Michael Crichton on Scientism

A delightful discovery: an excellent lecture by Michael Crichton to CalTech students on junk science trends in modern policy and media. Crichton's got a great list: The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, The Population Bomb, Nuclear Winter, Second Hand Smoke. He suggests Global Warming is the latest deity to be added to this dubious pantheon. There are lots of good points here, e.g., the tension between the methodological demands of good empirical science and the sociological realities of the use and abuse of consensus.