Comments on: Book review – Understanding Ignorance: The Surprising Impact of What We Don’t Know

By: Book review – The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge | The Inquisitive Biologist

Fri, 01 Mar 2019 11:34:03 +0000

[…] Detractors might argue that fundamental research is a colossal waste of intellectual capacity at a time when we have urgent problems. Neither Flexner back then, nor Dijkgraaf now argue that applied research has no place. But we need both strategies, we need to bet on both horses – in the long-term, new inventions and new solutions to the world’s problems can only come into existence if people have the option and freedom to try, to tinker, and to fail. At the root of every useful invention is the pursuit of (what was initially perceived as) useless knowledge. As Firestein also argues in Failure: Why Science is So Successful, yes, in the process we will waste time and money – some research will never result in anything “useful”. But the payoff when we hit on something is tremendous. We need to be willing to take that risk, and willing to accept that there will be some wastage along the way. As the Dutch say: “Waar gehakt wordt, vallen spaanders” – I’m sure Dijkgraaf knows what I mean. And, I would add, it is the fundamental nature of ignorance that we cannot predict what will be useful down the road (see also Ignorance: How It Drives Science and my review of Understanding Ignorance: The Surprising Impact of What We Don’t Know). […]

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By: Book review – The Lost Species: Great Expeditions in the Collections of Natural History Museums | The Inquisitive Biologist

Mon, 23 Apr 2018 10:38:21 +0000

[…] I think it is safe to say that if natural history museums have a dirty little secret it is that collecting specimens is much less time-consuming than describing species. As a consequence of centuries of collection efforts by naturalists and explorers, the world’s natural history museums are overflowing with literally billions of specimens (which does raise some troubling questions about how money and effort is allocated…). Much of this material goes undescribed, a large chunk (Kemp quotes estimates of as much as 50%!) has been misidentified. For many groups only highly-trained specialists (taxonomists) can make the distinction between species, and recognising and describing new ones can take years of painstaking work. The situation is only made worse by the lack of curators and qualified taxonomists. And seeing that many of these species are not necessarily the sexiest (nematodes, anyone?) funding cuts are making the chronic shortage of money and manpower only worse. The amount of work that remains to be done is dizzying and sobering at the same time. We would need armies of taxonomists to get to grips with it. The Lost Species is filled with real-life examples of the unknowns that DeNicola described in theoretical terms in Understanding Ignorance: The Surprising Impact of What We Don’t Know. […]

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By: inquisitivebiologist

inquisitivebiologist — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 14:34:10 +0000

Thanks for your thoughts, this kind of “organised” ignorance is indeed another form DeNicola mentions in his book.

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By: Robert

Robert — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 14:29:46 +0000

The authorities themselves have always relied on ignorance to justify their control and income and have required ignorance out of entire classes of people whether you are talking politics, religion, economics, military, science or medicine! Cultivated ignorance is the goal of the leadership!

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