Is there any hope for ....

DonkeyScabs · 25th January 2011, 01:43 PM

..... a civilisation which loses the ability to believe in Science/Scientists as a way forward?

I was watching Horizon last night, and it seemed to be saying that Science had lost it's link with ordinary folk, and they'd rather believe Internet skeptics than professional people.

What is the future without respect for Science?

WheyHey · 25th January 2011, 01:45 PM

MMmmm! See your point. If we all sherked science and technology we would slip into some sort of backward society. Sort of like the Amish or Ferryhill.

SproutMackem · 25th January 2011, 01:45 PM

The people who believe internet skeptics are irrelevant.

sonson · 25th January 2011, 01:56 PM

What the majority of people think in society hasn't mattered. History is for the most part the story of small elite groups who have the power to change things doing as they deem fit and using nepotism as a form of preserving this. Not much has changed. I wouldn't worry.

Arkle · 25th January 2011, 01:56 PM

I enjoyed last night's Horizon. Being a science greedminds, I can happily say that I've met Paul Nurse on a couple of occasions. Nice bloke!

Anyway, three issues highlighted

1) Scientists aren't the best at communicating well or, especially, at judging the scientific knowledge of the public.

2) People with vested interests (in particular those with widely read media outlets at their disposal) can easily subvert things. This doesn't apply just to science, of course.

3) Crackpots can muddy the water, especially now that we have the internet. That fella who claimed there was no relationship between HIV and AIDS scared me slightly.

DonkeyScabs · 25th January 2011, 02:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SproutMackem

The people who believe internet skeptics are irrelevant.

Are they though? There seems to be a huge grounswell of opinion against science ATM. From global warming to GM crops, no matter how much evidence is piled up, folk refuse to believe scientists. So, what is the future without science?

Dinsdale · 25th January 2011, 02:09 PM

Fully behind Arkle's point #2

I'm a bit cynical and the only science I read about is through the press or TV, but it does seem there are a lot of rent-a-quote scientists that have been sponsored/paid to voice their opinions.

zwartekat · 25th January 2011, 02:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DonkeyScabs

Are they though? There seems to be a huge grounswell of opinion against science ATM. From global warming to GM crops, no matter how much evidence is piled up, folk refuse to believe scientists. So, what is the future without science?

Seems to be a communication problem and some scientific issues have scientists opposing each other. I'm not a scientist so if one is a charlatan I don't really know who to believe.

DonkeyScabs · 25th January 2011, 02:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WheyHey

Sort of like the Amish or Ferryhill.

Kernt !

Daydream Believer · 25th January 2011, 03:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arkle

2) People with vested interests (in particular those with widely read media outlets at their disposal) can easily subvert things.

This

Most people assume that all politicians lie the majority of the time & as most of what people hear about things such as climate change comes from politicians rather than scientists they naturally assume thats a lie as well.