Otherwise sensible people refuse to vaccinate their children, exposing entire populations to the spectre of epidemic. Externally, political nominees to science-heavy policymaking positions have no problem dismissing the scientific consensus that human beings are changing Earth’s climate. The underrepresentation of women and people of color in research diminishes outcomes and builds power dynamics that allow harassment and abuse. Internal corrective measures-like the push for greater reproducibility and statistical power in fields from psychology to bioscience-have to expose weaknesses before they can rebuild strength. Much remains unknown nothing stands unknowable. There was Sagan’s faith, I think, to the extent he had any. “‘Unknown?’ Who would doubt that there are an enormous number of things that are unknown?” “Who is in a position to set limits on what we will know? ‘Unknowable’ is a deep failure of the imagination,” he said. The point, though-the big point-is that humans had the ability to do this. That struck me as profound then and it still does-the idea that belief is an action you have to commit, an action so powerful that it requires an infrastructure of truth before you turn the key.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |