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Congress is considering eliminating NSF funding for all Political Sciences.  It passed the house and is on its way to the Senate.  The discussion and debate runs the gamut, and certainly bears some relationship to the scientific value of many other aspects of the social sciences, where many similarly parallel situations and observations arise.  It will be interesting to see how the arguments play out on the American political stage. The NY Times ran an op-ed piece of interest, and the Washington Post had one a couple of weeks back, June 6th.  I found the NY Times a bit surprising.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/opinion/sunday/political-scientists-are-lousy-forecasters.html?ref=nationalsciencefoundation

There's some truths in many of the accusations and claims by both sides (and I'm sure we all have our own opinions), and I agree with the likely fact that all science basically comes to something ultimately unknowable.  But one key factor, after many years of NSF research support, is that apparently prediction and foresight still amount to something equivalent to random chance when it comes to human social behaviors.
C


The opinions and thoughts expressed here are my own and should in no way be construed or attributed to the Exploratorium or related organization, and do not represent an institutional position.
Charles Carlson
Senior Scientist
exploratorium
3601 Lyon St.
San Francisco, CA 94123
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Tel:   415-561-0319
Fax:  415-561-0370
http://blogs.exploratorium.edu/whyintercept/









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