Eric Brown ([info]outotoro) wrote,
@ 2009-03-31 08:20:00
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The Dogmatism of Science
This NY Times Article deals with well respected Scientist Freeman Dyson, including the negative response to his opposition to a popular scientific idea.

Again, I submit that the scientific community isn't as free as bias as it's ideals would claim - just as the religious community isn't as lily-white and pure as they like to claim they are.

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[info]mercutio_bgq
2009-03-31 05:37 pm UTC (link)
I would counter by saying that listening to a physicist talk about global warming makes as much sense as listening to a botanist talk about class O stellar bodies.

Now, off of the snarky remark, and onto the rant. The matter of global warming reveals the bulk of humans (scientific and non-scientific) as lacking in areas of basic thought. Global warming is not a political issue. It's not a social issue. It's not even an editorial issue. And yet it is treated as such by the media, the education system, most scientists, and every politician who walks the earth today.

That people even have opinions on this issue is insane. It's like having an opinion about the method by which whales reproduce or what the chemical byproducts of paint production are. It's a matter of study, observation, experimentation, and analysis. But this very empirical set of data and conclusions have been lost in the quagmire of political, corporate, and monetary interests.

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[info]tsarren
2009-03-31 06:56 pm UTC (link)
The data set has very definitely been lost in the quagmire... I can't even *find* it. Anything I do find is suspect. I keep seeing people cherry-pick data. "Sea ice is the same as it was in 1970!" "But that's just for one year, if you look at the last 5 years, it's way less!" "But if you look at the last 30 years, it's obvious that it cycles and we're just in X part of the cycle!" And so on and so forth, with some people saying it's just regular old long-term climate change and that we have nothing to do with it. I've refrained from drawing any sort of conclusion because I simply don't have enough data that I know is good.

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[info]mercutio_bgq
2009-03-31 11:24 pm UTC (link)
I've been unable to find a source I feel is unbiased.

(When I say unbiased, I don't mean in the absolute way that no human can attain. I simply mean not funded by an organization that has a stake in the result and doesn't make their opinions on the subject known from the outset.)

The primary problem with studying this issue is that when you have something that is politically charged, self-selection bias hits record levels. The signal to noise ratio goes to pot.

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[info]kencf0618
2009-03-31 11:15 pm UTC (link)
An excellent article. Freeman Dyson is one of my favorite human beings, but on this issue I believe he's mistaken. Time shall tell.

Now go watch Proteus (2004).

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