Reply #51: Most scientists I've met are literate; but most engineers/techies/computer nerds are not...

[arendt]

the computer guys are the ignoramuses whom Ortega y Gosset railed against in "The Revolt of the Masses". Net-billionaires who never finished high school (I exaggerate).

Today's scientists have to absorb and integrate immense complexity just to do their jobs. Too bad, that the current mis-administration has decided to censor them and ignore them. But, this is America, where football teams drive university investment decisions.

I would make an analogy of your question:

"Can we" is akin to the "syntax of science", whereas

"should we" is akin to the "semantics of science".

If you are a computer person, you know that syntax is trivial to check, while semantics is damn-near AI. In computers, you often have semantic errors leaking through the compiler only to crash the code. Then, you get a human to find the semantic error (i.e., debug the code).

When the same thing happens in science, the code crash can look like Chernobyl.

arendt