| |
|
Over in the Policy, there has been a discussion about the Lab, so I thought we'd start a meta thread here with the goal of trying to stimulate Lab discussions. (id)entity offered some succint criticism of the current state of affairs,
Lab right now doesn't appear to have room for talk about science, because it seems on the face of it that a thread on any scientific topic is likely to be overrun by "maybe it was ALIENS!!1!"ism. Which has its place, I'm sure, but if the Temple can be critical of people not applying sufficient self-criticism to their spooookymojo, shouldn't we expect the same of the Lab? And can we do that without making it a place where non-scientists don't feel comfortable posting?
My own feeling is that there are now lots more people on Barbelith who are into and knowledgable about science than when I first joined, but I'm not sure why that doesn't produce threads, really. I don't think its just the talk of aliens, I think that the Lab doesn't have a tradition of in-depth discussion so that, beyond looking at shiny new tech, no one expects the Lab to do very much.
Some people have brought up science education and science reporting as a potential barrier, which is probably worth a thread all on its own. Certainly, I think you can see a worthy opposition to arguments from authority being deployed so indiscriminantly at times that the discussion feels like its taking place at the "can science ever be valid" level. Which is not to say that such discussions are invalid, but staying at these foundational type questions makes actual discussion of science a bit harder.
One thing I'd like to offer up for debate is this,
I think science just takes a little more study and knowledge than most barbelith members are willing to expend. - sleazenation
which I have mixed feelings about. Largely, though, I disagree with it...the move to ring-fence an area of knowledge because of difficulty is a bit too elitist for my taste. Sure, science can be hard, but so can most things. And the assumption that science is too hard often operates as a way of dismissing it - ignorance is practically seen as laudable, at times - and feels to me like it is tied in with how the media approaches it.
Anyway, the more inmportant question for you all, is what do you want from the Lab? What kinds of threads would you like, and what kind of discussion could we have? |
|
|
