DawnmarieAug 20, 2023
Carl T. Bergstrom

The Nation published a damning story about the depth of Harvard's ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/jeffrey-epstein-harvard-summers/

I have no doubt that almost all of it is true.

However, there's an egregious lapse in fact-checking that does an injustice to Stephen Jay Gould. In the story, Alan Dershowitz claims that Gould was a regular at Program for Evolutionary Dynamics events at One Brattle Square.

Gould died in 2002. Nowak came to Harvard and opened the One Brattle Square facility in 2003.

How Jeffrey Epstein Captivated Harvard

And how the university has yet to give a full accounting.

The Nation
Aug 17, 2023 at 8:01amWeb
Show threadCarl T. BergstromAug 17, 2023
(Also not sure I buy this inference. Not to defend Nowak but if you were interested in the genetics in order to seed the human race with your DNA, why would a mathematician known for phenotypic gambit modeling—basically, ignoring genetics—be anywhere near the top of your list of people to enlist?)
Show threadMax F.J. SchnetkerAug 17, 2023

@ct_bergstrom That is because technicalist Ideology is at it's core about justifiying social hierarchy, not about understanding technology and the natural world.

Singularitarians/AI Doomers are not interested in the material reality of AI technology.

Transhumanists/Eugenicists are not really interested in the material reality of genetic Engineering.

Any geneticists would probably not have acted as a Yes-Man to Epsteins Ideas. So no funding for that, but for a mathematician.

Show threadMax F.J. SchnetkerAug 17, 2023

@ct_bergstrom

They need to have that air of Reductionism, of "core thruths" and "first principles" to account for the fact that their ideas are based on prejudice and shitty modelling and would not work in practice.

Basically applying the approach of neoclassical economics to other sciences.

Show threadCarl T. BergstromAug 17, 2023
@MSchnetker that’s a fair argument, though of course you do have to explain George Church. (I think that’s fairly easy and I think the answer doesn’t make George look good.)
Show threadMax F.J. SchnetkerAug 17, 2023

@ct_bergstrom

Yes, I may have to weaken the argument from "any geneticist" to "most.

But I think as a description of Epsteins criteria for science funding it still holds. There was an article a while back based on an interview with him, in which he expressed that mindset.

https://www.science.org/content/article/what-kind-researcher-did-sex-offender-jeffrey-epstein-fund-he-told-science-he-died

That Epstein collected a vanity club of scientific Yes-Men has also been reported.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/31/business/jeffrey-epstein-eugenics.html

Show threadAlexey MerzAug 18, 2023
@ct_bergstrom Because the driver is confirmation bias rather than technical proficiency.
Show threadRaven OnthillAug 17, 2023
@ct_bergstrom if Dershowitz is cited, it is not trustworthy work. Dershowitz is not an honest man.
Show threadAlexey MerzAug 18, 2023
@ravenonthill @ct_bergstrom Beat me to it.
Show thread'Spooky' JohnnyAug 17, 2023
@ct_bergstrom Damn, that's... one hell of an oversight. Makes me sit and really think if I'd have caught such a thing, or if I've missed details like that, and what that says about how I should go about my consumption of news media to catch things like that.
Show threadzl2todAug 17, 2023
@ct_bergstrom
Dershowitz bullshitting?
How can that be?
Show threadHTTP 1.1/418 TeapotAug 17, 2023
@ct_bergstrom Solid catch.
Show threadAugust PamplonaAug 17, 2023
@ct_bergstrom
Show threadKevin RussellAug 17, 2023

@ct_bergstrom

Alan Dershowitz is the strong version of ipecac.

Show threadJoeAug 18, 2023
Was unfamiliar with Nowak, but turns out he received money from two pedophiles - Epstein and Schrodinger (a postdoc scholarship from his foundation/estate). No blame for the latter, of course, but what a world.