Tuesday 1 September 2015

Isaac Newton Left Shaking His Head

Latter Day Step Children

One of the negative conditions under which modern scientists labour is "groupthink".  To be fair, it has always been the case that consensus science, which is sometimes referred to as the ruling paradigm, substantially controls the contemporary settled scientific views of the day.  [See Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1962,1970)].

However, the power and control of the ruling consensus varies over time.  There is evidence that at present the power of groupthink in science is waxing, rather than waning.  On the other hand, it is precisely when the reigning paradigm begins to crack and falter that the establishment's opposition to challenges becomes both frenetic and febrile. And it certainly has at the moment. So, it is possible the frenetic character of attacks upon the non-consensus view betray the insecurity of the establishment.

We have just had a small indication of this in New Zealand.  NIWA--a government run and funded science agency--representing "official science"-- announced that it will no longer fund its employees' membership subs to an independent association of scientists called The New Zealand Association of Scientists. (NZAS)
NIWA is refusing to pay membership fees for its staff to belong to the Association of Scientists, saying the group actively lobbies against science and the integrity of scientists.  The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research notified its staff of the policy change this month. [Radio NZ]
Re-read the quoted paragraph.
  Evidence of more than a turf fight is at hand.  NIWA is charging that the NZAS "actively lobbies against science".  Scientists lobbying against science.  This is a charge tantamount to claiming that the NZAS represents a bunch of junk-scientists or voodoo dolls. Worse. The NZAS actively lobbies against science--by which NIWA implies, of course, that the science of NIWA or its staff have been challenged in some way or other.
In response to the Royal Society's proposed code of public engagement, the Association of Scientists conducted a survey last year which found some scientists, including government agency staff, have felt gagged.
Scientists being silenced.  Apparently some of the members of the NZ Association of Science have felt they have been subject to political pressure not speak up, not to challenge "settled science".  But NIWA is not impressed.  The "survey" conducted by NZAS was not "scientific", a perverse response which also speaks volumes.  One would have thought that if just one scientist in the country claimed that he was being gagged, all scientists worthy of the name, even those who strongly disagreed with his work, would stand with his right to argue and present evidence.  It's got something to do with free speech, has it not?  But NIWA appears to be so far down the gagging path that the best it can do is claim that the survey conducted by NZAS amongst its members was "not scientific", therefore the "pressure to keep quiet" some NZAS members have experienced should be ignored.  It's a form of ad hominem attack, of shooting the messenger.  It's the refuge of the unscrupulous.
In an internal email sent to staff this month, NIWA's executive said that (NZAS) survey had no scientific credibility and needed to be challenged, because it could cast doubt on the integrity of the science profession in New Zealand.  It said it was not only a threat to NIWA's good name, but also to the personal reputation of its scientists.
The NIWA executive, by this response, has inadvertently testified to the verisimilitude of those scientists who report that they have felt gagged.  Apparently NIWA executives feel the ground moving under them.  It's called a paradigm shift.  And they are tempestuously striking back.  "No, we will not pay your subs to that anti-science NZ Association of Science.  Science is what we say it is.  So there."

And that, dear folks, is where "consensus science" inevitably leads over time.  Sir Isaac Newton would have never recognised his latter-day step children.




Postscript:

For the record, here is what the NZ Association of Scientists says is its reason for existence:

The New Zealand Association of Scientists is a genuinely independent association of scientists who work and lobby to:
  • promote science in New Zealand,
  • increase public awareness of science and expose pseudo-science,
  • debate and influence government science policy,
  • improve working conditions for scientists, including gender and ethnic equality,
  • promote free exchange of knowledge and international co-operation,
  • and encourage excellence in science. 
So, either the entire membership of the NZAS is nothing more than a gaggle of snakeoilers, or NIWA is feeling the heat.


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