How does the floating island of Laputa criticize impractical intellectuals?

In Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift uses the floating island of Laputa and the nearby Academy of Lagado to satirize intellectuals who prioritize abstract, theoretical speculation over practical application and common sense.1

The inhabitants of Laputa are depicted as so preoccupied with higher mathematical and scientific musings that they are perpetually absent-minded, often failing to notice their surroundings or the people they collide with. Swift further develops this critique through the Academy of Lagado, which serves as a travesty of England’s Royal Society. Within the Academy, "lunatic savants" pursue absurd and useless projects—such as attempting to extract food from human excrement—that highlight the folly of intellectuals who detach themselves from the realities of human needs.12

By portraying these figures as deranged and impractical, Swift mocks the arrogance of those who claim intellectual superiority while lacking the basic decency or utility required to improve the human condition.1