Aaron and Ecolog:
My take on Dr. Dossey's point is that BASIC research IS needed, but what is
needed even more is the INTEGRATION of what is "known" and a coherent
approach that brings scientific disciplines into better focus. This means
simple honesty and discussion of issues rather than resorting to arguing
from authority--an increasingly unfortunate habit despite its long
recognition in academia as fallacious.
While I believe I may understand what Dossey is getting at when he refers to
the attitude, also unfortunately increasing, of "ivory-towerism," I do not
believe that throwing the grandpa's out with the bathwater will alone solve
much.
When science or any other form of human endeavor concentrates power, both
discipline and freedom suffer. Academia has its flaws, but it remains an
important element in personal and social development.
A sculptor once said, when asked how he could create beauty out of a piece
of rock, "I just cut away the ugly part." There is a strong tendency within
academia to concentrate power, toward elitism, and egocentrism among
academics. But there are notable exceptions--the beautiful part. What is
needed, and what is coming, spontaneously it seems, is a kind of automatic
reformation process. Universities are suffering funding cuts, "for-profit"
universities have been springing up like toadstools, sucking in students who
cannot, for a multitude of reasons take advantage of "no-profit" (but still
gold-mines of privilege for those IN "the club") universities, and true
learning suffers. Student loans have become a windfall for both categories,
and students and taxpayers have to pick up the tab.
If a revolution is to be averted or avoided, there will have to be some
cutting away of the ugly parts. Trouble is, the ugly parts tend to have the
power and will resist.
The biggest elephant in the room is whether the whole process of gaining a
better understanding of reality is or is not the central goal and guiding
principle of the "education system" or any subset thereof, or if, as many
students seem to believe, a mere struggle to acquire anointment in the form
of a certification or "degree," regardless of the understanding actually
gained from the process. It's not that the products produced by the system
do not gain understanding, it's the focus upon the "ticket to ride" as
opposed to the ability to think, to use the knowledge gained that undercuts
such actual abilities.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Big Business, for example, is
less and less interested in certificates and more and more interested in
what people can actually DO. That is another elephant in the room--the
tendency of the educational system to see itself as a factory for turning
out a "qualified" workforce rather than well-integrated human beings.
To reiterate Dossey's main point: BASIC research is related to the
understanding of principles that can be applied, empirically tested, and
hold up under the feedback generated by applications--or be modified or
replaced with ones that can.
WT
PS: I expect to return on or before October 10.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Aaron T. Dossey" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2012 8:49 AM
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Confession and Technology Transfer?
The problem is that we are in a society of "haves" and "have nots" and the
innovators tent to fall into the "have not" category. ("haves" have no
incentive to be innovative, creative or work hard, since they already
have) Thus, anyone with truly innovative ideas and passion/skill for
pursuing them is probably in my same boat as an unemployed entrepreneur at
best and thus doesn't have money to pay themselves, much less anyone else.
Basic scientific research needs a private sector non-university
alternative! Universities and the tenured professor elite have failed
society - on all fronts: education, careers and research. We need
alternative competition to the ivory tower for those of us innovators who
have lost faith in the ivory tower yet still wish to move our innovations
forward without them!
On 9/12/2012 11:34 AM, Wayne Tyson wrote:
Dear Ecolog and friends:
I have been retired since 2000, when I "sold" my 21-year consulting
business to a newly-minted Ph.D. whom I met through Ecolog. This turned
out to be a mistake, and I do not hold myself blameless. The bottom line
is that I did not profit from this "sale," and my retirement fund was not
big enough to fund a modest lifestyle, especially after the "Crash of
2008." Since then, my wife and I have been "eating our seed corn,"
causing our "nest egg" to shrink even further. I now find it necessary to
find some way to make a little extra income.
I do not wish to "sell" my old consulting business; the five years that
it was operated by the new "owner" did not greatly enhance its
reputation. I do not want to open another consulting business; however, I
would be interested in being a part-time employee of a small existing
company or "startup" that is interested in ecosystem restoration and
related fields.
My knowledge is both limited and unlimited-well, in a way. I have always
been interested in working up and out from principles rather than a
"cookbook" approach to practice--understanding rather than "knowledge
application." Inevitably, however, my work has been referred to as a
"method," and that is partly, perhaps largely, my own fault. In my
ignorance, I once wrote an article in which I referred to a particular
technique used on one project as a "method." The response to this article
(many requests for "specifications") and being professionally frustrated
in my cushy 11-year government job caused me to hang out my shingle as a
consultant that year.
Despite my considerable ignorance with respect to running a business, I
managed to make a decent living out of doing what I love for 21 years. I
have drafted a sampling of projects that have been continuously
successful without irrigation, fertilization, or maintenance that are as
old as forty years and as recent as ten or more years for which
photographs are still available, along with coordinates and links to
Google Maps. However, much of my work has been of a purely consulting
nature (government agencies, project review, NGO's and the like). I have
written several papers, mostly of a general nature. I am not primarily a
researcher, but a consumer of research. I have grown a lot, and I
continue growing.
If anyone is interested in working out some mutually-convenient
arrangement by which I might earn a modest income in exchange for my
modest, part-time involvement, I would like to hear your ideas and
aspirations.
I am leaving tomorrow for my usual extended fall tour of the western
United States, but plan to return earlier than normal sometime before
October 11 for a short period when I will read my email before I leave
again . I do not take any form of electronic device other than a low-tech
cell phone on these trips, so this gives any interested parties a month
to reply by email (unless they do so before we leave tomorrow--or maybe
not until Saturday), but to those who do request more information by
then, I will provide my cell phone number (realizing that I am most often
out of cell-phone range on these trips).
Respectfully submitted,
Wayne Tyson
--
Aaron T. Dossey, Ph.D.
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Founder/Owner: All Things Bugs
Capitalizing on Low-Crawling Fruit from Insect-Based Innovation
http://allthingsbugs.com/about/people/
http://www.facebook.com/Allthingsbugs
1-352-281-3643
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