The Academia as a Discrimination Amplifier in 2025

Academia presents itself as a neutral arena where merit, rigor, and evidence determine success. But beneath this narrative lies a powerful mechanism of exclusion. The science degree system—culminating in the PhD—functions as the engine that amplifies discrimination in research and intellectual life.

At first glance, degrees appear to be neutral credentials: symbols of training and achievement. In practice¹, they function as filters of privilege. Who obtains a science degree, especially a PhD, is largely determined by factors outside of raw intellectual ability—family wealth, geography, cultural capital, and social connections. The system ensures that only those who pass through narrow institutional channels are taken seriously.

Degrees as Barriers, Not Gateways

Instead of opening the gates of knowledge, degrees often close them. A brilliant thinker without the right diploma is dismissed before their work is ever evaluated. The degree is not a measure of truth but a badge of belonging.

The PhD: An Engine of Amplification

The PhD, in particular, stands at the center of academia’s discrimination machine. It is presented as the highest mark of intellectual rigor, yet it mostly validates the ability to conform: to serve under a supervisor, to align with prevailing paradigms, and to fit into the bureaucratic rituals of academia.

This makes the PhD a discrimination amplifier:

• It privileges those who had the resources to spend years in academia.
• It excludes independent voices who could not afford or did not choose that path.
• It magnifies inequality by attaching career, funding, and legitimacy almost exclusively to this credential.

Through this process, academia doesn’t just reproduce social inequalities—it intensifies them.

Funding and Recognition Through the Lens of Degrees

Funding bodies and journals rarely judge ideas on their intrinsic merits. Instead, they ask: Does the author have a PhD? Which institution stands behind them? Degrees become shorthand for worthiness. Those with credentials are rewarded again and again, while outsiders are disqualified before the conversation even begins.

Thus, the degree system converts privilege into recognition, recognition into money, and money into more privilege—a self-reinforcing cycle powered by the PhD as its engine.

The Suppression of Unconventional Thought

Because degrees mark legitimacy, unconventional thinkers without them are invisible. Even when their ideas are strong, they are brushed aside as “unscientific.” Peer review intensifies this effect, because reviewers, almost all PhDs, instinctively uphold the degree-defined boundaries of the profession.

The result is a narrowing of science itself. Knowledge becomes less about discovery and more about institutional loyalty.

Toward Alternatives: AI Internet-Socialism

If academia runs on the engine of degree-based discrimination, society must build a new engine: one that amplifies inclusion instead of exclusion.

AI Internet-Socialism (AIIS) offers that path. By decentralizing intellectual authority and using AI-driven platforms, AIIS allows anyone—regardless of whether they hold a PhD—to contribute knowledge, receive recognition, and access support. Instead of rewarding degrees, AIIS rewards ideas, collaboration, and results.

This is not only fairer, but also more efficient for humanity. Countless breakthroughs are being lost today because they are filtered out by the degree system. AIIS is a way to stop wasting human potential.

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👉 Join the movement to replace academia’s discrimination engine with a system for everyone. Donate to AI Internet-Socialism (AIIS) and help build a fair, inclusive future for science and society.

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