Re: From Knowledge Animals to Information Beings
DON MIKULECKY (MIKULECKY@VCUVAX.BITNET)
Sat, 17 Jun 1995 08:18:52 -0400
Don Mikulecky, MCV/VCU, Mikulecky@gems.vcu.edu
Reply to Gary Boyd's June 1 question on governments attitudes to science
and funding etc.
Gary, My friend James Kay who is at U. Waterloo sent a long message
complaining about recent trends in funding, etc. We won a temporary
stay in our Senate, but the execution seems to still be pending.
Your comment seems especially pertinent in this respect. We (Jeff
Prideaux and I) just had a lot of neat discourse with scientists
in Europe. One theme seems to be clearly identifiable. When
discussion moved into realms like the interaction with our respective
governments, the conversation seemed totally unrealistic. It remained
in a tone which reflects an attitude which has us in the role of
objective, detached observers giving super rational reasons why it
is unreasonable to suddenly stop supporting us. My guess is that this
is a contributing factor to our vulnerability...We are not using our
knowlegdge of systems intelligently when it comes to our own system.
We need to address questions like these:
1) Does science shape government or does government shape science?
2) Why have we suddenly become expendable?
3) Do our models of how ideas change have any degree of realism.
4) Is science value free or to we hide our ideology very well?
5) Is the present set of trends simply a "chickens coming home to roost"
phenomenon? Should we have been able to predict it? Have we anything
close to a realistic model of what is going on?
I think we can only loose big if we pertend we are above using our
tools to work on these crucial issues. Thanks for asking Gary!
Best wishes, Don Mikulecky