I really like the latest item from Ran Prieur:

Our science is extremely timid, refusing to say anything without overwhelming proof. On top of this, we have Carl Sagan’s rule that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence,” or non-dominant theories require a greater quantity of evidence, which rigs the game to even further stifle innovation and entrench old ideas.

At the same time, our technology is extremely bold, refusing to hold back on anything even with overwhelming evidence that it will be a disaster. Our science is our thinking and our technology is our doing, and our thinking is tightly regulated while our doing is propelled and amplified. It should be the other way around! Imagine if you found a pile of newspapers in your garage, and you decided to throw a lit match on it, calling it an exciting experiment, and dismissing the dangers as unproven. Then you went up to your room to play video games, and when you smelled smoke and felt the floor getting warm, you said, “The fire theory is merely speculation. We need stronger evidence before we act, especially since the claim is so extraordinary.”

If you’ve never checked out Ran’s site before, I highly recommend it. Ran also added more to this:

We are terrified of mental/internal change, of changing our perspective, our beliefs, our habits, our identity. And we are insatiably addicted to physical/external change, changing our appearance and our surroundings. We would rather devote many hours and dollars, year after year, to killing dandelions, than make the internal change of thinking dandelions are good. We would rather spend our lives at hellish jobs seeking wealth and status, than make the internal change of no longer valuing wealth and status.

Awesome.