{"id":84,"date":"2017-06-02T17:16:04","date_gmt":"2017-06-02T17:16:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/?p=84"},"modified":"2017-06-02T17:16:04","modified_gmt":"2017-06-02T17:16:04","slug":"why-the-scientific-method-and-open-source-are-some-of-the-best-things-since-sunlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2017\/06\/02\/why-the-scientific-method-and-open-source-are-some-of-the-best-things-since-sunlight\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Scientific Method and Open Source are Some of the Best Things Since Sunlight"},"content":{"rendered":"

About 100 years ago, some guy named Louis Brandeis apparently said something like:<\/h3>\n

Sunlight is the best disinfectant.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr. Brandeis was speaking metaphorically (his statement was made in the context of a book titled \u201cOther People’s Money and How the Bankers Use it\u201d). There are in fact other phenomena which are also social disinfectants from corruption, exploitation, manipulative propaganda and similar social ills. Some of these go back just a few years, others many centuries or even millennia.<\/h3>\n

Since open source software is a technology that requires computer hardware, it is a very new phenomenon. The scientific method, which has a similar foundation rooted in widely available publications of observations, is several centuries old \u2013 at least<\/em>. Indeed, prominent scientists and philosophers alike have put public discourse at the center of the marketplace for ideas since time immemorial. We can trace the history of such public methodologies as fundamental to the development of civilizations worldwide \u2013 for example the technologies of writing and written languages are several thousands of years old. Spoken language is probably much older than that, with some estimates dating the origins of such \u201cnatural\u201d languages to perhaps about 75000 years ago.<\/h3>\n

Note that all languages are not individual, but rather (at least) social phenomena \u2013 and perhaps they are even evolutionary developments that are in some respects independent of the societies and civilizations that use language (one obvious example being \u201cgenetic material\u201d, such as DNA). The wink of an eye, or the tear rolling down a cheek require an agreement with respect to their meaning. If and when such agreement exists, only then can we speak of a common language, and such a common language acts as an important construct for the development of community and communal engagement.<\/h3>\n

Be that as it may, these are by no means the only foundations of modern civilization… \u2013 but they are at least central pillars. We should not allow any top-secret agencies or secretive corporate interests to chip away at the progress we have made as the \u201cpremiere\u201d intelligent species. We should not allow impostors or terrorists to hijack our ship \u2013 mainly because it’s the only one we have. We must defend free speech and sunlight, lest some \u201cget rich quick\u201d scheme con-artists should try to pull the wool over our eyes.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About 100 years ago, some guy named Louis Brandeis apparently said something like: Sunlight is the best disinfectant. Mr. Brandeis was speaking metaphorically (his statement was made in the context of a book titled \u201cOther People’s Money and How the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[327],"tags":[413,412,400,402,247,19,91,168,358,84,304,303,201,375,418,222,223,405,397,399,398,305,429,415,406,414,420,190,421,419,21,102,416,417,235,422,424,423,22,8,390,401,410,411,78,391,393,394,392,25,28,300,389,396,395,17,253,18,425,428,427,426,224,226,403,404,407,408,409,150],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9w79D-1m","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":181,"url":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2019\/11\/25\/only-fools-rush-in-to-build-on-top-of-closed-secret-proprietary-platforms\/","url_meta":{"origin":84,"position":0},"title":"Only Fools Rush in to Build on Top of Closed (Secret, Proprietary) Platforms","author":"nmw","date":"November 25, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week Amnesty International published a report about the online platforms of the leading surveillance giants \u2013 see my brief post about it @ Find News. What I find particularly signficant about the news is not the recommendations for public policy, but rather the recognition of the free markets that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "remediary"","block_context":{"text":"remediary","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/topicat\/com\/com-remediary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":165,"url":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2019\/11\/02\/how-to-make-facts\/","url_meta":{"origin":84,"position":1},"title":"How to make facts","author":"nmw","date":"November 2, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"A guy named Edward Snowden was interviewed on the Joe Rogan Experience recently, and here is something he said: This is the context: You say you know, and -- you know, let's put it the other way: maybe you do know. Maybe you are an academic researcher, maybe you're a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "remediary"","block_context":{"text":"remediary","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/topicat\/com\/com-remediary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":191,"url":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2019\/12\/23\/automatism-automaticity-20th-century\/","url_meta":{"origin":84,"position":2},"title":"Automatism + Automaticity \u2013 20th Century","author":"nmw","date":"December 23, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"If you thought my previous introduction was dark, then if you use your imagination a little to color in the details of what comes next, then you may actually begin to lose your faith in humanity \u2013 but I choose to spare you such sketches, because I myself don't even\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "remediary"","block_context":{"text":"remediary","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/topicat\/com\/com-remediary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":95,"url":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2017\/06\/20\/wordpress-search-engine-optimization\/","url_meta":{"origin":84,"position":3},"title":"WordPress Search Engine Optimization","author":"nmw","date":"June 20, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I asked MA.TT a question \u2013 of course it's complicated, but it definitely has something to do with the three-letter-acronym (TLA) called SEO: http:\/\/wordpress.tv\/2017\/06\/19\/interview-and-qanda-with-matt-mullenweg As I indicated in my question, this has nothing to do with Google and\/or similar proprietary (\u201csecret\u201d) algorithms. I was talking about WordPress as a search\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "impost"","block_context":{"text":"impost","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/topicat\/org\/org-impost\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":196,"url":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2019\/12\/25\/automatism-automaticity-lets-do-this-right\/","url_meta":{"origin":84,"position":4},"title":"Automatism + Automaticity \u2013 Let’s do this right!","author":"nmw","date":"December 25, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"In the previous episode, I raised some concerns about how automatism and automaticity affect us, our technologies and therefore also the world in general. I quoted a line from Malcolm Gladwell's most recent book, \u201cTalking to strangers\u201d \u2013 but I didn't mention how he noted that although Holy Fools (people\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "remediary"","block_context":{"text":"remediary","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/topicat\/com\/com-remediary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":248,"url":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2021\/10\/04\/the-relationship-between-the-validity-of-natural-language-expressions-and-the-statistical-concepts-of-accuracy-and-precision\/","url_meta":{"origin":84,"position":5},"title":"The relationship between the Validity of Natural Language Expressions and the Statistical Concepts of Accuracy and Precision","author":"nmw","date":"October 4, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"As you may be aware, I recently started reading a book that was quite the bestseller a few years ago (see e.g. my initial reaction to the quote: \"The problem is that the pervasiveness of technology and mass marketing is screwing up a lot of people\u2019s expectations for themselves: the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "remediary"","block_context":{"text":"remediary","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/topicat\/com\/com-remediary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85,"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions\/85"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}