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The anarchists didn't need to invent it, it described what people were already participating in. Anarchy is simply the natural state of man without an imposed h

The anarchists didn't need to invent it, it described what people were already participating in. Anarchy is simply the natural state of man without an imposed hierarchy. The scientific community is an anarchy.

gmfawcett 7y ago
I wouldn't have been confused to hear that anarchists were participating in online community. What confused me was because1's statement that anarchists invented the Internet. > The scientific community is an anarchy. The scientific community is an organism that eats government grants and excretes pay-walled research papers. I wouldn't call that an anarchy!
- aalleavitch 7y ago
  That's simply how it pays for itself, and I think all scientists agree that is the worst part of science. But fundamentally science is not a profit-seeking enterprise, it is driven by the desire of people to benefit all of society and there is no central authority and yet through the individual actions and judgments of different scientists a community and scientific consensus is born.
AnimalMuppet 7y ago
> The scientific community is an anarchy. No? It's a meritocracy, with elite gatekeepers. How is it an anarchy?
- aalleavitch 7y ago
  Without a doubt, there is cruft in the sense of gatekeepers and institutionalized power as short-hands for who to trust, but in the grand scheme of things the most power is in reaching a closer approximation of the truth. There is no strict structured system for obtaining scientific consensus, it's simply the individual actions of different researchers, labs, and institutions that choose to build on the work of others or challenge it that cooperatively reach outcomes that benefit all of mankind. There are plenty of parasites growing on the scientific community, like the publication system, but these things don't define it, they're simply hangers on and the scientific community has existed in plenty of times and places without something like it.
msla 7y ago
> Anarchy is simply the natural state of man without an imposed hierarchy. Ah, majoritarianism with violent wars against outsiders. https://www.archaeology.co.uk/articles/features/bloody-stone-age-war-in-the-neolithic.htm https://www.archaeology.co.uk/articles/features/bloody-stone...

gmfawcett 7y ago

I wouldn't have been confused to hear that anarchists were participating in online community. What confused me was because1's statement that anarchists invented the Internet. > The scientific community is an anarchy. The scientific community is an organism that eats government grants and excretes pay-walled research papers. I wouldn't call that an anarchy!

aalleavitch 7y ago
That's simply how it pays for itself, and I think all scientists agree that is the worst part of science. But fundamentally science is not a profit-seeking enterprise, it is driven by the desire of people to benefit all of society and there is no central authority and yet through the individual actions and judgments of different scientists a community and scientific consensus is born.

AnimalMuppet 7y ago

> The scientific community is an anarchy. No? It's a meritocracy, with elite gatekeepers. How is it an anarchy?

aalleavitch 7y ago
Without a doubt, there is cruft in the sense of gatekeepers and institutionalized power as short-hands for who to trust, but in the grand scheme of things the most power is in reaching a closer approximation of the truth. There is no strict structured system for obtaining scientific consensus, it's simply the individual actions of different researchers, labs, and institutions that choose to build on the work of others or challenge it that cooperatively reach outcomes that benefit all of mankind. There are plenty of parasites growing on the scientific community, like the publication system, but these things don't define it, they're simply hangers on and the scientific community has existed in plenty of times and places without something like it.

msla 7y ago

> Anarchy is simply the natural state of man without an imposed hierarchy. Ah, majoritarianism with violent wars against outsiders. https://www.archaeology.co.uk/articles/features/bloody-stone-age-war-in-the-neolithic.htm https://www.archaeology.co.uk/articles/features/bloody-stone...