When Are Scientific Claims Untrustworthy?
- Provides nice concrete examples that distinguish between QI and QIV. Especially the example of the Nature Communications article “Paris Climate Agreement passes the cost-benefit test”. This is the fundamental danger of social science – using the language (and in this case, gatekeeper via Nature) of science to create the impression that the conclusions it reached grasp at some scientific notion of truth. QIV masking as QI.
- This is perhaps the deeper problem I have with welfare calculations, MVPFs, and the like. Nicely summed up by a quote from David Roberts: “These are social and ethical disputes being waged under cover of math, as though they are nothing but technical matters to be determined by ‘experts.’ But social and ethical judgments should be made in an open, transparent way, not buried in models as inscrutable parameters. I mean, we’re talking about how much we value our children and grandchildren. Surely that’s a matter for democratic discussion and debate!”
The Empiricism Gap in Computer Science
- A nice complement to the article above – this one thinking about the limits of the computer science discipline as the field intersects with grand social problems.
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