FOR THOSE op Engel
ëch, WHO CAN STILL READ...
Zombie-Science
When a branch of science
based on incoherent, false or phoney theories is serving a useful but non-scientific
purpose it may be kept-going by continuous transfusions of cash from those
whose non-scientific interests it serves.
For example, if a
branch of pseudo-science based on a phoney theory is nonetheless valuable
for political purposes (e.g. to justify a government intervention such
as a new tax) or for marketing purposes (to provide the rationale for a
marketing campaign) then real science expires and a ‘zombie science’ evolves.
Zombie science is
science that is dead but will not lie down. It keeps twitching and lumbering
around so that (from a distance, and with your eyes half-closed) zombie
science looks much like real science.
But in fact the zombie
has no life of its own; it is animated and moved only by the incessant
pumping of funds.
*
Real science is coherent
– and testable (testing being a matter of checking coherence with the result
of past and future observations).
Real science finds
its use, and gets its validation, from common sense evaluation and being
deployed in technology.
Real science is validated
(contingently) insofar as it leads to precise predictions that later come
true; and leads to new ways of solving pressing problems and making useful
changes in the world.
But zombie science
is not coherent, therefore cannot be tested; its predications are vague
or in fact retrospective summaries rather than predictions.
*
In a nutshell, zombie
science is supported because it is useful propaganda; trading on the prestige
which real science used-to have and which zombie science falsely claims
for itself.
Zombie science is
deployed in arenas such as political rhetoric, public administration, management,
public relations, marketing and the mass media generally. It persuades,
it constructs taboos, it buttresses rhetorical attempts to shape opinion.
Furthermore, most
zombie sciences are supported by moral imperatives – to doubt the zombie
science is therefore labelled as wicked, reckless, a tool of sinister and
destructive forces.
To challenge zombie
science is not merely to attack the livelihoods of zombie scientists (which,
considering their consensus-based power, is itself dangerous) – but opens
the attacker to being labelled a luddite, demagogue, anti-science, a denialist!
For all its incoherence
and scientific worthlessness, zombie science therefore often comes across
in the sound bite world of the mass media as being more plausible than
real science; and it is precisely the superficial face-plausibility which
in actuality is the sole and sufficient purpose of zombie science.
In contrast to objective
reality, the warmist spin is spectacular.
Climate science is
overwhelmingly supported by the establishment and by global finance which
is hard at work installing a multi-trillion-dollar carbon economy
for its profit and to assist in extortion via a development tax against
any regime that insists on economic independence. The public opinion battle
appears to have been largely won. Valiant resistance is tolerated as a
quaint demonstration of freedom of expression in the US. All other civil
and societal sectors are aligned, by virtue of the mega-snow-job that equates
ecological destruction with CO2 gas (a growth limiting plant nutrient),
as opposed to its actual causes. (The cause of ecological destruction is
ecological destruction!)
It is glaringly obvious
that carbon "logic" is a major emerging instrument of global control and
fortified exploitation that, like US dollar standing in the purchase of
strategic resources, will be backed with military might. Yet, "deniers",
including dedicated top scientists, are targeted as pure evil, being paid
by destructive interests.
The holy apparatus
of "peer review" is advanced as a truth detection instrument, where it
is objectively known to be an establishment opinion imposition structure,
which was rejected as such by none other than Albert Einstein, and which
did not exist when science made virtually all of its greatest advances.
The climate models
are opaque and not testable, and when the "predictions" from these models
fail dramatically, multiple clouds of spin erupt from both the modellers
and those who generated the "measurements". Most historic climatologists
are intimidated into sheepish silence. Government scientists mostly tow
the line. Official politically contrived reports (IPCC, etc.) fall over
themselves to declare a CO2 crisis, year after year.
By contrast, simple
and rigorous physics calculations conclusively show that other factors
are orders of magnitude more important than CO2 in determining mean global
surface temperature. The "other factors" (land use, water management) are
made subservient to the CO2 gospel.
I mean, it should
be thoroughly embarrassing to all professional climate scientists. How
can they be so silent?
And there are armies
of opportunists. The ecologists cite imperceptible global warming rather
than denounce direct habitat destruction, which would put them into harsh
conflict with immediate "economic interests". Green energy and environmental
remediation (carbon storage, etc.) charlatans are only too happy to accept
funding for bogus and unsustainable technologies. And on and on.
When global finance
has a project that aligns with global geopolitical interests, present First
World civil society and all professional employees are, in turn, easily
aligned. At least for now, dissidents will continue to be mobbed by hoards
of zombies.
***
Dr. Denis G. Rancourt
is a former tenured and Full Professor of physics at the University of
Ottawa, Canada. He is known for his applications of physics education research.
He practiced various areas of science (environmental geochemistry, soil
science, spectroscopy, condensed matter physics, materials science) which
were funded by a national agency, has published over 100 articles in leading
scientific journals, and has written several social commentary essays.
He is the author of the book Hierarchy and Free Expression in the Fight
Against Racism. /etc. |