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DANCING_AT_THE_SCIENCE_SOCIAL

                                       January 29, 2003   

   
One thing I keep thinking (about             
Wilson's "Consilience" and the                CONSILIENCE_PRIZE
"Science Wars" aspect of it)... 
                
If you played fair, wouldn't you
discuss the social underpinnings
to the scientific process?

The pomo doctrine that scientific theories 
are no better than fictions is clearly pretty 
weak, but if you really look at the scientific 
edifice, you get into issues like:

   o   collaboration and trust  
                                                              
   o   imagination, elegance vs. 
       mathematic rigor and measurement                                                       
                              
   o   risks of corruption from 
       economics or egocentricism  
                                                              
   o   checks on that corruption 
       robust or fragile? 

Isn't it at least possible that the
current social structures we use for
doing science aren't optimal?

What possible improvements
might there be?


  (Myself, I sometimes wonder if the
   collaboration of volunteers over
   the internet might possibly bring
   back an era where the amateur can
   make real contributions.)


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