Re: Science/Engineering in the US, was: Re: Alternative to AVR

On Jun 27, 5:29 pm, larwe <zwsdot...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jun 27, 5:10 pm, mrdarr...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

So, tell me... what "scientific breakthroughs" have other countries
accomplished which could not have been accomplished here (because

Does it matter? You don't grasp the underlying point.


Sure, it matters. You said:

To paraphrase that: you admire the current administration bravely
buying votes from fundamentalist Christians by exporting scientific
breakthroughs to other countries.


I sense a great deal of anger here. Why be angry?


There exists a broad spectrum of research activity, at one end being a
ragged philosopher staring into a rock, thinking little of import and
harming nobody. At the other end is probably someone like Dr. Josef
Mengele (in his pre-South-America heyday). Someplace between those two
zones, every person who bothers to think about the issue draws a line
in the sand and says "beyond this point, it's unethical". A different
person who is willing to go a little further is more likely to make a
discovery.


There's a reason it's unethical; it's not arbitrary by any means.
Destruction of a life to save another life without that first life's
permission is unethical; it's quite simple.


A person who lets paternalistic others choose where that line is drawn
is being intellectually lazy.

Furthermore, curtailing any sort of research is a very, VERY dangerous
step down the road to book-burning. As soon as someone tells you "that
knowledge is forbidden; seek it not, my child", that's a damn good
reason to try and learn more, in my view.


Seek it if you like; this is a free universe. Forcing taxpayers to
fund it is a different story.


Of course, this issue is only the tip of the iceberg; the current
administration has ignored and/or suppressed lots of good science that
was politically inconvenient. As, no doubt, the previous did, and the
next will do. Politics and science are incompossible.

So, would you object to a doctor doing a biopsy on a tumor cut off
your arm, on the grounds that it contains at least some viable DNA
that could theoretically be grown into a complete organism?


No.

Michael

.

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