Return of the Citizen Scientist
This Isn’t The First Time
A little over a week ago, I wrote an article on the Citizen Scientist. I was astounded by how broadly it was distributed. It appears that the term has way more appeal than I expected. It also appears that many people believe it to be a novel concept… sorry — not in the least.
The term might have some newness to it, but the concept is millennia in the baking. It was evident in the early philosophers, the alchemists, scholar monks, renaissance men, and the gentlemen farmers. Pick your title. Science has long been the distributed hobby of the people with a little bit more time and disposable income than everyone else. The university system and corporations are both relatively late to the game.
Whether experimentation or invention, philosophy or technology — much can be attributed to the work of citizen scientists. But wait — didn’t your last article state that citizen science was a pipe dream?!? Not quite in those terms, but yes. Let me elaborate.
Citizen scientists from Aristotle to the Bacon Brothers have long contributed to the progression of science. They have also contributed twice as much noise, nonsense, and bu!!sh!t. We have relied heavily on markets, military, corporations, and universities (to a lesser degree) to sort it all out.
Isaac Newton was a “Natural Philosopher”. While he spent time in academia, much of his scientific prowess was self-taught or pulled from self-directed research. In other words, in true citizen scientist fashion — Newton made a lot of it up as he went. And he ‘made up’ a lot of it!
“Newton was not the first of the age of reason, he was the last of the magicians.” — John Maynard Keynes (another ‘scientist’)
Newton also produced reams of ‘science’ on spirits, Atlantis, the Philosopher’s Stone, and other alchemy. Great inspiration for sci-fi fantasy readers but not what we would consider science today.
Pierre and Marie Curie, Tesla, Jack Parsons, and Paracelsus are among a lengthy list of famous scientists with odd and occultist interests. But almost every self-taught scientist in history had a lengthy list of ‘bad science‘ ideas. Perhaps it is the nature of creative people? It is also clearly the result of a lack of discipline.
The Need For Discipline
Citizen scientists represent the democratization of scientific ideas. They are history’s open source platform for progress. But they are a prolific mess! Thus the need for discipline.
Enter the military.
You might want to laugh at the idea of military, corporate, or even market discipline — don’t. While neither perfect nor even always direct, these institutions have the natural feedback loops required to vet large numbers of ideas with relatively effective efficiency. In other words — bad science dies quickly in retail, battle fields, and any other competitive spaces with basic transparency.
This is what peer-review in science is supposed to model. Only no one has died from peer review since the Spanish Inquisition. Didn’t expect that one did you? While death is extreme, it is also effective feedback. It is the driver of scientific evolution and make no mistake — science is the survival of the fittest. Perhaps more so than natural evolution.
For its part, peer-review lacks any meaningful feedback mechanisms of its own. Few are paid to do it. Few care to. And really it is simply easier for everyone to agree to agree — as most are paid to publish… anything. So directly speaking, everyone wins. Indirectly, we all lose. Just the way people seem to like it.
Is Anything Really Different Today?
Perhaps? If so, it comes in two potential areas. The first is data. Modern Citizen Scientists have a much more robust and complicated supply of data. This comes with all the pluses and minuses you might expect.
The second is actionability — which probably isn’t a real word, but you get the idea. Today, ‘undisciplined science’ — which is an epic oxymoron — is perhaps more dangerous than ever. As I have noted repeatedly — technology is no replacement for insight, intelligence, or discipline BUT it is a big contributor to both speed and scale. In other words, science is far more capable than ever of harming MORE people MUCH FASTER. Yeah, technology!
So — beware of Popular Science, Citizen Scientists, and the pipe dreams that come with enabling technology. Sure, they are as likely as they have ever been to uncover ideas to change the world. They just may be more likely to change it for the worse. Thanks for reading!
