Monday, April 16, 2007
Australia - the not so clever country.
A letter to New Scientist Magazine april 2007 just before I pulled my subs in protest !
Thanks for some stimulating reading . It was good to keep in touch with some of the latest .
However ,we are poor practical scientists who can’t really afford your magazine . Despite the image of your magazine many of us well qualified scientists are increasingly treated in Australia with token gestures and indolent lack of respect that well explains the lack of interest by students in careers in these most fascinating ( mine ) of areas – if not careers .Do a study on how many experienced scientists will retire without providing any mentorship ( key credibility matter!) in the next five/ last five years !
Time you and our leaders took the brain drain pain seriously and took more concrete action . Decide whether old is OK .and even more important to follow than NEW .,Stop all the careless talk and constant speculation in the budget managers playground and the restore support for old distinctions that make science and practice work . Your magazine does not often recognize the difference between love of technology ( one of your themes) and the passion of those who have spent many decades in the very hard slog of real science, innovation and practical earth management .
Technology is often a cover for a form of fix with little more than speculative substance; Wasted talk and experiment ,often at taxpayers expense.
This preoccupation with the NEW might be fine in Australia if it wasn’t driving budgets away from a calling to study things properly, and build on the past . I can say this trend away from intellectual rigor and mentorship is huge after 30years of genuine practical and close planning ties with some of Australia’s best scientists, engineers and some of Australia’s greatest innovators as well. Just how well you support us is a matter of deep concern to those who want to reduce our current commitment to a fad filled future.
Speculation , rather than proper support for innovation , is still one of the biggest growing stumbling blocks to Australia becoming a truly prosperous and clever country .
Time you reviewed the highly speculative side of your skim throughs .
Time you reviewed whether you are more post modern and more philosophically committed than you claim to be . “Truth, False and Both “( last months issue ) may be your cut on avoiding the boring, but it is just more boring reactionary drivel to me ! .After all, there is Truth , Falsehood and Most of the time “just a bit closer to the truth” . Both is the sort of titillating twaddle that we have had to put up (not from science and practice in Australia) , but from our increasingly irrelevant ”art schools “and major media outlets who insist , decade after decade, on feeding us a highly predictable diet of muddling uncertainty wrapped up in some NEW bright speculative dress.
Get real
talk about poverty and making it happen history with science and practice .( not all innovation let me remind you)
Talk more about what made Australia great and
What now limits the sense of fairness and http://fairgomate.blogspot.com
What now limits support for innovators in this country .
While I expect you also will remain chief advocates for the sort of dull monism that is at the heart of our modern intellectual doldrums, I humbly suggest that the evidence is that new science is “bringing us closer to the truth “and all our current knowledge and speculation is STILL a very small part of a much bigger picture, that we simply do not understand. http://graceware.blogspot.com
Thanks for some stimulating reading . It was good to keep in touch with some of the latest .
However ,we are poor practical scientists who can’t really afford your magazine . Despite the image of your magazine many of us well qualified scientists are increasingly treated in Australia with token gestures and indolent lack of respect that well explains the lack of interest by students in careers in these most fascinating ( mine ) of areas – if not careers .Do a study on how many experienced scientists will retire without providing any mentorship ( key credibility matter!) in the next five/ last five years !
Time you and our leaders took the brain drain pain seriously and took more concrete action . Decide whether old is OK .and even more important to follow than NEW .,Stop all the careless talk and constant speculation in the budget managers playground and the restore support for old distinctions that make science and practice work . Your magazine does not often recognize the difference between love of technology ( one of your themes) and the passion of those who have spent many decades in the very hard slog of real science, innovation and practical earth management .
Technology is often a cover for a form of fix with little more than speculative substance; Wasted talk and experiment ,often at taxpayers expense.
This preoccupation with the NEW might be fine in Australia if it wasn’t driving budgets away from a calling to study things properly, and build on the past . I can say this trend away from intellectual rigor and mentorship is huge after 30years of genuine practical and close planning ties with some of Australia’s best scientists, engineers and some of Australia’s greatest innovators as well. Just how well you support us is a matter of deep concern to those who want to reduce our current commitment to a fad filled future.
Speculation , rather than proper support for innovation , is still one of the biggest growing stumbling blocks to Australia becoming a truly prosperous and clever country .
Time you reviewed the highly speculative side of your skim throughs .
Time you reviewed whether you are more post modern and more philosophically committed than you claim to be . “Truth, False and Both “( last months issue ) may be your cut on avoiding the boring, but it is just more boring reactionary drivel to me ! .After all, there is Truth , Falsehood and Most of the time “just a bit closer to the truth” . Both is the sort of titillating twaddle that we have had to put up (not from science and practice in Australia) , but from our increasingly irrelevant ”art schools “and major media outlets who insist , decade after decade, on feeding us a highly predictable diet of muddling uncertainty wrapped up in some NEW bright speculative dress.
Get real
talk about poverty and making it happen history with science and practice .( not all innovation let me remind you)
Talk more about what made Australia great and
What now limits the sense of fairness and http://fairgomate.blogspot.com
What now limits support for innovators in this country .
While I expect you also will remain chief advocates for the sort of dull monism that is at the heart of our modern intellectual doldrums, I humbly suggest that the evidence is that new science is “bringing us closer to the truth “and all our current knowledge and speculation is STILL a very small part of a much bigger picture, that we simply do not understand. http://graceware.blogspot.com
