Ronda Hauben <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> In the talk [given at Harvard in 1960] C.P. Snow raises the dilemma
> posed by modern society in which science raises important problems
> and that government has to deal with these problems, but that too
> often decisions about these problems are made in secret and in a
> legal or political form where those making the decisions are not
> able to comprehend the consequences of the decisions they are making.
> The volume called "Science and Government"
> It describes how there is a need to have scientists more intimately
> involved in these decisions, but also the issue of how to
> open up the discussion so that it becomes a public discussion
> is raised in a talk that C.P. Snow gave the following year at
> MIT where he discussed the same problem.
Don't you think that quite a few scientists have been exposed to these
issues, through both your posts, others' posts, news[paper] articles, and
so forth? But very few scientists have decided to personally involve
themselves in these matters. Why do you suppose this is?
With regards to the public discussion issue, how would you go about
assessing the public's opinion of what has transpired over the last
five years? What would you do if you discovered that the public was
no more informed than either scientists or government officials, not
because of any deliberate attempts to hide information, but because
the information itself is complex and takes enormous amounts of time
to digest? (You yourself have complained about a lack of time and
resources to process all the mail you get, and there are a multitiude
of mailing lists, newsgroups, web sites, etc. where these and other
related issues are discussed.)
And in the meantime, as with the water issue, there are private companies
able and willing to set themselves up as providers of what might otherwise
be public resources. As they are perceived as solution providers, while
the scientists, politicians, lawyers, etc. continue to debate, why would
the public not side with the private companies? If politicians perceive
that the public has faith in the private companies, and that the private
companies can do the job, why would they not favor a privatization program?
--gregbo
