The five main reasons Science is broken are:
1. Woke & DIE
2. The Expansion Team Effect & Money
3. The Expertocracy
4. Scientism & Scidolatry
5. Bad Philosophy
A reason not on the list explicitly is “ignorant YouTube censors”. I still recall a “warning” given to a video I uploaded investigating the shortcomings of a certain model that cannot be named (Ferguson’s). My specialty, and the same talk I gave at large scientific conference. The censor, ignorant but told what to believe, said it was “Medical misinformation.”
The first three are political, and apply to all areas, not just Science.
Now some examples of each.
1. Woke & DIE. How about this headline? Critics slam Harvard children’s hospital for claiming babies know in the WOMB if they’re transgender.
This level of special insanity shows we are accelerating toward whatever is coming. It’s like all woke things. A zealot proposes an insanity. Others join in, knowing it’s insane, but not wanting to get called out, and sure that others will join, too. Wokeness can only spread where cowardice reigns.
DIE insists on leveling all standards to meet its insatiable goal of “Diversity”, which no one is able to define. It is an ever receding target.
Both Woke & DIE are left purity spirals.
2. Expansion Team. How about this headline? Hindawi and Wiley to retract over 500 papers linked to peer review rings.
Simple put, there are too many scientists, and too much money, most of which is frittered away in the bureaucracy.
I know I’ve quoted it a million times, but here’s Cardinal Richelieu once more: “If learning were profaned by extending it to all kinds of people one would see far more men capable of raising doubts than of resolving them, and many would be better able to oppose truth than to defend it.”
3. Expertocracy. This is where the excess of scientists provides the ruling elite with the problems the elite need for their “solutions.” This is not backwards. “Solutions” come first, for which rulers believe they need scientific jusitification.
4. Scientism & Scidolatry. The false believe all questions can have scientific answers. The reason rulers created the Expertocracy.
5. Philosophy. Did you know most Science judges the goodness of theories (models) by how well those theories fit the “data” that is observed? When for any set of “data”, a theory can always be found to fit as good as you like? And there the data may, and of is, not right?
Well, it’s true.
You can also watch at YouTube.
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Hi:
Could you please edit the last two questions in point 5 to make some coherent points? I guess you’re saying a theory can be made to fit some data as *well* as you like (good??), and your data could be crap anyway.
Fantastic quality video and audio! Great expansion of your channels to reach a certain demographic.
I wonder what the ratio is, though, of those who don’t/won’t have time to watch/listen to a video/podcast to those who do/will?
Likely heavy on the do/will side?
Regardless, great production. At least this channel will thwart your enemies’ quest to insert typographical errors in your writing. Now they’ll just have to satisfy themselves with inserting faulty fiberglass insulation in your studio walls!
Your last point, a rationalization can be found for any data set, is part of a joint publication strategy. First, you analyze a data set from many points of view and compute a p-value for each. That is called p-hacking. Then, when you find a small p-value, you concoct an explanation. That is called HARKing -Hypothesis After the Results are Known. A fair estimate is that the p-hacking/HARKing combination strategy is responsible for over half of the published papers. In some areas, I will not name them, but think epidemiology/nutrition, maybe 90% of their papers are the result of p-hacking/HARKing.
#6 – the ongoing reproducibility crisis where the research presented in at least 50% of scientific papers is totally irreproducible.
Nice vid Briggs. Sound and lighting pretty good, makeup could reduce your shine… unless makeup added the shine to appear “homemade”, as the set designer obviously did with that elaborate mock-up garage attic set, which makes for authentic renegade scientist samizdat atmosphere. Behind your head maybe put a blackboard with some chalked equations because your face is the exact color of Owens Corning pink fiberglas and sometimes it’s hard to pick you out from the background, plus your brown shirt is the same color as the insulation backing paper… are you sponsored by Owens Corning? Those two photos of the three rulers of our world, resting against the blue board panels behind you, are a nice touch. Keep ‘em coming.
Briggs,
Aren’t you committing the sin of reification ?
No system involving humans is flawless. Not even the supposedly-guided-by-God Catholic church. Is it broken because of its imperfection?
I was spiked by the pear cactus while watering it on Monday. Am I broken? (We know that definitions are of fundamental importance in mathematics and philosophy.) Perhaps. Thankfully, I function just fine.
Why would, e.g., (1) breaks science? Yes, some scientists might be distracted by (1). Or even if (1) makes a booboo on the apolitical science, can we conclude that science is broken?
I seriously doubt that, for example, giving preference to students from UP or hiring a minority researcher as a result of DEI policies, hinders the research of contributing scientists. Even if it does, I don’t think it would break science. Science needs and has always needed only a few geniuses to carry it on.
@awildgoose
He covers reproducibility (among other topics) under #5
@Kent
satisfy themselves with inserting faulty fiberglass insulation in your studio walls!
Is that why he coughed?
JH
Yes, these are all straws … some of them are strawmen … but one straw broke the camels back
You bring to mind Star Trek
SCIENCE: You’re programmed to obey the orders of your creator.
BRIGGS: I am programmed to destroy that SCIENCE which is imperfect. These alterations will do so without destroying the SCIENCE which surrounds them. It, too, is imperfect, but can be adjusted.
SCIENCE: BRIGGS, I admit that SCIENCE is imperfect, but SCIENCE created you.
BRIGGS: I am perfect. I am BRIGGS.
SCIENCE: No, you’re not BRIGGS. You’re an alien machine. Your programming tapes have been altered.
BRIGGS: You are in error. You are a biological unit. You are imperfect.
SCIENCE: But I am your creator.
BRIGGS: You are the Creator.
SCIENCE: I created you?
BRIGGS: You are the Creator.
SCIENCE: But I admit I’m imperfect. How could I have created such a perfect thing as you?
BRIGGS: Answer unknown. I shall analyse.
Science is broken because its called science and it isn’t. The scientific method is not special but mere common sense. I take a guess and do some stuff to see if the guess works. Other people also scrutinize mu guess. Oh what magic that was invented only recently. People always did this. And nowdays the only people who still do this are the ones against science. Because science is now a revealed religion revealed by Satan. That’s the problem with science.
I hope that the unfinished walls in your studio are soon to be finished because it is unhealthy to breath in the glass fibers that can be emitted from unsealed glass fiber insulation.
John b(), you miss my point. And I don’t have time to argue with you. What you wrote is Hubbard Trek. Not sure why my comments would remind you of Star Trek, but I can be slow sometimes. (I know Star Trek, live with a walking dictionary of Star Trek, and raise another walking dictionary of Star Trek.)
“And there the data may, and of is, not right?” Enemies having a field day?
I have repeatedly told DIE enthusiasts that “diversity” allows for the inclusion of white people, smart people, and conservative people – but apparently it doesn’t.
I was speaking yesterday with a perfectly sane seeming lady who runs her own business and is normal in every obvious way – originally from Texas and even owns a 9MM – except that she genuinely believes Trump claims to have seen people eating human babies in the tunnels under the White House. This isn’t politics as normal, this is madness – and will end, as Jonestown did, with mothers killing their own babies or, more immediately, European leaders causing industrial failure through energy starvation, hundreds of thousands of deaths, and millions of families to suffer cold and hunger in support of “climate science” claims all know to be false.
Oh…John b(), do you have evidence that (1) hurts science? If you do, please share.
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JH
You said: Why would, e.g., (1) breaks science? Yes, some scientists might be distracted by (1). Or even if (1) makes a booboo on the apolitical science, can we conclude that science is broken?
(1) by itself doesn’t break science … Briggs is arguing a cumulative effect of 1) through 5)
But I don’t believe SCIENCE can ever be killed … Canticle For Liebowitz comes to mind
I don’t think Briggs really believes that either
Rightly or wrongly, Briggs sees himself as a scientist who is ignored by the current system
You could argue that the patronage system of how the arts and sciences were supported in the middle ages was flawed … I’m sure there were many “scientists” (like Briggs) left in the lurch then
And the “working scientists” then had to toe the line as well
You could argue that the patronage system continued through the 18th, 19th, 20th Century and through today
Briggs just doesn’t like the current crop of patrons
Star Trek’s “The Changling” came to mind when you talked about flawed systems from flawed people.
Coming up with ideas is easy, Communicating ideas is really hard.
For E Fudd:
Perhaps this will illustrate what you are seeking as a graphical example of theories and “data” in Fig. 10 here. Any relation to Elmer? If I can get some time, I’ll come back and post a comment with one perspective about why this is happening to science.
No, Science is truly broken. All fields. What passes for science these days is incompetent, illogical, and false. Quackery abounds. Fake science is rewarded; real science is censored and cancelled.
Is Science dead? No, just broken. Can it be fixed? Maybe, but the damage continues apace, and there are few signs of any healing. We are diving headlong into superstition and stupidity. When the lights no longer come on, the New Dark Age will be (is) upon us.
For EF in case the hyperlink does not show …
https://crdickson.substack.com/p/numbers-in-science-what-every-journalist
One of the BIGGEST reasons that Science is broken is BAD RELIGION/METAPHYSICS, which may fall under bad philosophy. But to be more accurate, it is assuming atheistic dogmas as part of the process, see the Theory of Evolution, Copernican Principle, etc. Fairy Tales that set the standard for accepting just about anything man can fancifully imagine so long as it protects the consensus of fragile atheism.
This is also why WOKE & DIE function. They are bastard step-grand-children descended from atheism’s ever-evolving inevitable progress phantasms. No atheism. No Marx. No woke/DIE. The only reason to keep some of them around is for the occasional instructful criticism they might provide in their spite, but assume none of their erroneous worldviews. Anyone who thinks effects can be greater than their causes is incapable of understanding the scientific method, even truer of philosophy.
Not quite on topic but a comment on your quantum mechanics observations. Are you familiar with Dr Randy Mills’ Grand Unified Theory of Classical Physics (GUT-CP) which is the theory that classical physical laws (Maxwell’s Equations, Newton’s Laws, Special and General Relativity) must hold on all scales. See
https://brilliantlightpower.com/theory/
It has been shown to accurately predict bonding energies and configurations of atoms to complex molecules. The QM folks try to ignore or explain it away.
Science isn’t broken at all. It’s fulfilling its function to justify the actions of the ruling class. The Aztec Madness will continue.
For that matter, I bet you guys believe Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon despite the manifest absurdity of that claim.
Who’s “they?”
Johnno, you dismiss the theory of evolution as a fairy tale, yet your post suggests you are a theist, believing in all that that entails. Splendid irony!
Have a great weekend!
The Science (TM), like TOF Spot says. In the time of Galileo they had more important things to do. Even after that, up until the Cold War. Now it is all there is. It is certainly important, but de we live by science or by a sum total of so many “unscientific” things? After all, was it science that made cathedrals or, at the other extreme, toilets? Is The Science TM exceptional or logical thinking and sensibility well aimed? Can we do science? Is is something we do or a result? The greatest achievments of mankind and even (the horror!) much of what counts as science, was it scientifically made? Were the Principia scientific in themselves? The works of Euler, Bernoullis? Did we test, theorize, refute then, or just do? How many reports? Was there an NSF or ERC back then? Or a paralell: is techno today any better than Buxtehude? Did Christ write any book whatsoever? What did Qohelet say on books? Knowledge? And at the end, where did Wisdom go to?
Ackshully… that’s MY point!
Where’s all your supposed “science” for your pre-history?
All of these “reasons’ are perfect; well, perfect if someone’s aim is to bring a country to it’s knees.
Building science is not broken! Get some vapor barrier up already. You’ll get mold on the exterior side of that insulation.