Using Social Media Scientifically
Seeking viewpoint diversity brings us to the final way to use social media scientifically: keeping our information channels open as best we can.
Andrew Glover
· 6 min read
Science / Tech
A collection of 371 posts
Why Powerful People Fail to Stop Bad Behaviour by Their Underlings
Although the failure to stop an unethical practice is often attributed to character problems such as greed, sexism or the relentless pursuit of self-interest, our explanation is subtler.
Jessica A Kennedy and Cameron Anderson
· 6 min read
Censorship-Free Social Media — The Next Big Thing or Just Another Echo Chamber?
One of the forefathers of the modern internet, John Gilmore, famously remarked that the net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.
Matthew Mott
· 6 min read
Sociology's Stagnation
The curricula of sociology departments are so deeply flawed that they will need to be revised from the ground up.
Brian Boutwell
· 11 min read
Why Social Scientists Should Not Participate in the March for Science
Why? For one, there is very little political and ideological diversity in the social sciences.
Clay Routledge
· 6 min read
If You’re Reading This Essay, You Should Probably Have (More) Children
A number of popular articles (and books) have implored people to have fewer children as a way of minimizing anthropogenic global warming.
Jonathan Anomaly, Brian Boutwell
· 6 min read
Medicine Must Not Forget the Psychosocial
The real beauty of the biopsychosocial approach is that it has application to the individual (both in terms of causal explanation and of treatment offered), to the wider population, and to research.
Tim Rogers
· 8 min read
Science as Art
All of this discussion leaves unanswered the question of how we decide if something represents a breakthrough — after all, there isn’t an international court of arbitration for creativity.
Adam Perkins
· 9 min read
Why Universities Should Get Rid of PowerPoint and Why They Won't
Overreliance on slides has contributed to the absurd belief that expecting and requiring students to read books, attend classes, take notes and do homework is unreasonable.
Paul Ralph
· 4 min read
On the Reality of Race & the Abhorrence of Racism Part II: Human Biodiversity & Its Implications
This can be avoided with a moratorium, but then we’re back to square one. This sparks a near infinite regress of bad options.
Brian Boutwell
· 12 min read
The Future of Genetic Enhancement Is Not in the West
If the critics are correct that human enhancement is unethical, dangerous or both, then yes, emergence in China would be worrying.
G Owen Schaefer
· 5 min read
Why Pokemon Go Became an Instant Phenomenon
These sorts of games are designed to maximize fun for a wide age range, and are typically extremely quick to grasp.
Katherine Isbister
· 4 min read
Marketing Grit: When Science Lags Behind Populism
But the real reason for Duckworth’s genius is that she’s been able to do all of this based on shaky science.
Parker Brown
· 6 min read
Evolutionary Conflict and the Family
We should start at the beginning, which is to say, conception. That magical moment when sperm meets egg holds an important insight.
Brian Boutwell
· 10 min read
Why Innovation Requires Economic Freedom
Because of its emphasis on the heritability of acquired characteristics, Lysenkoism found itself at home and became an official dogma of Communist ideology.
Aaron Tao
· 5 min read