Michael Specter: What Happens When We Ignore Scientific Consensus?

Some of the farmers in my area use GMO seed,as for vaccinations, people need to remember all the people that have been saved by them.

Ignore consensus; we get Einstein, disappearance of small pox, and the world's most thriving economy

Author, Michael Specter, attended Vassar as an English major who has lived most of his life in NYC, Wash DC or overseas working as a reporter.

You mean like when we question the folks who decided it was a good idea to create bombs capable of leveling entire cities and poisoning the earth for ages? How about those geniuses who decided that the best way to treat mental illness was by hooking up electrodes to someone's head? I know... like those people who sell "Ursapedsidmidolosol" during those commercials where the list of possible side effects include everything from paralysis to stroke...just so people can dull the pain of decades of regret.

Don't get me wrong, science is a powerful took in understanding our world, and adapting to life's challenges. However, I don't personally think a physicist, a climatologist, or cardiologist are any more valuable to society, or any more immune from well-intended error than a truck driver, or a small business owner. The problem, in my personal opinion, is that some people feel that once they get a few letters after their name...no one else has a right to question them. Nine times out of ten, it's probable that what the scientists say is right...but when that tenth time includes fundamentally re-shaping our social and economic systems in potentially costly and dangerous ways...it only makes sense to ask what the "active ingredients" are.