Obama's technology agenda | Hacker News Reader

Obama's technology agenda

whitehouse.gov

12 pointsmixmax7 comments

Restore Scientific Integrity to the White House: Restore the basic principle that government decisions should be based on the best-available, scientifically-valid evidence and not on ideological predispositions.

Well that doesn't pull any punches.

Doesn't throw any either.

Doesn't need to - they just need to state what they want to do, then do it.

I think it does. It clearly implies that ideology took precedence over evidence in the previous White House. That's a significant punch, if making a true statement counts as a "punch".

Of course, almost anything can, and has, been given a "science shine". (This shouldn't be surprising - scientists are humans too.)

As Eisehower put it in his farewell address "Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific technological elite."

There is a difference between Obama wanting to base his decisions on actual scientific evidence (when available) and turning the decision making process itself (ie. policy) into a science, which is what Eisenhower was fearing there.

> turning the decision making process itself (ie. policy) into a science, which is what Eisenhower was fearing there

Huh? Eisenhower didn't say anything about making decision making into a science, let alone warn about doing so. (Note that operations research and the like, that is science/math aided decision tools, were a huge part of Allied success in WWII, something that Eisenhower presumably knew something about.)

Instead, he warned about the "danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific technological elite." Elite is people and "scientific technological" tells describes them. In a later time, they were called "the best and the brightest".

Eisenhower is warning about "back off man, I'm a scientist" and more subtle versions. Scientists will lab-coat personal preferences.

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