For those of us who have worked with science or scientists its amazing to think that people take such a religious zealousness over this insane dogma.
Science is made up of people. People who work hard to get noticed, gain material wealth and just try to survive. The construct of science now is: I will hire you or give you funding if you can prove my theory and make my product sell, or validate me. Gone are the days of “I wonder if I can make this happen or solve this problem.” Huge labs with many people working only on parts of someone’s project, they don’t even know what the final goal is, “Just do your pipets.”
Then you hear of Theranos blood test. So many levels of hidden truths, of taking advantage of those who do not understand but accept the “expert” as being GOD. We all can’t know ALL. We specialize in our own little world and rely on marketing to tell us the truth. OMG, did you just hear what I said? Marketing is truth… (cries in her hands).
As I have watched the internet, “SEE Me, SEE me” mentality, which seems to be all that is valued anymore, I am horrified. How loud shouting, “I am the best. I am the expert. Buy from me.” Is considered right? Your value is now how many views you have or LIKEs. Function is no longer a component of success, noise is.
All that is obviously a sad state of affairs that anyone with more than one generational perspective could tell you. What I want to address is Science vs Policy.
We have this thing saying, “It’s based on Science”. Let me review science. Science is the slow observational collection of data, more data and still more data. Then it is the horrific puzzling out of that data to see if we can find any patterns or rhyme and reasons from it. Science is hindsight! Science is AFTER the facts have been observed. The proper analysis needs to be done, which unfortunately takes time.
Policies are for the future, the forward component, based on science data, which should have been given that horrible component of Time needed for analysis. BUT we don’t have time and are forced to use value-based conjectures. Let me give you an example…
Well I know from accumulated experiments that every time I walk down the hall I trip at the same place… (that is the data. I can add dates and times, what I was wearing, who I was with etc. All this is data) .
So what to do about that data going forward. The policy makers then create “the policy” and chooses according to their values. “Whatever should we do with this data going forward?” We could…
1. Remove the rug
2. Goose step so my feet are high enough that I don’t trip
3. Get glasses
4. Change to a flatter rug.
5. Tape the rug down.
6. Remodel the house and remove the hall.
7. Buy a new house.
8. Kill the cat.
The list can go on… ALL of these options are based on the data of me tripping at that spot. So the government picks one of these value-based solutions and claims THAT is the answer based on science, which is the hindsight of collected data. All of the above options have equal validity because the Time component of data analysis is not available.
So the policy makers who believe no good emergency can be left unmaximinzed say, “Hey, this huge company can make money if we say it is this… and Bam, that selection is forced down throats with the marketing shouts. “Buy a new house this one is dangerous. You can’t argue with us, its based on science!”
The reality might just have been the toe of your slipper catches the carpet. Nothing to do with the house or the cat, but someone has made FORWARD policy decisions based on science.
It is fun actually not to know everything. I spend my life exploring endless thought processes and the psychology of the internet. The internet has gone sideways and I can not foresee a way to backtrack.
Critical thinking has been shouted down.
So following suit… Listen to me! I’m the expert. Stop believing everything you hear!
He he…Enjoy the journey!
Hugs, Pam