A political philosopher's reflections on politics, philosophy, science, medicine and law.
"Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity" (Immanuel Kant, 1784).
Thursday, March 30, 2023
Creative insights: the real payoff of research
This past week I have been writing ideas up on a topic that has been mulling over in my mind for nearly 15 years. It addresses what I call the "elephant in the room" for geroscience advocacy.
And today, after working non-stop developing and refining the argumentation for many continuous days, I finally had that "eureka!" moment when many different lines of research and argumentation all came together. These rare moments of creative insight are what make the sleepless nights, hair-pulling frustrations and endless chasing of references and reading, writing and revising worth it!
Cheers,
Colin
PS: I wrote this post to remind myself of this point the next time I am struggling to bring my ideas together.
The impact of the pandemic on academic publishing (sigh!)
The BMJ has this interesting piece on how the pandemic has impacted academic publishing in science and medicine. A sample:
"... journal impact factor scores more than doubled for 2021 on the basis of pandemic publishing in 2020: the Lancet rose from 79 to 202, NEJM from 91 to 176, the Journal of the American Medical Association from 56 to 157, and The BMJ from 40 to 96. These surges in publications, article views, social media visibility, and citations have brought about a new citation elite and health leadership that will shape future funding and institutional priorities.
....Concerns are being raised that the domination of covid related papers in medical journals came at the cost of other health issues such as non-communicable conditions, violence, and mental health."
I am working on a number of projects at the moment. Two that are related to geroscience can be summarized succinctly as follows:
(1) Abating "folkbiology" in public health.
(2) Abating "ageism" in different forms of social justice advocacy.
Hopefully more details to follow (eventually!) in the form of some new publications on these topics. Both have really helped to crystallize my thoughts on the challenges facing the field of geroscience, as well as the obstacles I have personally faced in my own research on a topic that my own discipline (and sub-discipline) largely ignores- population aging. And that brings to mind ideas for a possible (3) project-- approaching normative theory from the position of "empirical ethics" vs "reflective equilibrium".
This interesting study suggests that the news has dissolved into "clickbait", which helps explain the current state of affairs. The abstract:
Online media is important for society in informing and shaping opinions, hence raising the question of what drives online news consumption. Here we analyse the causal effect of negative and emotional words on news consumption using a large online dataset of viral news stories. Specifically, we conducted our analyses using a series of randomized controlled trials (N = 22,743). Our dataset comprises ~105,000 different variations of news stories from Upworthy.com that generated ∼5.7 million clicks across more than 370 million overall impressions. Although positive words were slightly more prevalent than negative words, we found that negative words in news headlines increased consumption rates (and positive words decreased consumption rates). For a headline of average length, each additional negative word increased the click-through rate by 2.3%. Our results contribute to a better understanding of why users engage with online media.
Gorillas love spinning = Humans love mind altering experiences
An interesting study on spinning among great apes, which alters their mental states. The abstract, along with a video (above) of the behaviour:
Among animals, humans stand out in their consummate propensity to self-induce altered states of mind. Archaeology, history and ethnography show these activities have taken place since the beginnings of civilization, yet their role in the emergence and evolution of the human mind itself remains debatable. The means through which modern humans actively alter their experience of self and reality frequently depend on psychoactive substances, but it is uncertain whether psychedelics or other drugs were part of the ecology or culture of pre-human ancestors. Moreover, (nonhuman) great apes in captivity are currently being retired from medical research, rendering comparative approaches thus far impracticable. Here, we circumvent this limitation by harnessing the breadth of publicly available YouTube data to show that apes engage in rope spinning during solitary play. When spinning, the apes achieved speeds sufficient to alter self-perception and situational awareness that were comparable to those tapped for transcendent experiences in humans (e.g. Sufi whirling), and the number of revolutions spun predicted behavioural evidence for dizziness. Thus, spinning serves as a self-sufficient means of changing body-mind responsiveness in hominids. A proclivity for such experiences is shared between humans and great apes, and provides an entry point for the comparative study of the mechanisms, functions, and adaptive value of altered states of mind in human evolution.
With the exception of the TedX talk I gave in 2019, I have consciously tried to strictly limit having things recorded that end up YouTube.
In the last 2 years or so my attitude about this has relaxed. This change of mind has been driven by two developments:
(1) I have learned to become more comfortable with being recorded. After making (including extensive editing, so lots of watching and listening to me blathering on!) some 70+ online lecture videos for my students during the pandemic, plus zoom meetings and presentations becoming more common, I don't find the idea of having a presentation recorded and available for public viewing as unnerving as I would have say 10 years ago; and
(2) it is only at this stage of my career, after having published many books and journal articles and lecturing to thousands of students in different countries over nearly a quarter of a century, that I feel my opinions and insights on some topics are worthy of being captured on a recording. I am a strong proponent of the view that scholars should actually undertake extensive scholarship on their topics before posting things on YouTube videos, which may be premature or feign some quasi-"expertise" that just gets likes on YouTube but does not advance knowledge or display the intellectual virtues. I think it is really important that a person develop some genuine competence and expertise on the topics they purport to have expertise on (at least when it pertains to higher education).
My department recorded some faculty research profiles, so here is mine. In 100 seconds I attempt to summarize my interest in the ethical and societal implications of the genetic revolution.
The Rise of anxiety and depression among school-aged children and teens (caused by play deprivation)
EurekAlert reports on this study that contends that one cause, and possibly a major cause, of the record levels of anxiety and depression among school-aged children and teens has been the reduction of their independent activity. The adverse consequences of adult-imposed "safetyism" are real and substantial. Let kids play and take some risks! No doubt things will be even worse in the years to come given the impact the lockdown has had on the youth of today.
"Findings, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, suggest that the rise in mental health disorders is attributed to a decline over decades in opportunities for children and teens to play, roam and engage in activities independent of direct oversight and control by adults. Although well intended, adults’ drive to guide and protect children and teens has deprived them of the independence they need for mental health, contributing to record levels of anxiety, depression, and suicide among young people."
Nature news has this piece on a recent study on the global costs of cancer over the next 30 years. A sample from the news item.
The total cost of cancer to the global economy will reach 25.2 trillion international dollars between 2020 and 2050, according to an analysis of 29 cancers across 204 countries. Of that, five types of cancer will account for roughly half of that cost.
....The analysis estimates that, without further investment in research and prevention, cancer will cost the global economy an accumulated Int$25.2 trillion in health-care costs, lost labour and spent savings over the next 30 years. That is equivalent to an annual tax on global domestic product over 30 years that exceeds the value of all goods and services exported from China, the world’s largest economy.
Although three-quarters of deaths caused by cancer occur in low- and middle-income countries, the analysis found that more than half of the global cost of cancer will occur in high-income countries, with China and the United States bearing the highest burdens. This is partly due to their large populations, but also to the high cost of health care in the United States.
Today, the Academic Freedom Index (AFI) project presents its Update 2023, providing an overview of the state of academic freedom in 179 countries. The decline in academic freedom affects over 50% of the world's population, approximately 4 billion people. The Index identifies 22 countries where universities and scholars experience significantly less academic freedom today than they did ten years ago. This includes democratic systems as well as autocratic countries. During the same period, academic freedom levels have only improved in five small countries, benefiting a mere 0.7% of the world's population. In most countries (152), academic freedom stagnates, often at a far too low level. For the average global citizen, academic freedom is back to a level last registered four decades ago.
I was curious to see how Canada scores, as I have certainly perceived a (negative) shift in the culture of academia in recent years. Here is a snapshot of Canada's performance.
In the last 2 years our score on "freedom to teach and research" and "institutional autonomy" has dropped to the levels of 1950.
I am the Sir Edward Peacock Professor of Political Theory in the Department of Political Studies, Queen's University (Cross-appointed with Philosophy) in Canada.
