4 ms·

Ask yourself a simple question: if something fell from the sky and exploded in Orlando Florida killing hundreds of thousands and irradiating the area which woul

by kongin 5y ago

Ask yourself a simple question: if something fell from the sky and exploded in Orlando Florida killing hundreds of thousands and irradiating the area which would be more likely? That an undetected new type of asteroid carrying heavily enriched uranium crashed within 50 miles of Cape Canaveral, or that a nuclear rocket was tested and went out of control? We need to hold funding bodies and scientists accountable for immoral research whose only purpose is weapons of mass destruction.

nemo44x 5y ago
The problem is their own institutions incentivize it. Their world is one where you need to be cited for credibility and therefore funding. You do this by making yourself and your work important. If your area of research is epidemiology and there’s not much to worry about then you need to find something worth investing in from the political class and their appointed admins. So you conduct gain of function research, etc to create enough concern that you get further funding and then somewhere in this process a mistake happens and here we are. It’s not a conspiracy or anything tin foil hat related. It’s just pure incentives. No one makes a name for themselves or gets the funding they need to continue to exist because they said “there’s not much to worry about”. You need to convince your benefactors that your research is relevant and should be prioritized.
throwaway210222 5y ago
> We need to hold … scientists accountable Precisely how do you suggest that the seven thousand odd million people outside the USA hold the USA accountable for what their scientists get to do in Fort Bragg? The USA, China, and Russia are going to do exactly as they please. You need to make your peace with this.
- kongin 5y ago
  The same way we stopped nuclear testing.
  - saalweachter 5y ago
    You could accurately scare-quote any word in that sentence.
michaelmrose 5y ago
This is a bad analogy a novel respiratory virus is hardly an unlikely turn of events.

by kongin 5y ago

nemo44x 5y ago

The problem is their own institutions incentivize it. Their world is one where you need to be cited for credibility and therefore funding. You do this by making yourself and your work important. If your area of research is epidemiology and there’s not much to worry about then you need to find something worth investing in from the political class and their appointed admins. So you conduct gain of function research, etc to create enough concern that you get further funding and then somewhere in this process a mistake happens and here we are. It’s not a conspiracy or anything tin foil hat related. It’s just pure incentives. No one makes a name for themselves or gets the funding they need to continue to exist because they said “there’s not much to worry about”. You need to convince your benefactors that your research is relevant and should be prioritized.

throwaway210222 5y ago

> We need to hold … scientists accountable Precisely how do you suggest that the seven thousand odd million people outside the USA hold the USA accountable for what their scientists get to do in Fort Bragg? The USA, China, and Russia are going to do exactly as they please. You need to make your peace with this.

kongin 5y ago
The same way we stopped nuclear testing.
- saalweachter 5y ago
  You could accurately scare-quote any word in that sentence.

michaelmrose 5y ago

This is a bad analogy a novel respiratory virus is hardly an unlikely turn of events.