Collectivist Science Media

[dennislmay]

My nieces recently sold me several magazine subscriptions as part of a fundraiser for prom. With few choices that interested me I added Scientific American.

I have subscribed to Scientific American several times starting about 1977 and have purchased individual issues here and there over the years. What I found in the Dec. 2011 issue just reconfirmed my observation of its collectivist slant going all the way back to when I was in high school.

Page 6 - From the Editor – Emergent Genius

“Ideas are a product of society”, an emergent phenomenon…”which are almost inevitable.” That’s why, he said, our admiration for individuals who have come up with such ideas is “almost giving them too much credit.”

[Selene]

Dennis:

I think that, at some internal level, we all want to believe that the field of "science" is above the fray of common opinion and the pressures of the mob.

However, as the Dr. Stadler character clearly laid out in Atlas, this is wishful thinking.

Eisenhower, also warned us, clearly, in his "military industrial complex" speech as he left office in 1960, that publicly funded science is to be avoided because it will skewer the seeking of truth.

Adam

[BaalChatzaf]

My nieces recently sold me several magazine subscriptions as part of a fundraiser for prom. With few choices that interested me I added Scientific American.

I have subscribed to Scientific American several times starting about 1977 and have purchased individual issues here and there over the years. What I found in the Dec. 2011 issue just reconfirmed my observation of its collectivist slant going all the way back to when I was in high school.

Page 6 - From the Editor – Emergent Genius

“Ideas are a product of society”, an emergent phenomenon…”which are almost inevitable.” That’s why, he said, our admiration for individuals who have come up with such ideas is “almost giving them too much credit.”

Relax. Nobel Awards are still given to individuals.

And real journals of science record such as Science and Nature do not have that crap.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[syrakusos]

I can dig out a Scientific American editorial from 1905 or so saying that the USA should copy Germany which trains thousands of young men to do one task whose purpose they might not understand, but who collectively have made Germany the leading nation of Europe. Scientific American, PBS Nova, the Discovery Channel.... they just sell people what people want to buy. LCD: lowest common denominator. Not always bad... sometimes useful! ... but don't get your hopes up...