Scientific Progress

[Tom]

Hello Kevin,

On Wed, Oct 26, 2016 at 12:43:09PM -0400, Kevin Gallagher wrote:
> I do not claim that science is the enemy. It is the opposite.

Ah, great. However, there are a couple of people on the list, who do. My
mail was merely directed at them, not at you personally. Sorry if it
sounded that way!

> The scientific curiosity has become about what will make money, not
> what is true.

Well well well, but I'd like to disagree (a little) - yes, the economy
and politics have corrupted how scientific institutions work (note that
I don't say "science" here) and therefore many scientists work in
environments where they look for profitable solutions instead of gaining
general knowledge. But on the other hand, there are still many many
scientists fighting their way through the system.

I think it's you cannot generalize it that way. You see,
there are even scientists in Mongolia and I think you'll agree that it's
absolutely impossible they are working for the powers that be :)

In other words: I still have hope that not all is lost!

> Scientific research influences all of society, and should
> therefore consider ethics before publication.

The problem is, that knowledge is neutral and ethics depends on the
people's current views. Nuclear fission works the same wether you look
at it from 1945 or 2017.

Yes, many scary things have been discovered and published so far. But if
all those scary things haven't been published when they were scary, we
might very well still use horse-drawn carriages for transportation.

Look at it from the security industry perspective: full disclosure of
vulnerabilities in software is way better than keeping this knowledge
secret. A few who know about it (the NSA) can abuse it to gain power
over other people, while nobody else is able to defend themselfes. So,
making vulnerabilities public might give the bad boys tools to attack
people, but it also gives everyone else the possiblity for defense.

I think it is the same with general science. Better everyone knows it
than just a few.

> Currently, however, the system has been corrupted by wealthy players who
> abuse it for personal gain.

Indeed. But there are scientists who are fighting against this.

> If you have not read the paper I mentioned in my previous email, I really
> do suggest giving it a read. Rogaway argues many different points in the
> paper, many of which I haven't covered in my emails.

I will do that.




best,
Tom