George Rebane
The progressive plague is well on its way into the STEM fields, seeking to put their moralizing stamp on what our STEM workers should (and ultimately can) think about and work on. The same progressive pinheads have finally concluded that the discoveries of science and the developments of engineering are not ‘value neutral’ as they have been since the Enlightenment. Yes indeed, the fruits of STEM can be both sweet and bitter, and since today we only believe in the newly issued one-sided coins, the bitter side must be banished.
To accomplish this requires the application of stronger stuff than STEAM (more here). The pinheads have established STS (science, technology, society) studies, a new field now ensconced in the ‘liberal arts havens’ on the other side of campus. But the STS folks have already convinced university administrations (birds of a feather) that STEM workers should be required to keep one eye on some definite notions of social good as they noodle new stuff and expand existing technologies to work in new ways.
You see, the STS pinheads today demand that STEM workers should anticipate the problems that may arise at some future time from the discoveries they make today. And doing so will enable these techies to holler a timely ‘Whoa!’ and flip a switch to enable them to forget the potentially bad discovery, concept, or idea they had. To ensure that this will be done in STEM fields, the STS police intend to hold the techies responsible in some yet to be determined but not hard to imagine ways. Think of the expanded tort laws and whole new areas of litigation all this will open up. Engineers and scientists will have to take out ‘Bad Idea’ policies to protect their families and nest eggs.
To insure that the impact of STS will fall on STEM sooner than later, the pinheads now want to move their departments physically into the campus science and engineering buildings. And soon every STEM company will have its own STS compliance department keeping tabs on and educating workers how to correctly conduct inventing and discovering so that only social good will result from such properly managed efforts.
The pinheads really believe that STS policing is possible and will have no effect on America’s innovation engine. The more cynical and pragmatic progressives already realize that STS is another way to bring the United States to its knees, for that is the only way that we can be made to stagger willingly toward the new world order.
To show the progress made in promoting STS, please read ‘STEM Crisis? What about the STS Crisis?’ in the October 2016 issue of the formerly hallowed IEEE Spectrum (full disclosure, I am a Life Member of the IEEE). This piece by its new and progressive editor-in-chief Susan Hassler (pictured and not a techie) ends with –
In the 20th century it was possible for scientists and engineers to plead ignorance. In many ways we really didn’t understand the impact of the inventions we made until we saw them in action. But now, deep into the 21st century, there can be no excuse for failure on the part of technologists to imagine—and take responsibility for—the futures they are creating for us all.
By her works this woman knows very little of human nature, less about the functioning of society, and nothing of the creative process in science and technology. In sum, her piece goes beyond what the Catholic Church attempted with its Inquisition during the Renaissance. And with that history under our belt, we categorize such attempts to implement STS as being beyond evil.
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