Apes in Lab Coats:Urging Precaution in the

Church of Science

Dr. Bill Vitek

Humanities and Social SciencesJune 14, 2006

Overview• What’s going on in the Science Center?

• Knowledge and the academic-university tradition

• What science says about us and the world

• Science undoes itself!

• What went wrong, and keeps going wrong

• Slowing down

• Urging ignorance and precaution

The Church of Science• Dogma: Unquestioned Assumptions• Saints and Holy Books/Journals• Hierarchies• Disciplines/Disciples• Secret Languages and Rituals• Little Tolerance for Dissent, Heresies or

Non-Scientists• Societal Power

Origins of the Modern University• 13th Century medieval charters• Christian origins• A union of all scholars • The pursuit of knowledge for the betterment

of human life• The pursuit of knowledge as an expression

of the human mind as rational, capable, and “god-like” (Greeks/Genesis)

Origins of the Modern University• Assumed the existence of God (First Cause),

and a rational order to the universe

• Developed methodologies for discovering this order with a mind that was similarly rationally ordered– Francis Bacon– Rene Descartes

Science Unleashed• Slow decoupling from religion• Increasing discrepancies with religious

dogma: Copernicus, Galileo, Darwin• Increased power of

scientific/mathematical tools• Merger of science and technology

– The birth of modern engineering

• Enormous power: technological, political, and personal

Science’s Assumptions • Mind-Reality Interface: Both are rational

and designed/ordered

• Knowledge is possible

• Knowledge is power over the forces of nature

• Divide and conquer: The dot of knowledge

• Nature is passive

• The whole is equal to the sum of its parts

Assumptions Continued

• Scientific knowledge is value free– “Can implies ought”

• All mistakes are fixable– “Cross that bridge when we come to it”

• Knowledge accumulates and drives out ignorance

• Science allows us to transgress limits• Science has no need or use for divinities

Assumptions Challenged

• Nature is not passive

• Whole not equal to the sum of the parts

• Knowledge is not value free

• Ignorance increases with increased knowledge

• Some mistakes are less fixable than others

• Greater Knowledge=Greater Responsibility

Science Undoes Itself

• Heliocentrism

• Evolutionary Biology

• Ecosystem complexity

• The power of the unconscious

• The 2nd law of thermodynamics

• Werner Heisenberg and Kurt Gödel

Science Undoes Itself• No necessary connection between human

brain and the universe

• No implied order without a creator

• Apes in lab coats are still apes

• There are limits that even humans cannot transgress

• The Church of Science has a shaky foundation after all

And What a Mess it’s Making!• Overpopulation• Species Extinction• Global Warming• GMO’s• Nuclear Radiation• Chemical exposures: Cancer, Endocrine

Disrupters• Your example here:

____________________

What to Do• Don’t Abandon Science

• Don’t try to bring back its religious foundations

• Admit the hard truths:– Evolution: Ignorance is our strong suit

– 2nd Law: We can’t have it all

– Ecosystem Complexity: We are not alone on the planet. Learn to share

• Operate within an Ignorance-Based Worldview

The Precautionary Principle

• History– Hippocrates (5th Century BCE): “Do

No Harm”

– Public Health

– Germany in 1970’s: “Vorsorgenprinzip” or “Foresight Principle”

The Precautionary PrincipleDefinition from 1992 Rio Conference

"In order to protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be widely applied by States according to their capabilities. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation."

Ref: http://habitat.igc.org/agenda21/rio-dec.html

The Precautionary PrinciplePrinciples• People have a duty to take anticipatory action

to prevent harm. "If you have a reasonable suspicion that something bad might be going to happen, you have an obligation to try to stop it.”

• The burden of proof of harmlessness of a new technology, process, activity, or chemical lies with the proponents, not with the general public.

Source: http://www.sdearthtimes.com/et0398/et0398s4.html

The Precautionary PrinciplePrinciples• Before using a new technology, process, or

chemical, or starting a new activity, people have an obligation to examine "a full range of alternatives" including the alternative of doing nothing.

• Decisions applying the precautionary principle must be "open, informed, and democratic" and "must include affected parties."

Source: http://www.sdearthtimes.com/et0398/et0398s4.html

The Precautionary Principle

• In action– EPA and OSHA in 1970’s

– Canada: Federal Policy (2003)

– Quebec Pesticide Laws (2002)

– American Public Health Association endorsement (2000)

The Precautionary Principle

• In action– Massachusetts Toxic Use Reduction

legislation– Swedish ban of PBDEs (polybrominated

diphenylethers), a fire retardant– The EU REACH Program (Registration,

Evaluation and Authorization for Chemicals)

Ignorance-Based World View in Action

• Citizen Science

• Curriculum on Medical Ignorance

• EU ban on GM foods

An Ignorance Based Worldview• Ignorance is our long suit

• Go slow

• Study the exits

• Listen to all the voices

• Work collaboratively

• Be held accountable for your mistakes

• Give non-scientists a say in their lives

“Nature is an infinite sphere of which the center is everywhere and the circumference nowhere.”

Blaise Pascal

“I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there.”

Richard Feynman

“The difference between what the most and the least learned people know is inexpressibly trivial in relation to

that which is unknown.”Albert Einstein

“Since humans are billions of times more ignorant than they are

knowledgeable, why not go with our long suit and develop an

ignorance based world view?”

Wes Jasckon, Ph.D and DirectorThe Land Institute

Salina, Kansas