I mean you don’t need to be even nearly that certain for the findings to be actionable.
If I ask “What’s the evidence for global warming being real?” in searching for an accurate description of the world. Having accurate maps of the world is useful.
In the above example, saying that the evidence for global warming is like that for evolution is like claiming the moon is made of cheese.
The belief might help you to convince people to reduce emissions. Believing that the moon is made of cheese might help you to discourage people from going to the moon.
If the reason that someone advocates the ridiculous claim that the evidence for global warming is comparable to that for evolution, is that it helps him convince people to lower emission that person is mindkilled by his politics.
What’s the expected utility of that compared to the expected utility of AGW? If you’re too uncertain, why not just try to drastically reduce emissions instead of do major geoengineering? What’s the expected utility of reducing emissions?
Right, because our political leaders excel at doing rational good expected utility comparisions…
Memes exist in the real world. They have effects. Promoting false beliefs about the certainity of science has dangers.
I’m not in the position to have the power to choose that the world drastically reduces emissions or whether it does major geoengineering and scientists aren’t either. Scientists do have a social responsiblity to promote accurate beliefs about the world.
Whether or not we should reduce emissions is a different question. If you can’t mentally separate: “Should we reduce emissions” from “What’s the evidence for global warming?” you likely mindkilled about the second question and hold beliefs that aren’t accurate descriptions of reality.
If I ask “What’s the evidence for global warming being real?” in searching for an accurate description of the world. Having accurate maps of the world is useful.
In the above example, saying that the evidence for global warming is like that for evolution is like claiming the moon is made of cheese.
The belief might help you to convince people to reduce emissions. Believing that the moon is made of cheese might help you to discourage people from going to the moon.
If the reason that someone advocates the ridiculous claim that the evidence for global warming is comparable to that for evolution, is that it helps him convince people to lower emission that person is mindkilled by his politics.
Right, because our political leaders excel at doing rational good expected utility comparisions… Memes exist in the real world. They have effects. Promoting false beliefs about the certainity of science has dangers.
I’m not in the position to have the power to choose that the world drastically reduces emissions or whether it does major geoengineering and scientists aren’t either. Scientists do have a social responsiblity to promote accurate beliefs about the world.
Whether or not we should reduce emissions is a different question. If you can’t mentally separate: “Should we reduce emissions” from “What’s the evidence for global warming?” you likely mindkilled about the second question and hold beliefs that aren’t accurate descriptions of reality.