Comments on: “Now for the long term” by Sir John Beddington & Lord Rees https://lifeboat.com/blog/2013/12/now-for-the-long-term-by-sir-john-beddington-lord-rees Safeguarding Humanity Sun, 08 Dec 2013 15:34:03 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.1 By: Manny https://lifeboat.com/blog/2013/12/now-for-the-long-term-by-sir-john-beddington-lord-rees#comment-179214 Sun, 08 Dec 2013 15:34:03 +0000 http://lifeboat.com/blog/?p=9261#comment-179214 It is wonderful to have people thinking about how to tackle humanity’s challenges, and I invite you and other readers to remember that many, if not most, great human advances were achieved accidentally, by people who were much like you and I. The statement “an aspiration to discover what is true, and a culture of basing decisions upon evidence, rather than desires” presumes that “truth” is an absolute, and that humans can actually make decisions independently from their desires (desires that are often unconscious and learned before language skills were acquired).

“Truth” is, just as energy and matter, relative. Newtonian Physics is “true” and Quantum Physics is “impossible” for most human experiences… yet both must be understood and applied for modern human endeavors. With respect to “evidence” and “desires”, politicians and marketing experts (to mention 2 professions) are highly skilled at creating, destroying, and manipulating both.

I suggest you focus on the goal, firts, and then dwe can propose alternatives on how to get there… different people will try different approaches and — if history repeats itself — the goal will be reached by the least expected innovator.

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