Very busy these next few days.
Long-time readers will know all my reasons I think science is broken, but I wonder what yours are?
I’m preparing for my talk tomorrow at the Broken Science Initiative event in Phoenix, where I’ll cover some of this.
I have another, bigger longer speech coming up soon, also part of this Broken Science Project, where I’ll have the opportunity to get into the meat of things. The hardcore fundamental problems of science which would be there even if we removed the obvious cancers, like Woke & DIE. More details on this coming shortly.
I’ll give a breakdown of this weekend’s event Monday.
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Pure research science doesn’t really exist any longer. If you can’t get a grant, then being beholden to the grantor (pharma, big gov, etc.), you don’t get to do your experiments.
Science is broken when a society/economy goes into decline, and institutions become increasingly corrupt as those in power struggle to maintain their position. Science (upper case) is and has been an large institution through the intersection of government, business and the academy. Large scale institutions typically cannot tolerate dissent (with the exception of some private organizations) and develop various ideologies to maintain internal consistency.
Unfortunately actual (lower case) science depends on dissent because knowledge is imperfect and our understanding of the world changes over time. As large scale institutions dominate the (upper case) Science discourse, those who dissent are either pushed out of positions or ignored. Hence Science corrupts itself, while actual science continues in the shadows, but at a diminished level.
We should welcome the collapse of broken Science just as we should welcome the collapse of a declining society, although it will come with pain and it takes courage to see it through. But sometimes you just have to let it fail.