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The trouble with trusting complex science (pg. 8)
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| nefardec |
| quote: | Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles
But if you think that such things are useless, or spiritually shallow and empty, or that they lead to soulless industrialism, or that they crush the human spirit, or that they put people on a banal treadmill of brainless entertainment and ephemeral novelty, then you are free to get some like-minded people together, start a colony on a nice patch of land and live free of the clutches of the horrible modern standardized consumerist civilization that you deplore. And from some time spent at that vantage point, perhaps you could judge whether you would like to live with science and all the inevitable warts that come with it being very much a social, human institution. |
I know you are smarter than these inane black and white polemics.
If this is an indirect response to my luddite-inflected posts in this thread, then I regret to inform you that you have completely failed in comprehending what I've written. |
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| MrJiveBoJingles |
| Haha, you caught that before my edit. Read the new version. :) |
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| pkcRAISTLIN |
| Nefardec and ******** should build a commune and have babies together. |
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| nefardec |
| quote: | Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles
Haha, you caught that before my edit. Read the new version. :) |
yeah, just saw that ;)
@pkc - omg, that was hilarious. unfortunately i already have someone in mind. |
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| pkcRAISTLIN |
| I hope he’s into arrogant philosophical ramblings that lack any real utility. |
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| nefardec |
| quote: | Originally posted by pkcRAISTLIN
I hope he’s into arrogant philosophical ramblings that lack any real utility. |
as long as he's not into spineless jibes of a pathetic flea biter, i think it will be fine. |
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| MrJiveBoJingles |
Someone said that technology is essentially a way to avoid experiencing life. I think that has some truth to it, but I also think certain experiences are better avoided.
:p |
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| Arbiter |
| If the expected information cost of the inquiry exceeds the expected value of the answer, then ignorance is wise. |
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| Lilith |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lira
But there's a deeper suspicion here as well. Popular mythology – from Faust through Frankenstein to Dr No – casts scientists as sinister schemers, harnessing the dark arts to further their diabolical powers. Sometimes this isn't far from the truth. Some use their genius to weaponise anthrax for the US and Russian governments. Some isolate terminator genes for biotech companies, to prevent farmers from saving their own seed. Some lend their names to articles ghostwritten by pharmaceutical companies, which mislead doctors about the drugs they sell. Until there is a global code of practice or a Hippocratic oath binding scientists to do no harm, the reputation of science will be dragged through the dirt by researchers who devise new means of hurting us. |
The real problem science has, is that for so long it's credibility is based on proving out a fact, but the fact is, that science is a business and the fact is proved out to favour the business. Once people started figuring out that bias over what was believed for so long to be unbiased fact, its net worth to the truth of a subject is diminished and the business of science has to take a more extreme spin to attract followers to it. |
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| pkcRAISTLIN |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lilith
The real problem science has, is that for so long it's credibility is based on proving out a fact, but the fact is, that science is a business and the fact is proved out to favour the business. Once people started figuring out that bias over what was believed for so long to be unbiased fact, its net worth to the truth of a subject is diminished and the business of science has to take a more extreme spin to attract followers to it. |
lira's quote means almost the opposite though. most of his examples include scientific endeavour that provide verifiable results. you can doubt the scientists all you like, but the US and russian governments weren't developing useless weaponised anthrax due to some kind of scientific hoax, etc.
just because science or scientists are imperfect isn't a good enough reason to deny the fact that it/they remain the best tool for understanding the physical world.
i would also posit that most of the "spin" you refer to is done by the media (or other areas of business), rather than scientific organisations (not to say it doesn't happen of course). |
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| Nrg2Nfinit |
wow. wow wow wow.
now i can understand how some people get sapped into these mass suicides :p |
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