I think the section on Don’t Look Up, in particular the comments on the relationship between science and policy, misses the mark in very important ways. The naive model of [science discovers how the world works] --> [policymakers use this to make policy to improve the world (for themselves, or their constituents, or everybody, or whatever)] does not give enough weight to the reverse action—where the policy is fixed, and the science that supports it is promoted until the policy is Scientific(TM). I think most science-that-determines-policy is selected this way (regardless of the intentions of the scientists involved).
If I remember correctly you’ve mentioned this in a previous COVID post, where you recall that big scientific organisations are subject to all kinds of incentives and constraints, of which “tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth” is regrettably only one among many. I find this a much more productive lens through which to view policy debates compared to being endlessly frustrated that the Real Science with Actual Answers is not involved in the process.
I think the section on Don’t Look Up, in particular the comments on the relationship between science and policy, misses the mark in very important ways. The naive model of [science discovers how the world works] --> [policymakers use this to make policy to improve the world (for themselves, or their constituents, or everybody, or whatever)] does not give enough weight to the reverse action—where the policy is fixed, and the science that supports it is promoted until the policy is Scientific(TM). I think most science-that-determines-policy is selected this way (regardless of the intentions of the scientists involved).
If I remember correctly you’ve mentioned this in a previous COVID post, where you recall that big scientific organisations are subject to all kinds of incentives and constraints, of which “tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth” is regrettably only one among many. I find this a much more productive lens through which to view policy debates compared to being endlessly frustrated that the Real Science with Actual Answers is not involved in the process.