[ExI] Discontent with the path physics is taking

[G. Livick]

If the outcome of research is altered from what it was, then fruitful 
research on that topic stops right there.   New research builds on what 
came before.  If what came before wasn't valid, then additional research 
cannot extend it.  Governments can stop funding research they don't 
like, or spin the politics around research that undercuts their basic 
platform, but they can alter the actual result of research just once.  
It will work for awhile, but the scientific community will not be fooled 
by it, and will shortly reveal the scam, or reproduce the work and 
publish the proper results independently.

FutureMan


On 8/28/2011 4:30 AM, Stefano Vaj wrote:
> On 26 August 2011 22:23, Kelly Anderson <kellycoinguy at gmail.com 
> <mailto: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
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20110828/86667bcb/attachment.html>