The alien hypothesis?

[jbor at bigpond.com]

On 18/10/2005 Blake Stacey wrote:

> Whether or not the Bomb should have been made or, once made, dropped 
> upon Japan
> is of course a vast subject with no clear resolution.  Nevertheless, 
> it is a
> considerable part of why, as Gleick says, "physicists did not make 
> natural
> hippies."

This is a bit of a cop-out. Would you say the same about Josef Mengele? 
Or von Braun?

I don't think the claim of naivete actually exonerates "Science", or 
whether it is anything more than a grotesque over-generalisation in the 
first place. And the celebration of its symbiosis with the 
military-industrial complex is hardly warranted. These are some of the 
issues which Critical Theorists, and ethicists and academics working 
within the discipline -- and Pynchon too -- are concerned to 
investigate and challenge. "The scientific method", the notion of the 
"falsifiable hypothesis", and claims to "Objectivity" and impartiality 
are demonstrated to be little more than semantic constructs, 
smokescreens which can be and are used to justify just about anything 
-- "Hey, we'll do whatever we want and just 'un-learn facts' when we 
have to." "It's really maths, but we'll call it 'Science' anyway; 
no-one will know the difference. And if they question us we'll start 
talking about Ethiopia." "As long as the funding keeps rolling in I 
don't really care where it comes from. I just want to muck around with 
all the cool toys in the lab -- coz I've got a childlike passion and a 
zest to Know." "Gee guys, I didn't realise you were actually going to 
*use* that bomb. Oh me oh my ... but it's OK because I'm a genius." 
Gimme a break.

best