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 86: The Aim of Science
Ep 85: ToKCast Do Explain Part 2
Ep 84: David Deutsch answers a question about the nature of the laws of physics (a question for David: 7).
Ep 83: "The Science of Information" (Chiara Marletto's "The Science of Can & Can't" (Pt 2: Readings & more)
Ep 82: David Deutsch answers a question about Gödel and undecidability. (A question for David number 6).
Ep 81: "The Science of Information" (Chiara Marletto's "The Science of Can & Can't" (A prelude to Ch 3)
Ep 80: David Deutsch's "The Fabric of Reality" Chapter 2 “Shadows”
Ep 79: David Deutsch answers a question about our environment. A question for David 5.
Ep 78: ToKCast's "Do Explain" Part 1
Ep 77: David Deutsch's "The Fabric of Reality" Chapter 1 "The Theory of Everything" Part 3
Ep 76: David Deutsch and Tyler Cowen: Reaction
Ep 75: It's not scientific and it's not American
Ep 74: Chiara Marletto's "The Science of Can and Can't" Episode 3
Ep 73: David Deutsch on "Truth". A question for David 4.
Ep 72: David Deutsch comments on recent UFO sighting (The "Tictac" issue). A question for David 3.
Ep 71: David Deutsch explains "explanations" further. (A "question for David" 2)
Ep 70: A question for David 1
Ep 69: "The Beginning" Part 4. The Final episode.
Ep 68: Crypto Comments
Ep 67:"The Fabric of Reality" episode 2.
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