The ugly truth of science

[David Morris]

Stubborn polemics do tend to veer into Michele Bachman like diatribes.

On Saturday, June 15, 2013, JZ Stafura wrote:

> Hi all,
>
>   Been a lurker on this list for a long time, haven't felt like I've had
> the time to contribute to the list, given the fine minds here. While I've
> enjoyed the discussions, debates, and thoughts for years now, the latest
> anti-science talk sounds more like a Michelle Bachman speech than the
> intelligence I'm used to on this list. As a junior scientist (who just must
> be bought and sold by the powers that be - those evil folks who want to
> find ways to help children with language impairments through
> non-pharmacological instructional techniques - gasp!), the level of
> discourse on science here has been depressing, small-minded, and reveals
> how little my 'kind' are thought of here. Yes, scientists are aware of the
> dangers of science, most of them are like me, curious and amazed at the
> world around us - and not stupid enough to take money to study things just
> because the money is there. It sounds like everyone on this list has there
> mind made up, but what if scientist lumped all literature students in the
> same pile (I also have a lit degree) - we could say something like lit
> theory has offered nothing new for over 50 years, which is why the programs
> are drying up - it isn't the worlds fault, it's yours. I don't believe this
> at all, but it is as accurate a description of humanities as the
> descriptions of science have been on this list over the last month or so.
>
> Take it or leave it, I don't mind, and I'll always enjoy reading what the
> brilliant folks on this list have to say.
>
> Joe
>
> Joseph Z. Stafura
> U. Pitt
> iPhone (apologies for the brevity and mistakes)
>
> On Jun 15, 2013, at 11:16 AM, alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Look into a Astro-Biology textbook, or into an Astronomy Webpage, and
> you will see beautiful artwork. Artistic simulations of what the data from
> distant space probes fed into computers is adding up to. With the space
> probe, the computer, we can build entire worlds, above and beyond the
> confining fact of nature, and these built worlds are nothing next to the
> transformation wrought by science and technology, which has extended our
> bodies to manipulate and change the world to fulfill its very own, often
> evil and cruel plans for it and its unwitting inhabitants. Much as
> Science/Technic claims to educate and warn, Science and Technology has
> shown how to destroy before we understand. In P we have several
> unmistakable examples. We have the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
> This, of course, is the Science/technology destruction that continues, even
> after we exit the Theatre/Theater to hover above our heads in equations we
> can't understand, but in common sense parlance, it's the fucking bomb, and
> Science and Technology is only a hindrance to our grasping the
> sphincter-tightening reality.   Science/Technology has altered what is to
> be a human by giving the species the capacity to totally denude our Earth
> with war that escalates to madness and chaos. Remember WWII? madness.
> Chaos. GR is a reminder and a warning. Isn't it? Even if the anti-bomb folk
> are now pro-bomb for everyone folk, even Iran and N Korea have a right to
> the bomb, no? Even if the MAD men are now Peace Men who want to prevent
> proliferation while maintaining a huge advantage, even if the threat keeps
> the peace or whatever...we have been transformed by the bomb.
> >
> > McCarthy does delve into this, BYW. _The Road_ is set after some kind of
> holocaust that burns the Earth to a crisp.
> >
> >  In any event, the Earth, the Planet Earth no longer seems a home that
> we can live on forever. Science played god, and so we poor preterit must
> accept a home, a garden that is not eternal, but has an end to it.
> >
> > The Second Coming of Science-Technic is Modernity without Restraint.
> >
> >
> > But don't worry poor fellow, Science-Technology will make you immortal,
> ship your frozen head to a new planet or to a space station. The
> limitations of Science and Technology, once we see that it has extended our
> capacity to Destroy Earth and holds out space stations and frozen heads as
> compensation, are clear enough to a common thinker who reads and thinks,
> and who knows it's OK to be a reader and thinker even if this opens one to
> accusations of Luddism.
> >
> > Science and Technology is , of course, valuable. We are not going to
> abandon it. But we need to understand how Science-Technology has altered
> the Earth to make it yield more to satisfy immediate wants, and in the
> process has destroyed its beauty, what took Earth with no plan at all,
> billions of years to create, Science-Technology has destroyed in a few
> thousand years. But not to worry, Science-Technology has photographs and
> beauty too. The pink sky over the industrial motherboard is sublime!
> >
> > Extreme examples? Yes. But there they are. The Bomb. Man-made global
> warning or whatever term you prefer.
> > Extreme examples made weak arguments. But consider how powerful they
> are. A Paradox is useful. Contradictions are often powerful. Common sense
> is often more powerful than logic. A Carpenter is often more important than
> an Astro-Biologist.
> >
> > So how close to the bleeding edge do we need to go? Do we need to force
> our Scientists to pull a trigger and blow a child's head off? Would that
> bleed into his/her mind deep enough and disturb the comfort he/she takes in
> mouse-clicking a village to dust? Do we need to strap a Scientist to a
> Drone so he/she can see what he/she has done? Are mediated Deaths an orgasm
> in the chamber of the white visitation?
> >
> > The specifics are not  important. Technology and Science now destroy
> much of the beauty in the world that we don't yet  understand. It then sets
> its own beauty before us. Science-Technology is obviously misguided. The
> German Sickness is an epidemic in its fields.
> >
> >
> > More dangerous is the fact that the Prince must always keep his Military
> Industrial Complex on the Bleeding Edge.
> >
> > Will Obama move drones into Syria? He has Patriots in Turkey.
> >
> > What are we poor subject to do? Is it OK to read like a Luddite?
> >
> > For among other evils which being unarmed brings you, it causes you to
> be despised, and this is one of those ignominies against which a prince
> ought to guard himself, as is shown later on. Because there is nothing
> proportionate between the armed and the unarmed; and it is not reasonable
> that he who is armed should yield obedience willingly to
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