Original Website Blurb (November 2011)
Last week I posted about an episode of The Daily Show devoted to science. In that episode, in an interview with Aasif Mandvi, Republican stragegist Noelle Nikpour (great name) made a fairly ludicrous case that scientists are not to be trusted, so much so that they didn’t even have to cheat by re-editing the interview the way they usually do.
But she did have a point-- just not the one she was making. What we’d like is a society where the public can judge the quality of scientific research. Not to say that they can necessarily do that science, any more than I can do what a professional athlete does. But I at least know the rules. I can tell when a professional athlete is doing a good job. I also think there is a case to be made that we do want to be skeptical, that we do want to hold experts of any sort accountable for communicating honestly and clearly with the public. What would that do to the mystique of Wall Street?
Speaking of which, here’s a cool paper comparing market economics to a religion.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1999/03/the-market-as-god/6397/
And a book, which I have not yet read, recommended by my good friend Google.
http://www.psupress.org/books/titles/0-271-02095-4.html
Updates from 2021
I think it has become clear to many of us that Google is not in fact our friend, though it has yet to go full SkyNet.
VSI Episode 24