• neidu2@feddit.nl
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    2 months ago

    Should we replace bees with mathematics? Those two aren’t exactly valid substitutes for each other.

    • jewbacca117@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Really we should just replace mathematics with bees. I can’t think of a problem that can’t be solved with more bees.

    • spiderwort@lemm.eeOP
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      2 months ago

      Ooh look the monkeys like that one. Funny bees!

      Think of them as 2 methods for determining policy. Sorry for the confusion.

      • Hegar@kbin.social
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        2 months ago

        Think of them as 2 methods for determining policy

        They’re not though.

        Democracy is a strategy some states use to achieve legitimacy in the eyes of the populace. Science is a method for producing knowledge.

        Policy is determined by the financial interests of our elites, our global imperial interests, and the form of our bureaucratic institutions.

        Democracy, science and policy are three very distinct domains.

      • livus@kbin.social
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        2 months ago

        @spiderwort could you give me some concrete examples. I can see it with a few things but not others. How does science determine:

        • abortion laws

        • your nation’s stance on Israel

        • marriage’s effect on taxes

        • individual custody disputes

        • animal cruelty laws

        • spiderwort@lemm.eeOP
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          2 months ago

          Observe, model, propose policies… run simulations even

          Plain ol science

          • livus@kbin.social
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            2 months ago

            I’m trying to keep an open mind here but so far, you’re being too vague to be persuasive.

            Observe what exactly?

            Model what?

            Propose what kind of policies based on what assumptions and which goals?

            Obviously I know what science is. I just don’t see how it applies here.

            Observe what exactly? If you’re designing an experiment you know what results you’re interested in and what implications the research has.

            Seriously, pick one thing from my list above and talk me through how you would use pure science to formulate policy?

      • QueerCommie@lemmygrad.ml
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        2 months ago

        Science has no goal. It cannot determine policy. It can tell you how certain policies may affect certain metrics, but it matters who decides what metrics matter ie. do we care if people have food, or if line go up.

        • spiderwort@lemm.eeOP
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          2 months ago

          Assume that we’ve got self-evident goals. Maximization of health, happiness, security…

          • QueerCommie@lemmygrad.ml
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            2 months ago

            Self evident to whom? We are ruled by ghouls who care more about profit than people’s lives. Shouldn’t it be “self-evident” to Biden that committing genocide is bad? Shouldn’t it be “self-evident” that corporations shouldn’t be getting away after poisoning millions of people? Shouldn’t it be “self evident” that if people work all day their wages should be enough to allow them to live decently?

            These things may obviously be good, but it won’t be done until we have a system that puts people over profit.

            • spiderwort@lemm.eeOP
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              2 months ago

              Jeez, soapbox much?

              Yes, I think that a sane, self-aware, scientifically-rigorous system would choose public health over that bad stuff you mentioned.

              Like The Federation in Star Trek.

              • QueerCommie@lemmygrad.ml
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                2 months ago

                Star Trek has an economic system, it’s not run “on science.” Star Trek is functionally fully automated luxury communism. Under capitalism we have the technology to have no scarcity, but that’s not profitable, so capitalists create scarcity by destroying excess product and not giving it to those in need. In Star Trek they have a duplicator thing so no one is in need and no one can make a profit. It is a communist utopia. If you want to see a rational society that implements policy for scientifically planned good look at China. Their ultimate goal is communism, but today for now their achievements include lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty, heavily subsidizing green technology allowing it to be cheap and accessible, and lifting people’s living standards so that the life expectancy is higher the wealthy western countries.

                • spiderwort@lemm.eeOP
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                  2 months ago

                  But does it have a voting system?

                  Because I don’t recall seeing any voting booths in the Enterprise.

    • hperrin@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      He’s barely in the closet:

      https://lemm.ee/comment/11377393

      I read a short story where they took a humane approach to population reduction.

      An engineered disease. A short fever and then your uterus stops working. 95% effective.

      Rioting. All scientists hung. But the world was better.

  • blargerer@kbin.social
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    2 months ago

    Science tells us how to achieve objectives, democracy what our objectives should be. (obviously this doesn’t always work perfectly in practice).

      • spiderwort@lemm.eeOP
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        2 months ago

        It’s a dumb point. Basically fanfic/dogmatism processed through a child’s brain. I’d really rather spend my attention on something better

        It’s amazing how small the 99% is. Narrow and shallow. I am re-astonished every time I come here. It’s like the zombie apocalypse happened and nobody noticed.

        • howrar@lemmy.ca
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          2 months ago

          Would you like to explain how choosing an objective is fanfic/dogmatism? This is what everyone cares about. You’re not going to convince anyone to change to a different system by ignoring the thing they want.

  • HubertManne@kbin.social
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    2 months ago

    What does that even mean? Do you mean the methodology? Its not meant for decision making, its made to determine the nature of things.

  • General_Shenanigans@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I think a better term to use would be “fact-based policy.” I believe that even if we intended to rework politics to be more scientific, it would just lead to all the same manipulations and twisting of facts that current politics involves. Don’t like a particular scientific consensus because it interferes with your goals? Hire a bunch of “think-tanks” to publish contradictory papers. Hah, guess what, that’s where we already are.

  • Mister Neon@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    No. The problem with science is that in part it relies on trial and error. That could get messy on a societal level. We should utilize observation with scientific methods to inform our decisions. Unfortunately a lot of people don’t do that currently and scientific data results can also be manipulated to fulfill an agenda.

    • vext01@lemmy.sdf.org
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      2 months ago

      Democracy could be said to work on trial an error too, just with human factors thrown into the mix?

    • spiderwort@lemm.eeOP
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      2 months ago

      We have good models that offer up good decisions, so why put it to the vote?

      Base our policy on tested models. Audit our reasoning thoroughly. Be rational.

      Vs consult the masses, 99% of whom don’t even understand the question.

      Seems like a no brainer

      • BolexForSoup@kbin.social
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        2 months ago

        What models are you suggesting we use that are making these good decisions?

        You’re using a lot of very general language throughout this thread. We need some elaboration. Otherwise it’s just “we should be logical and stuff.”

      • Mister Neon@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Well in your scenario who will implement this? Furthermore, what is the goal that you’re trying to engineer with a science based government? Is it personal happiness, population numbers, the production of capital, or to indoctrinate the masses to serve the state? Are you going to justify the use of eugenics? What happens when goals conflict or individuals don’t want to participate in experiments? What if the science you’re implementing has different philosophies or different schools of thought? How do you determine what is the optimal method?

  • Lowlee Kun@feddit.de
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    2 months ago

    It is fun how you just know that every downvote or negative comment just bolsters op’s ego because to them it shows how the masses are stupid and they are one of the few who know how things should be. Replacing “democracy” with “science” makes no god damn sense because science is not a form o government. How hard would it have been to elaborate how you imagine your “scientific” goverment to work? I guess you would atleast have basic knowledge about politics. So what we got was the question of a 6 year old. How do you expect insightful comments?

    • MonkRome@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      They are just trolling, they are looking for the argument for arguments sake. Look through their post and comment history. Report, down vote, and block, then move on.

  • moon@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    This is why we need people to study humanities. STEM majors taking a few undergraduate courses and then spending the rest of their lives thinking science is a replacement for a system of government

  • QueerCommie@lemmygrad.ml
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    2 months ago

    Technocracy is stupid, and just serves tech elites. Thankfully, there is a scientific political system out there called Scientific Socialism. It ruthlessly criticizes the world to find the best way to advance the interests of the great masses of people. It analyses the movement of history and society to make it develope smoothly. It studies its own struggle to make it be more effectively. However, it is not against democracy, but rather in favor of a truer democracy of the working class. Liberal democracy is simply the ruling class making up differences and fighting each other for show. In China they have a far better democracy without such fighting, and instead have tons of dialogue and study.

    • themurphy@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      Scientific socialism sounds like the way to go, but don’t act like China is a democracy.

      • QueerCommie@lemmygrad.ml
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        2 months ago

        China is by no means perfect, but far more democratic than the US “beacon of democracy” ever was. There’s a reason over 90% are happy with their government. https://dessalines.github.io/essays/socialism_faq.html#is-china-a-democracy

        They are also a good example of the practice of scientific socialism. They’ve extensively studied the Soviet Union as to avoid their mistakes. They also study the contradictions of their society to develop harmonically. I recommend Roland Boer’s Socialism with Chinese Characteristics: a Foreigner’s Guide.

        • themurphy@lemmy.ml
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          2 months ago

          Both Russia and China are authoritarian. 90% are happy with the government in the same way that 86% voted for Putin.

          It’s fake numbers.

          • QueerCommie@lemmygrad.ml
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            2 months ago

            Fake numbers about a US enemy from harvard? Shouldn’t we be hearing about the 10% who didn’t like the government being punished if there actually is coercion?

          • QueerCommie@lemmygrad.ml
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            2 months ago

            Authoritarian is a nonsense term. You said you support socialism right? It cannot exist without capitalists feeling and being vocal about their oppression. All the media portrays China as evil because they are the antithesis of our sick society.

            “Have these gentlemen ever seen a revolution? A revolution is certainly the most authoritarian thing there is; it is the act whereby one part of the population imposes its will upon the other part…” - Fredrick Engels

            • themurphy@lemmy.ml
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              2 months ago

              Alright, let me say it differently.

              China is a one party system. The party elects its leader themselves. There’s no choice. There’s no other direction. And when they censor things heavily, they also control the narrative.

              China doesn’t perform well on living standard. Too many homeless and a great part of the population lives in poverty.

              Work week is 6 days a week and 12 hours a day.

              There’s not one thing China is the best at when it comes to welfare and living standards.

              So no, it’s by no means a great example.

              • QueerCommie@lemmygrad.ml
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                2 months ago

                You did not look at the resources I sent lmao. Do you have any sources for your claims?

                China is a one party system.

                False. Even Wikipedia can debunk your claims. There are nine parties in China, which work together in consultation on policy. Boer has a whole chapter on this. There is no requirement of party membership for running in elections and they have tons of elections. The reason they don’t have a bunch of spectacle where people pretend they hate each other and the president is whomever can procure the most money and be the most charismatic like the US is because they manage their contradictions non-antagonistically (another thing Boer talks about).

                China doesn’t perform well on living standard.

                A laughable statement. China is doing better than the US. But, the US has centuries of imperialism it benefits from, so why compare it to China, when India is more comparable and has 7 years lower life expectancy.

                Too many homeless and a great part of the population lives in poverty.

                Of all the things to accuse China of, that is not it.

                Work week is 6 days a week and 12 hours a day.

                You really need to source these claims. Anyway, labor rights are increasing year by year. They a whole lot better than other countries with large manufacturing industry.

                There’s not one thing China is the best at when it comes to welfare and living standards.

                My shock when a country that’s less than a 100 years out of its century of humiliation isn’t the absolute best at everything.

                So no, it’s by no means a great example.

                Eliminating poverty, , leading the world by far in technological innovation, and being the largest economy not too long after being a feudal backwater without colonies isn’t exemplary?

  • PirateJesus@lemmy.today
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    2 months ago

    It would stop being science very very quickly, and just be “hey girl, heard you want your son to attend the “control group” school”.

    • spiderwort@lemm.eeOP
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      2 months ago

      I was thinking straight up science.

      Given these observations, these firmly established scientific models and this bit of sound reasoning, we conclude that these policies should be implemented.

      No voting required.

      • sweng@programming.dev
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        2 months ago

        You forget a piece: “Given these observations, these objectives, and this bit of sound reasoning, …”

        Without objectives, no amount of reasoning will tell you what to do. Who sets the objectives?

      • over_clox@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Science has brought us some rather advanced artificial intelligence that can do many amazing things.

        It can model extremely complex protein chains, yet can’t even render a hand properly and doesn’t even comprehend how people consume nutrients.

        You really wanna leave all the decisions up to science and technology?

        • spiderwort@lemm.eeOP
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          2 months ago

          Well that’s the question.

          Voting means lots of dummies, a sea of propaganda… Bad stuff there too.

          • over_clox@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            While I can agree that dummies shouldn’t be allowed to vote, how would/could/should we go about designing a proper voter verification program that more or less eliminates the actual dummies/sheeple?

            But I don’t think taking the voter factor completely out of the equation in favor of pure raw science is the answer either.

            If you leave everything to science, then science would say the world is overpopulated and we should eliminate half or more of the population…

            • spiderwort@lemm.eeOP
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              2 months ago

              I read a short story where they took a humane approach to population reduction.

              An engineered disease. A short fever and then your uterus stops working. 95% effective.

              Rioting. All scientists hung. But the world was better.

              • hperrin@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                Ah yes, forced sterilization. Very humane.

                That’s called fascism. You read a fascist fan-fic. I guarantee the people who were forcefully sterilized wouldn’t agree that the world was better.