15 thoughts on “A Defense Of Science”

  1. Horribly off topic…

    I noticed the little icon next to the Transterrestrial Musing bookmark has changed a few times the last couple days. Is it me or is Rand fiddling with something?

    1. Is that all you’ve got? From a guy who wouldn’t recognize the scientific method if it bit him in the ass.

  2. Ever wonder why so few scientists go into politics? It’s because the bullshitting doesn’t sit well with someone who tries to understand the real world.

    1. Uh, they get to do plenty of bullshitting. They just do it in a different venue. Scientists are not more pure than other humans. They do not belong on a pedestal. They should not be worshiped or viewed as holy truth speakers and prophets.

      1. Uh, they get to do plenty of bullshitting.
        Trouble is when they try it in science forums they get caught out by facts, so the BS gets to be pretty limited, unlike politicians who get to preach to audiences that are mugs, or want to believe whatever their favorite politicians tell them.

        They just do it in a different venue.
        You mean in their work? See above.

        Scientists are not more pure than other humans.
        What do you mean by “pure”? If they’re to get anywhere as scientists they need to stick to the scientific method, if they don’t they trans-morph into (ick) politicians.

        They do not belong on a pedestal. They should not be worshiped or viewed as holy truth speakers and prophets.
        Where did that come from?

        1. As a Dead White Republican once put it:

          “Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

          The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present – and is gravely to be regarded.

          Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite. ”

          And, since then, we’ve seen tax funding of science corrupt it just as much as it’s corrupted everything else it’s touched.

          1. I think the corruption of scientists, if that’s the right word, is more often a case of a scientists own politics leading him away from using good practices, allowing confirmation bias to survive longer than it otherwise would.

        2. ” You mean in their work? See above.”

          There is no politicking in academia? They are somehow immunized from interpersonal and institutional squabbles? They are different than every single other group of humans? I was in school for too long and know too many teachers to think that is true.

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