Analysis
What does science in India feel like?
Indian society has inhabited at least three distinct structures of feeling in relation to science since independence — and they are not as continuous as one might expect.
rationalism
Culture
Let's discuss, with conditions
Writing prompt: What topics do you like to discuss? I like to discuss everything under the Sun. However, I’m also wary of people who waste time talking about something in a way that couldn’t possibly lead to a useful insight or a changed mind but are in fact
Analysis
The guiding light of KD45
On the subject of belief, I’m instinctively drawn to logical systems that demand consistency, closure, and introspection. And the KD45 system among them exerts a special pull. It consists of the following axioms: * K (closure): If you believe an implication and you believe the antecedent, then you believe the
Analysis
Scientists' conduct affects science
Nature News has published an excellent feature by Edwin Cartlidge on the "wall of scepticism" that arose in response to the latest superconductivity claim from Ranga Dias et al., purportedly in a compound called nitrogen-doped lutetium hydride. It seems the new paper has earned a note of
Analysis
The devil's lassi
‘The Devil’s Milkshake’, Tarence Ray in The Baffler, February 23, 2023: You’ve seen it before. An industrial disaster poisons a town’s food or water supply. Residents get angry. Public officials try to dispel that anger through a public act of self-sacrifice, of reassurance. They convene a
Science
There's a scientistic eclipse
There is a solar eclipse today and news websites are as usual participating in amplifying nonsense. It's prima facie not nonsense in and of itself but because it's not qualified as astrological material. That is, it's an example of news sites not exercising good
Science
'Science people'
Two of the most annoying kinds of 'science people' I've come across on social media of late: * Those who perform rationalism – These people seem to know a small subset of things well and the rest on faith, and claim to know that "science can explain
Analysis
Slate Star Codex: No time for malice
This post benefited from valuable input and feedback from Thomas Manuel. To the uninitiated: Scott Alexander Siskind is a noted member of the international community of rationalists and wrote the once-celebrated blog Slate Star Codex. I use the past tense because Siskind used to write this blog from the
Analysis
The real story of 'The Old Guard'
Spoiler alert: Don't read this post if you intend to watch The Old Guard but haven't done so yet. The Old Guard, an action film starring Charlize Theron among others, released on Netflix on July 10. In a scene in the film, Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) delivers
Culture
The rationalists' eclipse
The annular solar eclipse over South India on December 26 provided sufficient cause for casual and/or inchoate rationalism to make a rare public appearance – rarer than the average person who had decided to stay indoors for the duration of the event thanks to superstitious beliefs. Scientists and science communicators
Op-eds
The alleged politicisation of science
"Don't politicise X" has become the defence of choice for a class of scientists and public intellectuals in India whose class and caste privilege utterly blinds them to various inequities in the practice of science – as privilege is wont to do – and who labour with the
Uncategorized
Some notes on empiricism, etc.
The Wire published a story about the 'atoms of Acharya Kanad' (background here; tl;dr: Folks at a university in Gujarat claimed an ancient Indian sage had put forth the theory of atoms centuries before John Dalton showed up). The story in question was by a professor of