First is that I think that the gap between common knowledge and the scientific frontier is now too large to bridge by conventional means. And I believe that this gap will always grow larger. Eventually, science is going to have to either cut lose from civilian supervision whatsoever (which is an unreasonable expectation), or they will have to make people more capable of learning on their own. This will require a paradigm shift in how science is taught in schools, and it will require a much easier-to-use outreach framework.
Second is that I think that science may actually need some evangelism. There are powers who bring things like Nepal to our attention. On the other hand, scientists seem notoriously adverse to their own public relations. I think this behavior is self-destructive. I can't guarantee that people will come flocking, but I have met a lot of people who think that what we do is neat, but can't find anything explaining about it. Part of this requires science to be better at reaching out to its public. You'll never get everybody, but you do have to make it easier to access.
Just as a note, I think scientific literacy has declined, but possibly only in a minor fashion, and I believe that this may be on a generation-length cycle. I do, however, not have any evidence of any sort to back that up.
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Date: 2006-06-09 03:41 am (UTC)First is that I think that the gap between common knowledge and the scientific frontier is now too large to bridge by conventional means. And I believe that this gap will always grow larger. Eventually, science is going to have to either cut lose from civilian supervision whatsoever (which is an unreasonable expectation), or they will have to make people more capable of learning on their own. This will require a paradigm shift in how science is taught in schools, and it will require a much easier-to-use outreach framework.
Second is that I think that science may actually need some evangelism. There are powers who bring things like Nepal to our attention. On the other hand, scientists seem notoriously adverse to their own public relations. I think this behavior is self-destructive. I can't guarantee that people will come flocking, but I have met a lot of people who think that what we do is neat, but can't find anything explaining about it. Part of this requires science to be better at reaching out to its public. You'll never get everybody, but you do have to make it easier to access.
Just as a note, I think scientific literacy has declined, but possibly only in a minor fashion, and I believe that this may be on a generation-length cycle. I do, however, not have any evidence of any sort to back that up.