[extropy-chat] Doubt and About

[Robin Hanson]

On 12/9/2003, Harvey Newstrom wrote:
><http://www.csicop.org/doubtandabout/abuses/>
>
>Excellent article.  ...  People
>easily fall into a mode where they act like they are experts and they have
>no real concept of how science or the underlying technology really work.  I
>am afraid that there are more faux experts than real experts in the public
>spotlight today.  It is easier to be a consumer, commentator, political
>activists, strategy consultant, public educator, or whatever in a field of
>"expertise" without really going through all the trouble of really learning
>the field.  This is the biggest threat to science and by extension to
>transhumanism facing us today.  The world of science is being diluted with
>pseudoscience, and it is very difficult for the laypeople to tell the
>difference. ...

I agree this is a huge problem, but you say "diluted" as if you think the
situation was ever any different.  It seems to me that this is the way it
has always been.




Robin Hanson  rhanson at gmu.edu  http://hanson.gmu.edu
Assistant Professor of Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444
703-993-2326  FAX: 703-993-2323