• 24 NOV 14
    • 0

    Andrew Marino philosophizes on “EMF Experts”

    Quoting excerpts from the website of Andrew Marino.

    EMF experts sound erudite, but when they make mistakes they do so in characteristic ways, so they always betray themselves. The environmental science of EMFs consists of both knowledge and justice, so each element should be reflected in the character of anyone who is truly an expert. We can classify the different kinds of mistaken experts based on what they lack.

    There are industry experts who make their living by providing negative judgments, irrespective of what environmental science requires. These experts love money, which they seek above everything else. They see themselves as completely free to say anything in pursuit of money and prestige. Their minds are formless in the sense that they have no idea what truth is.

    If an expert stakes a claim to knowledge that cannot be inferred from evidence by the process normally used to make meaning, he goes past science and into metaphysics. The mind of such a person is hardened against any empirical evidence or inferences that point away from what he believes. He regards any such evidence as necessarily flawed and feels no need to dig into it. such experts emphasize belief over knowledge.

    If an expert who works for the government becomes too passionately loyal to his bureaucracy, he forgets about justice. From the outside he appears to be following the proper method for interpreting data. On the inside, however, he triages away all inferences that may impede the mission of his agency, irrespective of whether that is the proper result of the normal process for making meaning from data. The testimony of such an expert is not reliable, like a lover who is asked to judge the beauty of his beloved.

    Other experts devote themselves to pinpointing the source of epidemics like cholera or lung cancer, which they do by the method of questionnaires. But some questionnaire experts become disoriented and ask questions like “Do cell phones cause cancer?” which cannot be answered scientifically using their method, as gold cannot come from base metals. Like their predecessors, the modern alchemists are frauds.

    These are the four kinds of mistaken experts: toadies, casuists, lovers, and alchemists. Where do they come from? Not from under rocks or out of thin air, but from the same stock that gives rise to experts who maintain the proper balance. In each instance, I suppose there was a crisis where the expert made the wrong choice but nevertheless was rewarded with a publication in a prestigious journal, special attention in the media, a promotion, or some financial benefit. Thereafter, it became progressively easier to put environmental science in the background.

    SNIP

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