Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.Agreed.
In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.
Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.
(via Wizbang)
1 comment:
>> Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.
> Agreed.
Uh, NO.
If anything, it's become the captive of a bunch of pseudo-scientific charlatans who either have no grasp of science and the scientific method (Gore), or of traitors to science and the scientific method (Hansen).
Both trade on the steadily deteriorating state of education wherein we "teach" that "feeling good" is more important than "doing good" -- where science, grammar, reason, and rules of all kinds play second fiddle to "what feels right" and "what feels good".
Since no one grasps critical thinking, and no one understands what science is, or what its limitations are, and no one actually asks "ugly" questions like "Why", "Who is he?", and "How does he know?" any more, people can be told that the sky is blue on even thursdays, and red on odd wednesdays -- and no one has the balls to simply point at the sky and say "What the f*** you talkin' 'bout, Willis?"
It's most emphatically NOT a scientific and technological elite, Carl.
It's merely the appearance of one, at best, and barely even that.
Post a Comment