GorT has been busy over the last few weeks with some family stuff and has been remiss in posting about a number of topics.  Thankfully, his fellow Gormogons are on point and tackled many of the issues that were on my list.

During some discussions with some of the more liberal family members, the topic of climate change came up.  GorT has always been open with these family members about where he stands:

1. Yes, the climate is changing – that is what it does
2. Global climate is a complex system and we cannot risk great hubris by thinking that we know everything about it
3. There has been no concrete evidence that human-generated CO2 emissions have caused global warming.
4. yes, we should be good stewards and work to reduce pollution (of which CO2 is not) and take good care of the Earth

As the discussion continued, one family member dropped the term, “post-normal science” and how it proves #3 above.  GorT had never heard of “post-normal science” so I let the argument trail off and later did some research.

Post-normal Science is a methodology of inquiry that is appropriate for cases where “facts are uncertain, values in dispute, stakes high and decisions urgent.”

I am almost at a loss as to where to begin with this.

First, this is a clear example of liberals coercing well-understood language to aid their biased cause.  That might sound a bit extreme, but science even from its Latin root, scientia, means “knowledge” and is the “systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.”  So there is no room for uncertain facts – which I’ll get to in a minute – and values in dispute.  Science is about following a disciplined process to test a hypothesis to prove or disprove it.

Second, with regards to “facts are uncertain”, this is such a load of tripe, I don’t know how it isn’t being openly mocked.  What about Kepler and others working on orbital dynamics – do you think that they advocated for “uncertain facts”?  Facts are facts – they are not in dispute – they are known.  What these folks are describing aren’t facts – they are models, disputed sampling methods and results, and data that needs “adjustments” made.  This is precisely why it is NOT science.  If they want to keep the term, “post-normal”, I’m fine with that.

Finally, we should all be calling them to the mat over this.  Any true scientist would immediately cringe at their definition and beliefs….regardless of the subject at hand.  why don’t they do a post-normal scientific analysis of why we have 14,000 abandoned wind turbines in this country?  oh, wait, that would be real science.

A final concern: if the youth of today associate post-normal science with science, our true scientific advancements will slow and fail.  The association is what liberals want since science carries some weight and confidence whereas even in their definition, post-normal science is anything but confident.  If it happens and our focus in the sciences begin to blur this distinction, we will have people who will “prove” things based on uncertain facts.  I am certain that the fact of the matter is I’d rather be normal than post-normal.

GorT

GorT is an eight-foot-tall robot from the 51ˢᵗ Century who routinely time-travels to steal expensive technology from the future and return it to the past for retroinvention. The profits from this pay all the Gormogons’ bills, including subsidizing this website. Some of the products he has introduced from the future include oven mitts, the Guinness widget, Oxy-Clean, and Dr. Pepper. Due to his immense cybernetic brain, GorT is able to produce a post in 0.023 seconds and research it in even less time. Only ’Puter spends less time on research. GorT speaks entirely in zeros and ones, but occasionally throws in a ڭ to annoy the Volgi. He is a massive proponent of science, technology, and energy development, and enjoys nothing more than taking the Czar’s more interesting scientific theories, going into the past, publishing them as his own, and then returning to take credit for them. He is the only Gormogon who is capable of doing math. Possessed of incredible strength, he understands the awesome responsibility that follows and only uses it to hurt people.