Broken Science Initiative Event — 18 February, Phoenix

I’m late (as usual) posting this. All the text below, with my paragraphifications, is from the Broken Science Initiative event page.

Reserve Your Ticket

You are cordially invited to The Broken Science Initiative’s February 18, 2023 event in Phoenix, AZ. We are living through a time where critical thinking is discouraged, drugs are routinely approved and pushed to market despite evidence that they work and politicians are telling us to “believe in the science.”

Validating and replicating results are no longer standard practice. It is estimated that more than 50 percent of medical research cannot be replicated and that number only increases when we look at cancer treatments, dementia drugs and other critical areas of care.

Science, once thought of as the empirical branch of knowledge, is in a full fledged crisis. We’ve become complacent and tolerant and it’s time to wake up and take notice of how academic science has lost its way.

The Broken Science Initiative is here to expose this corruption, malfeasance and negligence. We have identified the roots of these problems in the philosophy of science. We’ve traced them through history up to our present day. While many people have become more aware of these issues with handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, the erosion of science for political and financial gains began long before 2020.

The BSI is offering anyone interested in an alternative to this mess a way to identify these problems and perhaps even apply simple methods to make better decisions for themselves and their families. We have no hope of fixing this for the world. It is too deeply entrenched. However, we are dedicated to teaching any individual with the will to learn how to spot these problems. The power of critical thinking is available to anyone wanting to take back his or her right to think for themselves. It all begins with an understanding of what science is and what it is not. The BSI is here to define science and show how it was broken.

On February 18, 2023 James Franklin, Thomas Seyfried, Malcolm Kendrick, William Briggs and cofounders Greg Glassman and Emily Kaplan will discuss how predictability has been replaced by consensus in science. The speakers will begin their talks at noon and there will be a reception for all guests with open bar and light refreshments following the presentations. We hope you will join us. Specific details on the venue will be emailed following individual registration.

The venue and set up for this event is for adults only and families who plan to bring kids 15 years old and younger are encouraged to inquire about babysitting services at the hotel. Thanks for understanding.

Capacity is limited; please reserve your ticket to ensure you are able to attend.

*The speakers are subject to change and others may be added or substituted.

For those who can’t make it, which is most of mankind, I anticipate videos of the event will be available. This is not an academic conference, and is meant for an intelligent audience, like regulars here.

BSI’s founders Greg Glassman and Emily Kaplan are both absolute sweethearts and know as much, or more, about this subject than anybody.

I’m excited to finally meet James Franklin in person. He is David Stove’s literary executor, among other fame. Quoting from his page:

James Franklin is the author of The Science of Conjecture: Evidence and Probability Before Pascal, Corrupting the Youth: A History of Philosophy in Australia, What Science Knows and other books. An Aristotelian Realist Philosophy of Mathematics appeared in 2014. The Worth of Persons: The Foundation of Ethics in Oct 2022 and Catholic Thought and Catholic Action in 2023.

I learned logical probability first from Jaynes, then Stove, then Franklin. See especially his “Resurrecting logical probability“. He has graciously allowed me to host one of Stove’s “controversial” (meaning unliked) essays “The Intellectual Capacity of Women.”

I don’t know Thomas Seyfried or Malcolm Kendrick, but know of them. They have been prominent voices during the panic—and of course at other times.

As you can see, I’ll also be there. Title of my talk is “Uncertainty” (surprise!). It will go something like this:

The language of uncertainty in Science, and everywhere, is Probability. So what is Probability? How does it relate to Randomness and Chance? And Synchronicity and Coincidence. Everybody says Correlation is not Causation, but only when it is the other guy’s Correlation. And how do these help us understand what Science is about?

Maybe I’ll see you there.

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