Tag: science

Leave the Earth Behind: Separatist Scientists

This is a rather angry piece I wrote for my other blog (now dormant again) a few weeks back.

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I’m getting a little sick of science denialists. The people who – either through sheer bonkersness or for personal profit – reject established scientific orthodoxy on all manner of things: vaccination, global warming, AIDS, evolution, homeopathy. I’m all for scepticism, but beyond a certain point if you haven’t accepted the weight of evidence, you are simply not a rational person worth debating with. Unfortunately the anti-science movement seems to be gathering pace rather than diminishing. Even though support for organised religion seems to be waning, its influence doesn’t appear to be following suit, and the raft of alternative ‘spiritual’ belief systems is more than filling any gap.

For me this is potentially the start of an evolutionary split in humanity. I’m going to have to be careful not to stray into the realms of some form of supremacist theory here, and I realise as I’m writing that I risk being deeply offensive. But this blog was always meant to be about opinions and debate (not the car build blog it has been so far).

Lack of investment notwithstanding, we’re not that far from making space travel more practical than experimental. With our scientific knowledge even at current levels, settling other worlds is not an absurd prospect. So at some point in the future, if there remains this schism between the scientific and the anti-science, could we perhaps split our society over two worlds?

I’d obviously rather work to bring the rest of society along with us, but sometimes my frustration at the nonsense given credence by certain sections of the public (and the media), does make me want to jump in a rocket ship and start afresh on another world.

We’re not big or clever

Just been listening to the Guardian Science Weekly, one of an increasing number of podcasts that have started to take over my free listening hours (alongside In Our Time, Collins & Herring (not for the easily offended), and Adam & Joe). The guest was Christopher Potter, publisher of numerous popular science books and now author of ‘You Are Here: A Portable History of the Universe’.

I’ve not read the book yet but the discussion around it was fascinating. Potter talked about examining the known universe from the tiny to the enormous; from the sub-atomic to the galactic. It got me, and the podcast panel, thinking about how little we consider our position in the universe on these scales while we go about our everyday lives.

It could be a recipe for depression, considering how insignificant our lives are on an intergalactic scale. Or it could be a source of inspiration, recognising how much remains to be explored and learned.

Personally, I prefer the latter option.

Increasing the UK’s crunch immunity

Why are we so susceptible to the effects of a ‘credit crunch’? Why should a loss of access to borrowing have such a devastating effect? It seems the modern economy is fueled not by wealth earned but by cash borrowed.

There seems to me to be a parallel with our reliance on fossil fuels. Both approaches leave us borrowing from the future and both have a finite limit. Having seen what happens when we reach a form of finite borrowing limit – a limit defined more by confidence than cash – should we not be looking at what will happen when we run out of oil?

The Liberal Democrats propose to tackle both problems at the same time
. Rather than spend £12.5bn on cutting VAT, they would spend that money on insulating schools, homes and hospitals, building new zero-carbon homes, and expanding and improving the rail network. This would create jobs in the short term, and reduce people’s (and the government’s) energy and travel costs in the long term, making us more immune to future financial challenges. It would also leave us with a long-term green legacy that would benefit the country for years to come.

This is not a political blog and I don’t intend it to become one, but I find it hard to argue with the merits of this suggestion.

[Note that this article came originally from Book of the Future. This blog is very much a political animal, amongst other things]