rantlust

Posted by hari on October 26th 2007 in Environment, Government, Politics, Rants, Science
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Historically scientists applied very rigorous standards to what they called science. Many things in science are known as theories even though there is hardly anything to dispute their validity. In fact there is very little difference between what is called a law, as in Newton’s laws of motion; law of gravity etc and what are referred to as theories.

However lot of people think of the word theory as in “I have a theory”. Or the way economists use the word theory. For an illustration, I live a few miles away from the Creation Museum which was established to showcase evidence that the theory of evolution is wrong. The folks behind the museum say evolution is just a theory and it is wrong. Opened this year, the 60,000-square-foot museum is so successful they are trying to expand the parking lot.

However the theory of evolution is established science. The annual flu shots are nothing but evolved flu virus. Without doubt scientist knows that the microbes evolve. We also know from documented history that the silk worm used to fly. We know that silk worm or perhaps even cows cannot live without human anymore. We also know that the digestive mechanism of a pig is not very different from humans and that is why insulin made from pigs was used to treat humans.

However now we have people who challenge the theory of evolution. The museum, few miles away from my home, is a case in point. In this environment; it is anybody’s guess what will be the fate of the theory of global warming which is far from maturity. No one knows enough to accept or reject that theory entirely. However that does not mean, the global warming will wait for the mankind to understand the phenomena. The planet might be in peril.

It was not a physicist’s decision to nuke Hiroshima. It would not be and it should not be. The people through their elected representatives make that kind of decisions. Similarly global warming, while being a scientific question, will be decided and acted upon by the political process. Another case, the thing that pops up on your screen, is it a adware or spyware? Who gets to decide that? Engineers?

We can wait until the scientists conclude the science of global warming. But there are two problems with that approach. One, do we have time? Two, without activists, would there be vigorous research to conclude that issue any time in near future?

The (often) sarcastic comment on Al Gore inventing the internet and the current Al Gore bashing for his environmental activism have common lessons. The internet as a technology existed from the 60s. A few computers connected together is not the biggest deal on the world. Be it the defense network or the Stanford to UC network, the stuff was there. However until 90s it never even came close to what is referred as internet today. Far from being just interconnected computers, internet is a way of life today. There is a political, social legal environment that nurtured and brought it to its current form. While no stretch of imagination would conclude it is all Al Gore’s work, the guy’s role is not to be disputed. Not as the engineer or scientist who invented the internet, but as the politician who ‘invented’ the social political framework for internet without which internet is perhaps no internet, just the 60’s internet. Oh’ I exaggerated a bit, so note just the narrow point.

Similarly if the planet were truly in peril, though the science is far from concluding either way, may he will be the person who ‘invented’ global warming.