Tuesday
Jan102012
by 
Josh
Josh Big science - Josh 138
Jan 10, 2012 Josh 
See Judith Curry's great post about what looks like an interesting new book by David Weinberger Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren’t the Facts, Experts are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room is the Room.
Feels like familiar territory.
Reader Comments (6)
Well, you just have to make up your own facts. To take a couple of examples in the UK news today, HighSpeed trains and Scottish Independence. Two or more sides to each issue, and the sides put out claims which just cannot be reconciled. HS2 will repay its investment in intangibles, or it can't. Scots are heavily subsidised, or are they in fact supporting England. Every claim rapidly rebutted. Every paper 'debunked' (I'm beginning to see that word as a BS flag in itself). You will find the same thing going on in energy planning, or climate of course. Liars lying, knowing they are lying, to fool the public and work their way to the pile of cash. Trust no-one.
It is a very old saying: "Believe nothing of what you are told and half of what you see and you will be well informed."
Nothing new here. Good cartoon, Josh.
HighSpeed trains could be covered by Air Travel for a lot less money but you would have to drop the flight taxes and admit CO2 is a gas and not a pollutant.
And the Scottish Independence is not on offer, the choice is rule With Westminster or ruled By Brussels.
Well, Shakespeare had it down pretty well. Malvolio is humourless, serious, and detests human sin, but is fatally gullible. Sir Toby Belch is the precise opposite. We vote for, are governed by, preached at and tormented by one or the other, guess which.
quote from the book description "...and the government are learning to use networked knowledge to understand more than ever and to make smarter decisions... "
It sounds plausible, but I'm betting the English and Australians would disagree at this point. The rest of Europe seem to be lost and bewildered too. The Canadians seem to be getting it. (I'm refering to the governments only).
Don,
Those are words I take to heart.
One thing I've noticed in reading climate sites is the amount of debate by people I believe to be very highly educated (i.e. PhD's) on not only complex subject matter, but that which one might think is basic. One that comes immediately to mind occured over on WUWT on the topic of "ocean acidification" (not my term). There ended up with a very interested discussion and disagreement on the behavior of Calcium Carbonate in a solution. It is facinating to watch.