[snarks_when_bored]

Good post. Attempts by authoritarian entities of many sorts—churches and governments, in particular—to force scientific research to run down pre-determined paths towards pre-determined goals have always failed. This attempt, too, will fail, as you say.

[grey_whiskers]

Hi, Snarks.

Good post. Attempts by authoritarian entities of many sorts—churches and governments, in particular—to force scientific research to run down pre-determined paths towards pre-determined goals have always failed. This attempt, too, will fail, as you say.

There's an interesting train of thought along these lines if you try reading The Wisdom of Crowds

Oh, BTW, it also provides a pretty good explanation of why Free Republic & the "blogosphere" [trite cliche BARF alert!] tend to beat the pants off of the MSM--witness the Memogate scandal. Many loosely coupled independent sources, continually revising & comparing--as opposed to authoritarian.

Any other analogies are left to the interested reader.

Cheers!