[extropy-chat] Doubt and About

[Brett Paatsch]

Harvey Newstrom  wrote:

> Robin Hanson wrote,
> > 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.
> 
> I disagree.  Things are different than they used to be.  University
> studies are supported by specific corporations now.  Discoveries
> are proprietary and patented instead of peer-reviewed.  More
> money is spent on lawyers to prevent flaws from being exposed 
> rather than confirmation studies being performed.  Corporate 
> fraud has moved into the realms of computer science and 
> biology more than ever before.  Areas of research that used to
> be purely  scientific are now overrun with corporate lawyers,
> politicians, ethics advisors, and a whole host of non-technical 
> people trying to control technology that they don't understand.
>  Doctors used to make medical decisions, now non-medical 
> professionals in HMOs do.  Scientists used to direct research,
> now corporate boards of directors do.  Researchers used to
> choose research paths, now venture capitalists do.  The control
> and (mis)representation of technology has shifted from the
> scientists to the eco-political realm.  This shift is new and has
> completely changed the dynamic of how science is done.

Maybe you are right Harvey. Maybe you are not. Why don't you
tackle something with a slightly narrower scope and give more 
evidence for what your saying? The broad brush stuff can only be
accepted or rejected wholesale and mostly its rejected not explicitly
because its disagreed with but implictly because the difficulty of 
untangling it is too great. If you don't get engagement you can't get
persuasion. Trust me I know :-)

Often the posters on the Exi list are encouraged to do more, or
try different things. This is seldom bad advice in itself but would
overwhelming silence on the list (as does pops up from time to
time) be interpreted by you as success as everyone had gone off
to do stuff? If you have some specific things you'd like to see done
perhaps you could state them? I thought the recent discussion about
nanotechnology would have been useful to anybody interested and 
willing to actually listen. I agree with Hal that critics are our friends 
(or at least can be :-). 

I can empathise with frustration and perhaps sometimes the list
functions as a fraternity of the frustrated but there is little point just
howling at the moon. 

Regards,
Brett