Great post.<p>One thing about making the process (more) random is it would encourage people to take risks. When I was an academic I had to spend most of my time working on relatively low risk projects that I knew would generate results (and get me publications) or else I knew I would not get anymore grants. By removing this need I could have afforded to take risks that might have resulted in real breakthroughs. We need scientists to take risks and make the great discoveries.