I went to a talk lately that was mostly about something else, but the speaker came out with:

“If you only remember one thing from this talk, remember this. Everyone in this room who likes helping people, raise your hand.”

Every hand, or nearly every hand, went up.

“If you like asking other people for help, keep your hand up.”

Almost every hand went back down.

“As you can see, people like helping you. When you ask for help, you’re making them feel good, even if you don’t like asking.”

I’ve genuinely forgotten the rest of the presentation but I won’t forget that.

Dear Royal Society: please stop lending legitimacy to Elon Musk

I’ll be sending this letter to the Royal Society, but I also want it out there in public, because I hope that more people will follow the lead set by Dorothy Bishop and Stephen Curry in putting pressure on the Royal Society to grow a backbone.

Dear Royal Society of London,

You exist to support the advancement of science. Your ability to do this effectively is largely due to the respect your society is held in, due to its long history and numerous eminent Fellows.

In 2018, Elon Musk was elected a Fellow of the Society, not due to any scientific achievements of his own but due to his financial involvement with the achievements of others. At the time, his fellowship was questionable but understandable.

Since then, Musk’s behaviour in every field has been the antithesis of that described by the Society’s Code of Conduct: “selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership”. I surely do not need to outline the ways in which his exploitative and malicious behaviour has egregiously and repeatedly contravened these standards.

Now Musk is an influential member of a US presidential administration that is actively impeding the progress of science on a scale not seen since the darkest days of the USSR, through censorship, catastrophic defunding, dismantling of infrastructure, and withdrawal from international coalitions. Added to this, his vindictive personal behaviour in targeting individuals contravenes every standard of decency.

At present, the Royal Society is seen to be standing behind Musk, its Fellow, effectively cheering him on. This cannot stand. The reputation of the society, carefully built across 365 years, is at stake. No-one can respect a society that retains Musk as a Fellow. The resignation of Dorothy Bishop, in protest at Musk’s continuing fellowship, should have sent waves of shame through the Society. That it has not meaningfully responded to her resignation should be a cause of further shame.

The choice now facing the Society is stark: retain the goodwill of a billionaire; or retain the respect of the scientific community. It is not possible to do both.

Yours with all due respect,

Dr. Michael P. Taylor
University of Bristol, UK.
[email protected]

doi:10.59350/x69x0-97j40

I've always appreciated the "speech chain" as a way to frame communication. I like that it explicitly includes an acoustic signal 👂 (which can be degraded) and feedback to the speaker. And brains. 🧠

So, this is the first figure in my book, and informs the rest. 🧵

#neuroscienceoflanguage

Dorothy Bishop’s Resignation from the Royal Society

Just a quick post to draw your attention to a blog post by eminent pyschologist Dorothy Bishop, who has just taken the decision to resign as a Fellow of the Royal Society in protest at that institution’s refusal to strip Elon Musk of the status of FRS he was awarded in 2018.

Here’s an excerpt from the post:

For many scientists, election to the Royal Society is the pinnacle of their scientific career. It establishes that their achievements are recognised as exceptional, and the title FRS brings immediate respect from colleagues. Of course, things do not always work out as they should. Some Fellows may turn out to have published fraudulent work, or go insane and start promoting crackpot ideas. Although there are procedures that allow a fellow to be expelled from the Royal Society, I have been told this has not happened for over 150 years.

The post – which is very well written – goes on to explain why Musk is unfit to hold the title FRS and why attempts to expel him have stalled. I suggest you read it all.

I’m not a Fellow of the Royal Society, and will never be elected such, but it beats me why any self-respecting scientist would want to be a member of the Elon Musk Fan Club anyway.

#ElonMusk #RoyalSociety #Science #technology