🔬🚫 In the spring of 2022, a new strain of the sanctions virus hit a vital organ of the international body - global science.
In the West, they began to actively talk about the expediency to end contacts with Russian scientific institutions and resolutely moved from words to deeds.
The trolley problem was born in 1967 thanks to the English philosopher and ethicist Philippa Foot. In relation to the current situation, freely interpreted, the problem can be described as follows. The trolley, driven by a rather wayward driver, crashes into a crowd of commuters who were waiting at the station to board other trams. He rapidly crushes them, but it is possible to throw a lever so that the train turns onto a neighbouring track. This track proceeds through a series of branches, each of which has a separate switch (in railway terms - switch street), which leads to a cliff. Having fallen from it, the train with passengers (or at least the locomotive, as well as the first class cars in the front of the train) will break. Moreover, on the rails there are other individuals from among those who did not have time or did not want to buy a ticket. Some of them will also be crushed to death by a tram or left crippled.
The railway switches in this model are obviously the sanctions, the switchmen are those who impose them.
❓With what speed and in what sequence will the switches be thrown?
❓Is it justified to count on the train stopping as a result of one of the passengers or train crew will turn on the emergency brake?
❓Is it necessary to think at all about minimising casualties among those who fell asleep?
It’s precisely these questions, apparently, that the participants in an abstract thought experiment and specific political processes are asking themselves, including decision makers in the field of foreign and scientific policy.
In fact, we are talking about symptoms of diplomatic impotence, writes Roman Reinhardt.
#Norms_and_Values #sanctions #science
@valdai_club
In the West, they began to actively talk about the expediency to end contacts with Russian scientific institutions and resolutely moved from words to deeds.
The trolley problem was born in 1967 thanks to the English philosopher and ethicist Philippa Foot. In relation to the current situation, freely interpreted, the problem can be described as follows. The trolley, driven by a rather wayward driver, crashes into a crowd of commuters who were waiting at the station to board other trams. He rapidly crushes them, but it is possible to throw a lever so that the train turns onto a neighbouring track. This track proceeds through a series of branches, each of which has a separate switch (in railway terms - switch street), which leads to a cliff. Having fallen from it, the train with passengers (or at least the locomotive, as well as the first class cars in the front of the train) will break. Moreover, on the rails there are other individuals from among those who did not have time or did not want to buy a ticket. Some of them will also be crushed to death by a tram or left crippled.
The railway switches in this model are obviously the sanctions, the switchmen are those who impose them.
❓With what speed and in what sequence will the switches be thrown?
❓Is it justified to count on the train stopping as a result of one of the passengers or train crew will turn on the emergency brake?
❓Is it necessary to think at all about minimising casualties among those who fell asleep?
It’s precisely these questions, apparently, that the participants in an abstract thought experiment and specific political processes are asking themselves, including decision makers in the field of foreign and scientific policy.
In fact, we are talking about symptoms of diplomatic impotence, writes Roman Reinhardt.
#Norms_and_Values #sanctions #science
@valdai_club
Valdai Club
The Sanctions Trolley and the Scientific Dead End
On February 24, the attitude of the Western public towards Russians changed overnight. Exactly at once. One can talk about this in terms of the dialectical transition of quantity into quality, one can even name its exact time if you wish.
🎓 Strong science means a strong state.
The backbone infrastructure of Soviet science was created during the years of the main crisis of the 20th century — the Second World War. In 1942-1943, MIFI, the Kurchatov Institute, MGIMO and other leading universities and research centres were successively created. It is quite appropriate to draw parallels with the current moment — as before, the crisis has forced us to clearly formulate the hierarchy of scientific priorities.
What questions need to be answered in order to determine the direction of development of domestic science in the context of increased international confrontation?
1️⃣ First, what is the fate of scientometrics as a scale for evaluating scientific effectiveness? What tasks has it managed to solve and where has it failed?
2️⃣ Second, Soviet and Russian science could boast of historically important achievements thanks to the participation of relatively young people in its management. It is young researchers and organisers of science who will have to achieve the most important scientific results at the current stage of Russian development.
3️⃣ Third, what is our standard for linking science with the needs of the national economy?
4️⃣ Fourth, Russia mirrors current trends in the development of global science towards applied results. What should be done with the funding of fundamental scientific research that does not yield an immediate practical result?
5️⃣ Fifth, the problem of the dispute between “physicists and lyricists” is again manifesting itself.
The current global crisis requires a clearer definition of the priorities in scientific development, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Andrey Sushentsov.
https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/possibilities-amid-a-crisis-russian-science/
#ModernDiplomacy #science
@valdai_club
The backbone infrastructure of Soviet science was created during the years of the main crisis of the 20th century — the Second World War. In 1942-1943, MIFI, the Kurchatov Institute, MGIMO and other leading universities and research centres were successively created. It is quite appropriate to draw parallels with the current moment — as before, the crisis has forced us to clearly formulate the hierarchy of scientific priorities.
What questions need to be answered in order to determine the direction of development of domestic science in the context of increased international confrontation?
1️⃣ First, what is the fate of scientometrics as a scale for evaluating scientific effectiveness? What tasks has it managed to solve and where has it failed?
2️⃣ Second, Soviet and Russian science could boast of historically important achievements thanks to the participation of relatively young people in its management. It is young researchers and organisers of science who will have to achieve the most important scientific results at the current stage of Russian development.
3️⃣ Third, what is our standard for linking science with the needs of the national economy?
4️⃣ Fourth, Russia mirrors current trends in the development of global science towards applied results. What should be done with the funding of fundamental scientific research that does not yield an immediate practical result?
5️⃣ Fifth, the problem of the dispute between “physicists and lyricists” is again manifesting itself.
The current global crisis requires a clearer definition of the priorities in scientific development, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Andrey Sushentsov.
https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/possibilities-amid-a-crisis-russian-science/
#ModernDiplomacy #science
@valdai_club
Media is too big
VIEW IN TELEGRAM
🎥 According to Ana Maria Cetto, President of the Global Committee in Open Science from the UNESCO, is difficult to follow both sides in science diplomacy, the side of politicians and the side of scientists. They have different ways of thinking and reaction. And the science diplomacy looks a more rational way of thinking.
#valdai_podcast #diplomacy #science #UNESCO
@valdai_club
#valdai_podcast #diplomacy #science #UNESCO
@valdai_club
🔬🌎 The collective West has lost all interest in scientific revolutions and seeks to prevent them, using first of all measures of paradigm control.
Like the USSR, the West is now lagging behind and therefore less and less inclined to allow all sorts of freethinking. After all, those who enter into the discussion are those who expect to win it, writes Vyacheslav Shuper.
https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/science-s-domination-of-the-west-and-the-inequalit/
#Norms_and_Values #science #suverenity
🗣 🗣 🗣
Like the USSR, the West is now lagging behind and therefore less and less inclined to allow all sorts of freethinking. After all, those who enter into the discussion are those who expect to win it, writes Vyacheslav Shuper.
https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/science-s-domination-of-the-west-and-the-inequalit/
#Norms_and_Values #science #suverenity
Please open Telegram to view this post
VIEW IN TELEGRAM