[ExI] Discontent with the path physics is taking

[Stefano Vaj]

On 26 August 2011 22:23, Kelly Anderson <kellycoinguy at gmail.com> wrote:

> Exactly. So, if the government in China can change the outcome of
> research done there, why would we assume that our government doesn't
> do the same here? I believe that it does, specifically by choosing who
> gets grants and who doesn't.
>

This exactly what makes me wary of the too-quick enthusiasm of
transhumanists  à la IEET for global governance mechanisms.

Because, ultimately, given societies may adopt one aesthetics or philosophy
over another one, but as far as technoscience is concerned, competition
amongst them is a powerful control mechanism in selecting the most effective
paradigms (or at least make the least ones go extinct).

But in a single Brave New World, or in the attempts to transform ONU in the
seed of any such thing? No sirrah.

Culture and zeitgeist has just as much impact on the skewing of
> scientific results (at least the ones that get published in peer
> reviewed publications) as totalitarian regimes.
>

Absolutely. At the end of the day, it is the cultural norm (and the vested
interests it serves) that counts. Legal ("totalitarian") repression is a
just a possible byproduct, which often is not even necessary, enforcement
being directly entrusted to social mechanisms.

-- 
Stefano Vaj
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20110828/5a543a7f/attachment.html>