[ExI] Famous Scientists saying Racist Things.

[spike at rainier66.com]

> On Behalf Of SR Ballard via extropy-chat
Subject: [ExI] Famous Scientists saying Racist Things.

 

>…Should we stop honoring famous scientists and mathematicians because they were racist or supported things like eugenics?

 

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/amid-protests-against-racism-scientists-move-strip-offensive-names-journals-prizes-and

>…“Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL)  <https://www.cshl.edu/cshl-trustees-vote-on-future-of-graduate-school/> decided to change the naming of its graduate school after Nobel Laureate James Watson because of his past racial comments.”


>……Should a scientist’s personal views matter in regards to recognition of their scientific achievement?  SR Ballard

 

 

 

 

It seems to have come in vogue to erase history, perhaps in support of an effort to revise it.

 

If we do not know our history, we are free to judge people from the past using the values of today, which is all we have left.  This would explain the inexplicable, such as the tearing down of Abraham Lincoln memorials.  We get Jackson, Washington, Jefferson, but Lincoln?

 

If it becomes normal to judge people from the past using today’s social mores, then it will be the norm to judge us by values and ethics 20 or 50 years from now.  We do not know what those values and mores will be.  

 

The internet never forgets.

 

spike  

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