need a nation that's either so threatened (like Israel or the USSR) or so far off everyone's radar as a political threat to be allowed to focus on scientific work without worrying about physical or economic security.

The Soviets had the mirror image of it. Science was the expression of the dictatorship of the proletariat and their religion of humanity reaching its potential via selfless collective work as laid out by Marx.
They funded it lavishly, when it served the interests of the Politburo. They hoped technical progress would yield social progress. It gives folks more options of what can be done. Without any feedback loops to temper the utopianism, it did colossal economic, environmental, and physical harm.

IMO the USA has had its moments, but as always the commercial and political agendas trump technical ones. We're profoundly uneasy about scientists, engineers, and so forth because they're either foreigners, had foreign-born parents, or profoundly influenced by foreigners in some way, thus not part of the social mainstream.

Science demands total dedication to furthering the gestalt of human knowledge and technique without really thinking of personal advancement or
making a commercial killing from it or whether it serves an external agenda.

Science is seen as spooky and supposedly the province of people supremely talented, (ye olde "Mad Scientist trope) not something where you spend a lot of time and effort grinding through the basics and seeing the holes or vague spots in current theory and practice to tweak and working like mad to make it happen.

Pure science and applied science both draw on those basic principles.
The rewards aren't lots of money or respect from the general populace.
Because the practitioners are human, there's the warts and wonders of collective endeavor- groupthink, politics, and perceptions of what's sexy all color who gets promoted, who gets funded, and who gets ignored as a crank.

Sometimes an external prod (usually a war or economic/political rivalry) gets the powers-that-be to pragmatically ignore politics and go with what works best for a bit. Then, when things get comfortable, back to the status quo.
A scientific society would have all of these aspects magnified.

The point of this rant is that societies reflect their priorities. A society based on valuing scientific endeavors above all else needs to be insecure enough to keep pushing for a qualitative edge, to never be satisfied with good enough, pimping the message that science is the noblest work one can do.
Everyone vaguely interested gets praised and pushed to cultivate those abilities and contribute what they can, and being as objective as possible.

Does that mean you have a nation of really savvy, creative, and obsessive geeks always pushing for more elegant solutions trumping other possibilities?
It's all in the applications of it. YMMV may vary though.
 
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