In this episode I respond to an article in the Science Journal “Nature”. Here is the link: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04412-x
Nature is among the highest tier of journals in the world - highly respected and the place every scientist would love to have their work published at some point in their career. Nature has editorials as well as journal articles and they have effectively a letters to the editor section and commentary. Nonetheless, although this article is labelled as “comment” it has 8 authors all claiming expertise in disciplines from environmental science through to ecological economics and sociology. I refute the article paragraph by paragraph and point by point providing analysis, opinion and reflections. This is a clash of worldviews: that of decline and degrowth and pro-environment and that of progress, growth and pro-people. This was something of a “straw that breaks the camel’s back” moment. Just as around the world many people are struggling to pay energy bills and governments persist in implementing policies that will only see the cost of living due to energy policy increase further while the overall wealth of households decreases, Nature sees fit to publish a defence of strong-socialism. This piece refers to “science” and yet it is not science. It is not even economics. It is an ideology screed. And a screed of this kind needs to be answered because, as I conclude - this is dangerous. This is literally life, livelihood and liberty threatening. The brakes are presently on the economies of the world because of the misconception that rapid progress and growth are a bad thing. That population increase is a bad thing. That cheap reliable energy is a bad thing and the prescription for this is to coerce people into using forms of energy that are not yet shown to have worked reliably anywhere (in other words entirely untested in even one place before being mandated on all places) and in many places simply not available yet, while coal and fossil fuel supplies are decommissioned too early. This is a threat to nation states and to the globe. This is my defence of humanity against anti-rational memes, prosaic “bad ideas” and stasis.
Enjoy! :)
Ep 146: Mindless
Ep 145: Minds
Ep 144: Monarchy
Ep 143: Metaphysics
Ep 142: Multiverses
Ep 141: The Mathematicians’ Misconception
Ep 140: Mathematics
Ep 139: Misconceptions
Ep 138: Things that make you go mmmmm? Part 5: Minds II - Part the Second
Ep 137: Things that make you go mmmmm? Part 4: Minds - Part the First
Ep 136: Things that make you go mmmmm? Part 3: Multiverses
Ep 135: Lookouts
Ep 134: Things that make you go mmmmm? Part 2: Mathematics
Ep 133: Things that make you go mmmmmm? Part 1: Many Misconceptions
Ep 132: David Deutsch’s ”The Fabric of Reality” Chapter 7 ”A Conversation about Justification”. Part 2
Ep 131:Corroboration? Excerpts and Analysis of Popper’s ”Realism & The Aim of Science”.
Ep 130: Steven Pinker’s ”Rationality” Ch 6 ”Risk and Reward” (Rational Choice & Expected Utility). Analysis.
Ep 129: David Deutsch’s ”The Fabric of Reality” Chapter 7 ”A Conversation about Justification”.
Ep 128: Steven Pinker’s ”Rationality” Chapter 5 ”Beliefs & Evidence (Bayesian Reasoning” Remarks & Analysis
Ep 127: The End of Global Order (A response).
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Modern West
강유원의 책담화冊談話
The Art of Manliness
Dear Hank & John
The Gray Area with Sean Illing
Alan Watts Being in the Way