The Religion of Science

 I see news sites such as CNN or BBC or NPR quoting politicians urging people to "trust the science" or "believe the science" or "scientists" or "scientific studies say", signaling that by the invocation of the term "science", what follows is something that contains truth, has gravitas, is significant or important.  On the other hand, I also see "science" invoked by purveyors of chemicals and machines which have been "scientifically" shown or proven to produce some claimed result, or that claimed results have been supported by or shown in "scientific studies". 

As a result, perhaps we shouldn't be too surprised that people are currently poisoning themselves with Ivermectin.  "Science" is a kind of Good Housekeeping Seal Of Approval for things-that-are-really-complicated-to-understand.

Before the pandemic, the status of science or its public image was abstract.  By this I mean that when something that people in the scientific community announced a discovery or development, it was usually treated as entertainment or something that will make life better for everyone though we actually haven't built it yet.  Sometimes people will get upset, like with GMOs or evolution, but usually people say "how interesting" and move on to the next interesting or important thing.

 

Initially inspired by "US COVID origins report_ researchers pleased with scientific approach" see F:\..\_Downloads

The need for clear science communication.

The need for everyone to have a clear understanding of the assumptions being made when something is stated under the rubric of science.

The fundamental values of science.

The role of uncertainty in science.

Scientists are people too, they make mistakes ... but they are more likely to admit them, most times; or be caught.

Conservationist Matthew Miller argues that the terms ‘trash fish’ or ‘rough fish’ — as opposed to ‘game fish’ — are unscientific and contribute to the overfishing of native species. [Nature Briefing]

Conformity

 Why is it that some people insist that everybody else be like them?

The War on Trepidation

 "Terror"

1 : a state of intense or overwhelming fear overcome by terror people fleeing the scene in terror He lived in terror of being caught. ...  Merriam-Webster

Early in the so-called "War on Terror", it was pointed out that "the terrorists had won" because everything we did to fight "terror" only made us more terrified.  The more we fought terror, the more we felt that these terrible things were going to happen to us, personally, specifically, me, real soon.  The War on Terror made us terrified, and we tried to allay that fear by killing or "neutralizing" anything or anyone who made us afraid.

Like a fear of spiders or snakes or sharks, the fear does not go away simply by killing one of them; there are always more.  The only way we might stop fearing these creatures is by making them extinct -- we no longer fear the tyrannosaurus rex because it is extinct.

The problem with "The War on Terror" is that the terror we are warring on is us; and so the only way to end that war is by making us extinct.

... unless we can come up with another way to deal with our "intense and overwhelming fear" of each other.

Pandemic Blame

 If the best prepared nation in the world to deal with a pandemic, which is also the wealthiest nation in the world, which is one of the most technically advanced in the world, which is also the most powerful military in the world, but has one of the worst outcomes in the world in dealing with the pandemic, then how that pandemic affected that nation is perhaps more that nation's fault than it is the pandemic's fault.

Some Thoughts On A Theory Of Consciousness

 We do not remember much from early childhood because we are, during that period, not fully conscious:  We are not able to encode our awareness and enter that code into memory.

As we age, the world of our perceptions begins to differentiate itself, things become distinct.  A green blob becomes a tree, which becomes a tree with leaves and a branches, which becomes a tree with fruit, which becomes a mango tree, which becomes a Chinese mango tree.  While the reader may never have seen a Chinese mango tree, they may still have a conception of a fruit tree, though their image may have leaves of a color and shape, and fruit of a different color and shape, than a Chinese mango tree.  And that last category of a "Chinese mango tree" may be mistaken, for what is remembered and classified as a Chinese mango tree, may in fact be otherwise classified as a Perie mango tree.

Perhaps what is called "consciousness" is basically codified memory.  In other words, what is conceived of a "present experience" is actually experience or awareness that has been codified and recalled.  Something like the stars, whose light is actually years old but is perceived now.

This explains the athletic experience that reacting in a sport is usually more effective than thinking about what should be the next move.  Though, to be truly effective, reaction must first be learned, recognized, and encoded and memorized.

One of the things that make theories of the this sort unsatisfactory is that these theories seem unable to satisfactorily account for the lack of a homunculus who will experience consciousness.

Thus there is the child's experience of object permanence. 

The More You Know (Or The More You Think You Know), The More Complicated Life Gets.

 If we didn't know what a virus was.  In 1918, the life-form we call the "virus", was not something that most (or all) doctors were aware of.  And how it causes dis-ease in humans by catalyzing cells to produce chemicals that poison vital organs, among them, the lungs, sense organs and the brain.  [Is this covered in 5th or 6th grade biology?]

How do individual thoughts and actions combine and convert themselves into the news.  One person can make a difference (meme), but mostly not.  If one person seems to make a difference, what we are really seeing is the hopes and dreams of many people being summarized and expressed by that one person ... populism.,

We as a species or civilization ... collectively, know a lot of stuff.  We know about stuff smaller and more abstract than atoms, and which play a material role in out lives.  We can build drugs and create animals and almost create life.  As a civilization.  As individuals, we are pretty ignorant of the achievements of us.  Not necessarily to cast aspersions on ourselves, it is just that there is so much to know.  So much that we as a civilization know, that one person can master only a small portion of it.  

But at the same time, all of it affects our lives.  Global heating, which affects the Gulf Stream, which affects the location of fish stocks, which affects the fishing fleet's catch, which affects the price of fish in the markets, which affects the cost of a McDonalds's Fillet o'Fish, which affects the volume of sales, which affects staffing and store hours, which affects employment, which affects taxes, which ....

It's cause and effect, all the way down.

Wouldn't it be easier if we just reacted to things, like a herd of wildebeaste?

Or even that the gods, or God, did it?  To which we responded as if placating or manipulating ourselves?

The religion of Science suggests that we might be able to figure it out some day.