[ExI] [wta-talk] Meme 128: What Have You Changed Your Mind about?

[Amara Graps]

Summary of the various answers at cosmicvariance:
http://cosmicvariance.com/2008/01/01/what-have-you-changed-your-mind-about

Bee at backreaaction discussed it, but used it to lead into a discussion
of the role of thinking people in a society, and why we need them to
give direction to the politicians:

http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2008/01/on-edge.html


<begin quote>
[...]
The point is simple. Intelligence is no longer an evolutionary advantage
if the content of thought becomes increasingly abstract and theoretical.
Our societies get more and more complex, and desperately need
intellectuals, scientists, and thinkers to help them find their way in a
world that's getting increasingly confusing every day. Yet, our
societies don't listen to these voices, politics refutes any scientific
method, leaders repeat mistakes, ignore warnings, and stick to believes
that are scientifically wrong. It's a problem that has been around since
thousands of years, but it is a problem that can be ignored for a long
time - as long as trial an error works fast enough. Unfortunately
though, the tolerance for mistakes gets smaller every year, and the
consequences of mistakes larger.

The saddest example is maybe the present global warming discussion. All
these political problems, the fact that capitalism alone fails to
protect common goods, these have been discussed already decades ago. It
is quite ironic to me, reading as news what we have been taught at
school. May it be about the best way to provide incentives, saving
energy, or reducing garbage. The climate change and energy shortening
issue has been around since at least the Club of Rome report '72. It was
the time of Greenpeace, remember that? Jute statt Plastik?

The energy problems I consider the much worse part because it will hit
rather suddenly, yet despite all the hot air nobody actually does
something about it. The obvious way out if oil gets short is power from
nuclear fission. Face it - and think about that this will be a global
problem. How many nations do you want to have in this world
experimenting with their first nuclear fission reactors? We have, for
better or worse, a global economy, but no global political system. It's
a small wonder negotiations fail as long as the global marketplace has
no balance in a political decision making process. And that's not a
particularly new insight either. But hey, liberalism is still en vogue,
lets wait some more decades.

I've been around in the blogosphere for long enough to realize that a
significant fraction of our readers will now grind their teeth and say,
girl stick to physics, you don't know nothing. Another part will think,
gag, she shouldn't. And that brings me to the reason why I changed my
mind about whether we will be able to resolve the present problems in a
timely manner.
<end quote>

You may disagree with her view on part or all, but her post generated a
good discussion (as usual for her posts!), which is even more valuable.

Amara

-- 

Amara Graps, PhD      www.amara.com
Research Scientist, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Boulder, Colorado