Scientocracy: The Tangled Web of Public Science and Public Policy

Scientific research is the time-honored key to objective knowledge. In the past it was funded pluralistically, but today certain portions of the market for knowledge are dominated by a single buyer, namely the government. This is especially true in the research fields that impinge on the regulatory sphere, such as pollution and climate change. As discussed in Scientocracy: The Tangled Web of Public Science and Public Policy, science today is in systematic trouble. The popular notion is that science is a force for good. Knowledge, derived from theory and experiment, gives rise to technological advancement, which results in improved lives for all. The editors and authors of this book believe that this is not always the case. Science can be a force for good, and it has enhanced our lives in countless ways, but even a cursory look at the last century shows that what passes for "science" can be detrimental. This book examines a number of recent abuses of science in research areas including nutrition, pollution, drugs and the opioid crisis, and global warming. Please don't let this book make you cynical though! Science has done much for for the editors and authors under public funding. Many fundamental questions have indeed been answered, including particularly those about fundamental questions in physics, questions that might not yet have been answered otherwise. We should all look forward to a future of still more vigorous scientific discovery, but it should be structured in a more voluntary and polycentric manner.