THE PARADOX OF CHOICE 



require not only education of those who make such decisions 

 but equally an improvement in our facilities for the publication 

 of important results. It seems that the emphasis on the improved 

 publication rates, volumes, and conveniences of scientific and 

 technical papers is much too equally divided between the un- 

 important and important material. Valuable impetus to the 

 progress of basic research in national programs will come from 

 a recognition that just as everyone agrees that not all scien- 

 tific papers are of equal importance when they are published, 

 similarly, it is not equally important to publish all of them. 

 Presumably the new science information service functions of 

 the federal government and the Science Information Council 

 which is advisory to that operation will need to consider how 

 all significant results from basic research can be communicated 

 better. This means particularly how suitable publication by 

 those doing basic studies in large "directed" programs can be 

 expedited. This will maintain the quality that only the search- 

 ing scrutiny and criticism of scientific peers provide. 



Likewise, in the Free World system there must be a broad- 

 ening of recognition of property rights represented by patents. 

 Perhaps the classic phrase "new and unexpected" deserves a 

 different interpretation in an age in which so much invention 

 and discovery must inevitably be associated with theoretical 

 patterns which indicate, if not predict, promising lines of work. 



Concl 



itswn 



One of the strongest forces of life, man's curiosity and the 

 satisfaction he gets out of exercising it according to his own 

 bent, can be coupled with the needs and ambitions of the hu- 

 man race. This is our thesis about the paradox of choice. Un- 

 fortunately the measures favoring such coupling are neither 

 quick nor easy. They mean many special and difficult advances 

 in human capacities and training. First of all there will need to 



7' 



