ah yes, the Soviet Union that turned a country that was still feudal in the 20th century into a country that sent the first human to space 50 years later for sure was very against science.
I actually overall agree with your point, but to be fair the off topic remark probably was targeted at this bit of pseudoscience that unfortunately dominated Soviet politics for decades, and its influence in Soviet and Chinese agricultural policy ultimately contributed to the death of millions of people
Note that Nikolai Vavilov, a scientist that preserved the seedbank cited in the Guardian article, was actually purged due to Lysenko's crusade against genetics
> Vavilov's work was criticized by Trofim Lysenko, whose anti-Mendelian concepts of plant biology had won favor with Joseph Stalin. As a result, Vavilov was arrested and subsequently sentenced to death in July 1941. Although his sentence was commuted to twenty years' imprisonment, he died in prison in 1943. In 1955, his death sentence was retroactively pardoned under Nikita Khrushchev. By the late 1950s, his reputation was publicly rehabilitated, and he began to be hailed as a hero of Soviet science.[4]
Turing was punished (effectively tortured to death) for his sexuality. While awful and indefensible, the difference is that he was not punished for his scientific / engineering work. There are countless examples of soviet scientists exiled or executed because their research agenda or conclusions conflicted with state ideology in a given period. You'd be hard pressed to find similar examples in the West. Although there have been examples in recent decades of scientists being silenced by right wing administrations - particularly around climate change related public communication. Funding can of course be politically directed and denied. But imprisonment or execution for studying the 'wrong' thing? Not one of the many flaws of Western hypercapitalism.
>But imprisonment or execution for studying the 'wrong' thing?
This is extremely simple. Israel openly and proudly kills Iranian scientists, at least 5 were killed in last decades, precisely for the reason of their scientific work.
What, there are other reasons why this is a very right thing to do, am I right? I guess you will present me with lots of reasons why these scientists should have been killed.
We clearly got Good and Bad scientists in this world. The ones that the West kills are Bad.
The ones that USSR once killed are Good.
> This is extremely simple. Israel openly and proudly kills Iranian scientists, at least 5 were killed in last decades, precisely for the reason of their scientific work.
Israel and Iran are antagonistic nations in an active military conflict - this is a really bad counterexample. I'd never defend Israel's actions militarily, but all countries attempt to disrupt the military programmes of their adversaries in secret. Often violently. This is absolutely not comparable to murdering their own scientists for carrying out research.
Side note - the assumption that the opinions of others will neatly fall into a packet of predictable (and hence easily refutable) tribal signifiers, is itself a forms of defensive tribalism. 'See you expressed opinion x, you obviously believe y and z, therefore your perspective is on no value'. This approach avoids engaging with the discussion itself and achieves little.
Specifically to the point you mention - I'm not American, and hence outside the media bubble disguising / legitimating Israeli genocide. That should have no impact on our discussion, as its in no way relevant - except as a tribal signal as described above.
If he was punished for his sexuality while being a genius scientist do you really think that makes the UK/West as an example of being pro science and valuing it? Think about it.
Any kind of control over these companies is seen as "censorship", while banning a foreign (to the USA) company in the US is seen as a matter of national strategy... That's why it is so hypocritical
It was a German school in South America (no WWII refugees there, lol). I guess the school leadership was taught that way, and they were sure to make the kids learn that way too - with fountain pens!
I moved to Germany a few years ago and my kids have to use fountain pens for all their school work, even math. It's this way for grade school and high school.
> we need a universal basic income and progressive tax rates urgently if we want to avoid the world turning into a Gotham City kind of inequal shitshow.
Not really. IMHO the idea of universal basic income is not an actual solution, it's a soporific to passivate people until all their power is drained from them. What we really need is a Butlerian Jihad, to make technology and technologists subordinate to society, instead of letting society be subordinate to technologists and their technology (and the capital they serve and/or control).
Gladly is only your opinion, while facts from pilots demonstrate that UBI is an activator to do anything, regardless of the activity, paid or non paid.
Yeah, last time that happened, Meta became a trillion dollar company before some parts of the world got some semblance of privacy back. The bridge is currently burning and much of the world still doesn't notice its being burnt alive.
I'm not gonna trust the pyromaniacs with the next bridge if I can help it.
I kinda agree with both of you. Given infinite time (and assuming humanity is around and willing to work on it for as long as it takes), I suppose we _should_ be able to automate anything. I honestly don't know how long that's gonna take, but I'm sceptical we'll see it in the next ten years.
Anyway, if we see it coming, it'd be silly not to prepare for it in some fashion.
That's NPR/PBS, but they seemed to have fallen off the rails during the Trump administration. They were top notch before Trump though; their coverage of how we got into Iraq, "Bush's War" was phenomenal.
publicly funded meaning that they will only report news that is favorable to whoever happens to be in power at the time and controls the purse strings?
no thanks. The USA does not need state sponsored media.
