Technology keeps science honest. But for subjects that are incredibly complex, such as Alzheimer’s disease and criminal behavior, the connection between scientific knowledge and technology is tenuous and mediated by many assumptions — assumptions about how science works (mouse brains are good models for human brains); about how society works (criminal behavior is caused by brain chemistry); or about how technology works (drugs that modify brain chemistry are a good way to change criminal behavior). The assumptions become invisible parts of the way scientists design experiments, interpret data, and apply their findings. The result is ever more elaborate theories — theories that remain self-referential, and unequal to the task of finding solutions to human problems.
In a world of causal density, such theories amount to bubbe-meisis.
The article is long with many themes, enough to offend just about everyone.
We definitely should pay government employees to do whatever fancies them, otherwise really bad things could happen.