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thoughts on what science for the people is and believes, prompted because the massive enterprise of American science is truly under fascist attack vs the liberalism of before. lowkey my own draft of the sftp statement
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If you can understand forces like electricity and magnetism, you can understand how a force like white supremacy works. That is why I hate apolitical scientists, because you're being willfully ignorant of reality for no logical reason. Your intolerance effortlessly translates into daily actions and honestly, just your personality. Ignoring such a big fact about the world means your ignorance is all you become. How could it not when you deny the truth at every turn?
Radical scientists like me, we want a world where knowledge is accurately valued. For too long people have overvalued white, male, capitalist, murderous knowledge and science has greatly suffered from that imbalance. Science is a fundamental pursuit of humanity and I think there are so many people out there whose purpose in life is scientific study & discovery. But a million killers have killed hundreds of millions who could've changed the world with their minds, eradicating that knowledge for no logical, rational, or valid emotional reason. To me, it's pure logical sense that human diversity in science results in a more enlightened world for all, and that things improving for everyone is good for EVERYONE including YOURSELF. I'm selfish the same way every human is and it makes so much sense to grab the answer that will sustain us than kill us. That's why for so long my reaction to close-minded scientists was emotional, because the lack of base logic is upsetting. For them, their brain hears "circle" and goes to "square" while mine hears "circle" and goes to "sphere". The snap logic is so immediate, like sight words for elementary school kids. I guess that's why they act like children when you try to change their mind. I oscillate between condescension and empathy which makes me think I'm not best suited for dealing with ignorant scientists, because I think they deserve more empathy than I can muster. What does radical science practice look like? What would scientists do and learn about? How would they do research and communicate their ideas? regeneration.org is a great resource!!!!!! List of science fields off the top of my head: climate stabilization, many sustainable fields like materials science, architecture, ethical farming, regenerative agriculture, renewable energy, mass medicine, environmental protection, medical imaging technology, astrophysics, biocompatible robotics, rare disease research, the study of the human mind... I think to build the world we (radicals) want, we need to BE the world we want. That means actually practicing radical science in our lives. To me that means I need to do research, have a good question and find the answer, then document it one day so people don't forget. I'll tease some ideas now for posterity-- medical imaging is first for me of course, if you know me you know that's a big passion of mine. Making MRI machines cheaper and safer & doing cool ass microscopy stuff... it's photography on steroids! We've made machines that can look inside the body and tell us what's wrong, I think that's fundamentally dope and want to figure out how to do more. I've very briefly looked into Airy beams and want to explore non-linear light through art, and I know it has tons of potential for medical applications too. I love so much Indigenous science research going on right now like Josiah Hester’s research. Energy management is a field I'd like to explore more, materials science... and I have a faith, perhaps one that can be viewed as more religious than scientific, in something there’s yet to be any scientific evidence for: the other powers of the atom.
A "real" radical science practice is hard because robust science needs an abundance of resources and those resources are currently funneled to science for war. I wish there was a center dedicated to this science practice that we could go to and do cool things with, but I think we're so at the beginning we need to create the first center. And truly, a real radical science practice involves the creation & connection of multiple institutions (hate that word) rather than just one. But I'm trying to learn where my place is and I think we can be ancestors of a better world. It has to start somewhere. Society has changed the most because of scientific revolutions. Agriculture first led humanity to consciousness. The wheel revolutionized movement. The Industrial Revolution changed how we manipulate energy, creating and redirecting and consuming. The Digital Revolution followed the creation of computers, allowing us to connect with each other and share information across the entire world. The development of each of these sciences and the hundreds of branches that exist within them have completely changed the world on levels we overlook, because they feel so essential to human life it's hard to believe we, all of humanity, existed without it.
Social revolution always comes with scientific revolution. There was one in physics not long ago-- the discovery and acceptance of quantum mechanics-- and some physicists like Amit Goswami have seen how quantum mechanics can change our whole civilization. I agree, but I also want to note that understanding the world exists as possibilities and possibility of possibility has always been understood by oppressed people. All of us who live in a terrible world have visions of better ones. Right now, in the PRESENT, we see other worlds. I know our concrete reality is the existence of multiple things at the same time. The world is diverse and exists equally for everybody across the world. If we practiced a non white supremacist science-- a practice that is inclusive and fundamentally understood our multidimensional existence instead of only growing the empire's mind-- I feel confident in saying that we would've unlocked quantum mechanics sooner. I hope more people, especially scientists, see how social inclusivity will lead us to more scientific accuracy-- not less and not equal, but more. I see all the negativity in the world as a measure of all the positivity we could possibly put into the world. We can be so much more... and in a real way, we already ARE so much more. It's just about looking towards that world instead of sticking to classical (antiquated) beliefs. |