Thus spake Ian P. Cook circa 26/01/09 08:50 AM: > If the interest is in the back-and-forth over the Hockey Stick, I don't > think you can go too wrong with the Wikipedia entry: > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hockey_stick_controversy > > It discusses the issue, and links to the various reports from the National > Research Council, the Wegman report, the American Stat. Assoc. session, the > 2008 Mann study, etc...
Thanks. I'm not concerned about the controversy so much. I am more concerned about the accusation that peer-review is (can be) a tool to suppress ideas that run counter to the consensus. I recently finished Thomas Gold's "Deep Hot Biosphere" and I hearken back to a story by Sydney Brenner regarding his c. elegans project; these stories argue (to a small extent) how dominant consensus can toss extraordinarily high hurdles in front of hypotheses that go against that consensus. And, being an ABMer, I've personally experienced what I've thought of as psychological/methodological inertia amongst traditional biological modelers. (Though every _constructive_ criticism they send my way turns out to be entirely valid and helps improve my rhetoric.) So, I have some sympathy with my friend's complaints about a premature consensus with regard to global climate change. But, overall, I tend to think that the people whining about suppression are just lazy and unwilling to do the work necessary to convince others or specifically and concretely lay out their positions. Or, perhaps over time, they build up a persecution complex (e.g. Robert Rosen) and become comfortable as a "victim". .... Anyway, what I'm interested in is the extent to which the global climate change arguments (on both sides) have representation in high impact journals with strong peer review. I'm sure there are sociologists examining such processes. If I knew what to ask for, I'd be asking for that research instead. [grin] Chip: Thanks for the specific paper links. -- glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095, http://agent-based-modeling.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
