On The Origin of Quantum Bling

Commercial Cosmology

"Commercial science" is composed of those scientists who work for commercial enterprises to promote products rather than to promote science:

"When do we hold someone responsible for a harm? What if the harm is climate change?

In determining responsibility for a harm, courts are likely to ask: Did they have the capacity to foresee the harm? And, did they have the opportunity to avoid or reduce it? For example, by warning others.

 

Growing public evidence demonstrates that Exxon and other oil companies understood climate risks by the 1980s, yet spent millions to sow uncertainty and misinformation about climate science.

 

The documents that follow—industry histories, scientific articles, oral testimonies, patents—span more than half a century of industry research and industry action. 

 

They offer compelling evidence that oil executives were actively debating climate science in the 1950s, and were explicitly warned about climate risks a decade later. 

 

Just as importantly, they offer glimpses into why the industry undertook this research, and how it used the results to sow scientific uncertainty and public skepticism."

(Smoke And Fumes, emphasis added). Commercial science bling makes Zen Buddhism morph into ZenBootyIsm (Small Brains Considered - 7). 

This is an ancient practice even spoken of in ancient texts, thousands of years old (which are still up to date):

"By your wisdom and discernment you have acquired wealth, you have gathered gold and silver into your treasuries ... By your great skill in trading you have increased your wealth, and it is because of your wealth that you have become so proud ... You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, until unrighteousness was found in you ... When your commerce grew, you became filled with violence; and in this way you sinned ... Your heart grew proud because of your beauty, you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor ... By your many crimes in dishonest trading, you have profaned your sanctuaries"

(Exekiel 28, Complete Jewish Bible). It was addressed to the "King of Tyre", the leading seaport city of ancient Phoenicia (Seaports With Sea Level Change - 10a).

There is a lot of this commercial science that controls what the commercial media allow on the airwaves and what the scientific journals allow to be published:

"I suspect the existence of what I call the `John Mercer effect'. Mercer (1978) suggested that global warming from burning of fossil fuels could lead to disastrous disintegration of the West Antarctic ice sheet, with a sea level rise of several meters worldwide. This was during the era when global warming was beginning to get attention from the United States Department of Energy and other science agencies. I noticed that scientists who disputed Mercer, suggesting that his paper was alarmist, were treated as being more authoritative.

It was not obvious who was right on the science, but it seemed to me, and I believe to most scientists, that the scientists preaching caution and downplaying the dangers of climate change fared better in receipt of research funding. Drawing attention to the dangers of global warming may or may not have helped increase funding for relevant scientific areas, but it surely did not help individuals like Mercer who stuck their heads out. I could vouch for that from my own experience. After I published a paper (Hansen et al 1981) that described likely climate effects of fossil fuel use, the Department of Energy reversed a decision to fund our research, specifically highlighting and criticizing aspects of that paper at a workshop in Coolfont, West Virginia and in publication (MacCracken 1983).

I believe there is a pressure on scientists to be conservative. Papers are accepted for publication more readily if they do not push too far and are larded with caveats. Caveats are essential to science, being born in skepticism, which is essential to the process of investigation and verification. But there is a question of degree. A tendency for `gradualism' as new evidence comes to light may be ill-suited for communication, when an issue with a short time fuse is concerned."

(The Warming Science Commentariat - 12, quoting Dr. James Hansen). The dynamic of commercialism is seen 24/7 on the airwaves of the visual media of our civilization.

It is at the heart of what has caused civilization suicide from the time of the first civilization until now (How To Identify The Despotic Minority - 14).