Science Leaders

Science Leaders

In the U.K., Ridley writes of “a tendency to admire authoritarian China among scientists that surprised some people.” He was not surprised. “I’ve noticed for years,” he says, “that scientists take a somewhat top-down view of the political world, which is odd if you think about how beautifully bottom-up the evolutionary view of the natural world is.”

The problem of complexity in society is important--and dangerous--only if you think it can be captured and controlled; the real problem is quality. Science as an institution has “a naive belief that if only scientists were in charge, they would run the world well.” Perhaps that’s what politicians mean when they declare that they “believe in science.” As we’ve seen during the pandemic, science takes halting, uncertain steps but, regardless, can be a source of power. And, before any ideal, any goal, the coin in politics is power.

Reminiscent of the faith the Americans had in engineers. They elected Hoover with confidence. The next engineer was Jimmy Carter.
--(some from WSJ)