Russ Abbott wrote circa 10-12-02 08:14 PM: > Why so much defensiveness?
I don't think anyone was being defensive. Personally, I was just very surprised by the question. Sorry if my answer was inadequate. On a tangent, however, I found this article interesting: Citizens Against Peer Review http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/2010/12/03/citizens-against-peer-review/ It's fun because when I first started reading it, I was thinking "OK. So many Republicans can be wankers; but what's fundamentally wrong with asking lay people to [pre]judge the merit of NSF applications?" Then after the article author's rhetoric, I was persuaded! Ha! I'm too dense and ignorant to be easily persuaded of anything. And I certainly do _not_ buy Mooney's implicit assumption that peer review is somehow automatically "merit-based", given that the "peers" doing the reviewing are all biased in some way. But it does bring up the point that we humans do as little work as we can get away with. We're lazy. We won't dig into any subject unless we must, for whatever reason. The reviewers will dig in deeper than the lay person (mostly) because it's their job/profession to do so. Oh sure, they may have chosen that job/profession based on some inherent energy or curiosity about the domain; but in the end, they have groceries to buy on the way home, yards to rake, burnt out light bulbs to change, etc. So, they really do have to commit to work like this. The lay person doesn't. When convenient or bored, she can make snap [pre]judgments all she wants and if/when some particular phrase or keyword pushes her buttons, she'll go to the minimal effort to pull up Thunderbird and e-mail her congress person ranting and raving about wasteful spending. Then again, I really do think that finding ways to expose lay people to science is a good thing. So, just like with the TSA backscatter machines and pat downs, Rep. Smith's intentions don't matter one whit. And Mooney's intentions in criticizing it also don't matter. What might actually matter is getting more _eyeballs_ on the science! I.e. although I am persuaded by Mooney's rhetoric, I would support Smith's effort. -- glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095, http://tempusdictum.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
