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IANAL, and so have no opinion on the merits of her article. However, I have concerns about "topics that are 'too hot to handle'" in the sciences. For example,
by mirimir 8y ago
IANAL, and so have no opinion on the merits of her article.
However, I have concerns about "topics that are 'too hot to handle'" in the sciences. For example, a recent thread[0] about Hill (2017) An elementary mathematical theory for the variability hypothesis.[1,2,3]
And by the way, there's lots of great discussion in the comments on the Quillette article.[1] And it's interesting that the deleted NYJM paper is online.[2] So what, are there now two different papers at New York J. Math. 23 (2017) that begin at p. 1641? Strange.
edit: Earlier versions of the preprint were apparently more controversial.[4]
0) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17938318 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17938318
1) https://quillette.com/2018/09/07/academic-activists-send-a-published-paper-down-the-memory-hole/ https://quillette.com/2018/09/07/academic-activists-send-a-p...
2) http://nyjm.albany.edu/j/2017/23-72v-orig.pdf http://nyjm.albany.edu/j/2017/23-72v-orig.pdf
3) https://arxiv.org/pdf/1703.04184.pdf https://arxiv.org/pdf/1703.04184.pdf
4) https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.04184v2 https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.04184v2
- mirimir 8y agoAnd more generally, it can be difficult now to research possible differences among protected categories, such as genders, races or sexual orientations. There are exceptions, for sure, such as differences in response to diet recommendations, medical treatment, or drug therapy. But otherwise, it can be a minefield. Student protests. Difficulty with funding. Tenure blocks. Difficulty publishing. There's failure to make a key distinction, here. Sexism or racism involve judging people on the basis of their gender or race. But that's not the case for experimental studies of differences. There are, of course, confounding issues that complicate interpretation of results. Humans are so readily programmable that it's very difficult, and perhaps impossible, to attribute any observed differences to biological hardware vs cultural influence. But that's just something for the discussion. It's not a valid reason to block the work. Also, the idea that some work shouldn't be done, because it upsets or discourages some protected group, is very dangerous. It's contrary to the overall concept of experimental science. And yes, there are parallels to nuclear research back in the day, and to machine-learning and AI work now. But even there, refusing to look seems ultimately destructive.
- dang 8y agoPlease don't take HN threads off topic into generic ideological tangents. Those are predictable and tedious.