Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why I have resigned from the Royal Society

deevybee.blogspot.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 121 posts

Re: Why I have resigned from the Royal Society

#31

Post by t43562 »

So some brown-nosers thought to pull Musk in because they thought it would get them some news and mentions and so on, possibly be financially advantageous in some way despite him not really being a scientist.

That seems to have been easy, but removing him now...oh...well....so difficult.

Similarly how easy it was to suck up to Russian billionaires in London and so difficult to sanction them when things went sour. We knew they were crooks back then but lots of people benefited from ignoring it.

Re: Why I have resigned from the Royal Society

#32

Post by ineedaj0b »

This is another example of how badly mislead people can become despite being smart. This is a man who is virtuous, true - just! Or has been for many years, in his mind on the 'good' side. And he's certainly done a lot of good. But...

He is now in the time for his /excesses/ to be called out. Research and science are great; the replication crisis and wasted time/effort were not. Excess should be called out.

Elon is directionally the agent calling out the excesses of the covid era (that's the time period Elon began his shift rightward) and he'll make some missteps - like the anti fauci stuff - but by and large a course correction is needed. Elon is mainly fighting for his Rockets to go up faster and he'll back whichever horse gets him there quickest. So do I pay attention to the guy launching the future or the guy letting his heart bleed out in a blogpost?

I do feel worried about the Britons. Their economy is slumping, cultural prestige waning (it'll be gone by GEN alpha), and I've heard reports they lock up people over facebook posts. I know not all of those things are 100% true but if even their Royal Society members can't seem to avoid falling to political squabble and see the long horizons of history, I worry for their future.

Re: Why I have resigned from the Royal Society

#33

Post by VMG »

cies wrote: post #23
fabian2k wrote: post #2

> Most of those I've spoken to agree that a serious breach of these principles was in 2022, when Musk tweeted: "My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci", thereby managing to simultaneously offend the LGBTQ community, express an antivaxx sentiment, and put Fauci, already under attack from antivaxxers, at further risk. This statement is clearly relevant to a scientific society. It is not just about unrelated bigotry by a fello…

There are many doctors who express problems with the C19 vaccines. In some countries (most notably Japan) there are public hearings and parliament questions. In the west it seems this is not allowed. Fauci was close with the EcoHealth Alliance. He tried to hide gain of function research. There are a lot of criticism to this NGO, "including a joint letter signed by 77 Nobel laureates and 31 scientific societies." (Wik…

> and most likely did know that pregnant women in the trail had a lot of "spontaneous abortions"

This is incorrect information

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10152171/

Pregnant women are at higher risk of getting COVID which is liked to preterm birth

Re: Why I have resigned from the Royal Society

#34

Post by tristramb »

Oarch wrote: post #6

No loss. Whinging about politics and non-mainstream opinions. Is there genuine curiosity (even dare I say wrongthink) left in the RS or is it just another polite social club for people to gather and feel smug about the consensuses they've formed.

The Royal Society is important because it is where the UK government go when they need good advice on scientific issues. Many people in the US might think that their government doesn't need good advice on scientific issues but, as they will find out, they are wrong.

Re: Why I have resigned from the Royal Society

#35

Post by cauch »

zosima wrote: post #14
fabian2k wrote: post #2

> Most of those I've spoken to agree that a serious breach of these principles was in 2022, when Musk tweeted: "My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci", thereby managing to simultaneously offend the LGBTQ community, express an antivaxx sentiment, and put Fauci, already under attack from antivaxxers, at further risk. This statement is clearly relevant to a scientific society. It is not just about unrelated bigotry by a fello…

Elons statements were obviously not aimed at Faucis role in vaccine discussions, but in his much more dubious role in gain-of-function research and especially covering up the origins of Covid. While that is relevant to a scientific society, I think it's worth taking a good hard look on whether its wise to take a side on that, other than maybe denounce gain-of-function research.

If it was Musk's intent (but I doubt it was the case, because it does not fit with a lot of other things that Musk did or said that show he is aiming at Faucci role in vaccine discussions), he should have acted to avoid poisoning the debate. There were plenty of "normal" way to do it, and in fact, other members of the Royal Society have done so and have expressed concerns when similar things have happened.

To me, it sounds like "Sure, Musk pooped in his hand and thrown it to the speaker during the conference, but the speaker made a sign mistake in their equation". If someone is saying that this attitude is awful, it does not mean that this person is pretending that the sign mistake did not occur and should not be corrected.

Re: Why I have resigned from the Royal Society

#36

Post by ClaraForm »

I think the world at large today could use a few more people appealing to our better natures. For that, this is a wonderful statement.

I wish there was a way to moderate our modern discourse to be closer to finding ways forward together, rather than dividing ourselves further. Elon’s entire schtick these days is to move faster than regulatory bodies can align. I hoped for an attempt at amending the RS statutes for clarity and boundaries, rather than resignation from the battle entirely. Perhaps as proof that some boundaries can be reactive to anyone regardless of influence.

I can’t think of many causes worth fighting for that can be won through resignation, certainly never within research or scientific contexts.

Re: Why I have resigned from the Royal Society

#38

Post by ineedaj0b »

cauch wrote: post #22
roenxi wrote: post #8

I respect the author's principle-based approach but many of her arguments seem a little off. If the RS doesn't expel people for their politics, then it doesn't make sense to expel Musk for, essentially, concerns about his politics. And if you expel crotchety scientists for disagreeing with the scientific consensus there won't be any left. The RS motto is literally "Take nobody's word for it"; I don't see how Musk dis…

> If the RS doesn't expel people for their politics, then it doesn't make sense to expel Musk for, essentially, concerns about his politics. But the article does not talk about Musk's political opinion per se. The concerns would have been totally the same if Musk was acting the same way but involving himself with a different political ideology. The concerns seem to be: 1) Musk is aggressive towards his fellow scienti…

I understand where you're coming from but because of Covid and those years, using the shield of 'science' to disallow criticism is a little underhanded. Covid/Vaccines/Lockdowns are on the table of politics for the foreseeable future.

Re: Why I have resigned from the Royal Society

#39

Post by bondarchuk »

VMG wrote: post #33
cies wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many doctors who express problems with the C19 vaccines. In some countries (most notably Japan) there are public hearings and parliament questions. In the west it seems this is not allowed. Fauci was close with the EcoHealth Alliance. He tried to hide gain of function research. There are a lot of criticism to this NGO, "including a joint letter signed by 77 Nobel laureates and 31 scientific societies." (Wik…

> and most likely did know that pregnant women in the trail had a lot of "spontaneous abortions" This is incorrect information https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10152171/ Pregnant women are at higher risk of getting COVID which is liked to preterm birth

That's from 2023.

Re: Why I have resigned from the Royal Society

#40

Post by fabian2k »

cies wrote: post #23
fabian2k wrote: post #2

> Most of those I've spoken to agree that a serious breach of these principles was in 2022, when Musk tweeted: "My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci", thereby managing to simultaneously offend the LGBTQ community, express an antivaxx sentiment, and put Fauci, already under attack from antivaxxers, at further risk. This statement is clearly relevant to a scientific society. It is not just about unrelated bigotry by a fello…

There are many doctors who express problems with the C19 vaccines. In some countries (most notably Japan) there are public hearings and parliament questions. In the west it seems this is not allowed. Fauci was close with the EcoHealth Alliance. He tried to hide gain of function research. There are a lot of criticism to this NGO, "including a joint letter signed by 77 Nobel laureates and 31 scientific societies." (Wik…

The vaccines worked and saved a lot of lives. There were very rare side effects, and once those were recognized they were addressed in various ways, e.g. by changing the groups that should receive the vaccines.

The part about abortions sounds like a blatant conspiracy theory.

There are some indications that the rules around gain of function research were not followed in some cases. I certainly think that merits investigating and I'm partial towards prohibiting most gain of function research. Doesn't mean publicly attacking Fauci is any reasonable way of doing this.

Post reply on HN