( An open letter)
Tue May 20 07:42:10 BST 2008
While I understand the emotions that creationism evokes in scientists, I am concerned that broad-brush smug criticism is equally non-scientific, making valid research questions suddenly unacceptable for reasons of political correctness.One such question, it seems to me, is the question of whether there is outside interference and manipulation in the evolution of large social systems, including the US Stock Market, Iraq or any other small country, and the Earth as a whole.
I agree instantly with the invalid nature of Intelligent Design's assertion that it can't think of how complexity arose, so it must be God's work. But by the same logic we must reject scientists saying that they can't think of who could be manipulating large social systems, so it must not be happening.
Before being drowned in a sea of knee-jerk demands to produce some falsifiable conclusion, I'd like to suggest that it is very fair question to ask "If there were such social manipulation going on, at any scale, would our current tool kit allow us to detect it or reject it reliably?" I think the answer to that question is a clear "No."
A second question then is "Would it be interesting to have such tools?" I think the answer that question is a clear "Yes", because we have identified a blind spot in science's vision, in an area of significant political and economic interest.
Or, on the flip side, there could be very applied research in how much we could manipulate the affairs of some social system before risking being caught in a non-deniable way.
Antipathy to such research seems more lamentable than laudable.
