3 ms·

You're living in a "move fast, break things" & "trust the science" world, posting on a forum filled with enginerds who subscribe to those philosophies with zeal

You're living in a "move fast, break things" & "trust the science" world, posting on a forum filled with enginerds who subscribe to those philosophies with zealotry. They think like this: as long as there is an absence of evidence of harm in the initial science, then that means evidence of absence. Long-term, higher-order effects & unknown unknowns are ignored in Scientism, and this ignorance is status quo. It's the same mentality underpinning the approach to GMO foods & insects, dropping agent orange in Vietnam, and killing sparrows in Mao's China. It's the very spirit of modernity.

metabagel 3y ago
> You're living in a "move fast, break things" & "trust the science" world, posting on a forum filled with enginerds who subscribe to those philosophies with zealotry. You're painting with far too broad of a brush. I personally see a lot of push back on HN against those "philosophies".
wizzwizz4 3y ago
> It's the same mentality underpinning the approach to GMO foods & insects Genetically-modified foods are fine: the main problem is when GM plants are wind-pollinated. And even that's largely due to patent law[0]: the harms of wind-pollination from monoculture is there regardless of where the genes come from. Genetic modifications to insects are only to wipe out populations, as far as I can tell – it doesn't hugely matter what the long-term side-effects are, in that case, because there won't be any organisms around to experience them. There was a lot of research done into the effects of anti-mosquito gene drives before the (very recent) releases into the wild, because we have learned from the Four Pests campaign. [0]: https://www.iatp.org/news/monsanto-the-seeds-of-dispute https://www.iatp.org/news/monsanto-the-seeds-of-dispute
google234123 3y ago
It's dumb to conflate an action done in war and what a tyrannical madman did to science based GMOs.

metabagel 3y ago

> You're living in a "move fast, break things" & "trust the science" world, posting on a forum filled with enginerds who subscribe to those philosophies with zealotry. You're painting with far too broad of a brush. I personally see a lot of push back on HN against those "philosophies".

wizzwizz4 3y ago

> It's the same mentality underpinning the approach to GMO foods & insects Genetically-modified foods are fine: the main problem is when GM plants are wind-pollinated. And even that's largely due to patent law[0]: the harms of wind-pollination from monoculture is there regardless of where the genes come from. Genetic modifications to insects are only to wipe out populations, as far as I can tell – it doesn't hugely matter what the long-term side-effects are, in that case, because there won't be any organisms around to experience them. There was a lot of research done into the effects of anti-mosquito gene drives before the (very recent) releases into the wild, because we have learned from the Four Pests campaign. [0]: https://www.iatp.org/news/monsanto-the-seeds-of-dispute https://www.iatp.org/news/monsanto-the-seeds-of-dispute

google234123 3y ago

It's dumb to conflate an action done in war and what a tyrannical madman did to science based GMOs.